Improving Your Paddocks and Haylage Production

Improving Your Paddocks and Haylage Production

How can I improve my horse sick pasture?

• pH test the soil, if you are below 6.5pH a dose of Seactiv Calcified Seaweed will reduce acidity, increase palatability and add 32 natural trace elements to the grass.
• Rotate grazing paddocks frequently throughout the season, allowing approximately 6 weeks between grazings – divide fields temporarily if necessary.
• Cut ungrazed growth and spread toppings at least once a year.
• Manage horse droppings by picking up (wholly or partially) or harrowing.
• Control injurious weeds e.g. Ragwort by digging out and disposing of correctly.

Improving Your Paddocks and Haylage Production

How can I improve my horse sick pasture?

• pH test the soil, if you are below 6.5pH a dose of Seactiv Calcified Seaweed will reduce acidity, increase palatability and add 32 natural trace elements to the grass.
• Rotate grazing paddocks frequently throughout the season, allowing approximately 6 weeks between grazings – divide fields temporarily if necessary.
• Cut ungrazed growth and spread toppings at least once a year.
• Manage horse droppings by picking up (wholly or partially) or harrowing.
• Control injurious weeds e.g. Ragwort by digging out and disposing of correctly.

Weed Controll

How can I safely control weeds in the pasture?

• Avoid excessive poaching.
• Overseed with pony paddock mixture at ½ rate to fill in bare patches or after a spring tine raking – some contractors have combined tine rakes with seed broadcasters fitted. A light rolling after seeding will help seed to soil contact and improve germination.
• Dig out injurious weeds such as ragwort and dispose of vegetation safely. Remember dying Ragwort is poisonous and can kill livestock.
• The application of professional grassland herbicides such as Pastor, Doxstar Pro, Grazon Pro, Pas-Tor and Thistlex can only be carried out by a suitably qualified farmer or contractor, so give us a call where we can apply these products for you or supply.

What are the benefits of rolling and harrowing?

• Harrowing paddocks will spread horse droppings and distribute nutrients more evenly around the fields and help prevent grass rejection.
• Harrowing is best undertaken where paddocks can be rotated, and the droppings have time to be washed in by rain before re-grazing.
• Harrowing droppings on paddocks which are not rested or rotated could result in spreading harmful worm eggs and larvae.
• Spring-tine harrowing can pull out unwanted bent type grasses in the pasture and can be a good means of cultivating a slight tilth ready for overseeding with a specialist horse/pony grass seed mixture.
• Rolling in the spring and autumn can push down divots caused by horses hooves, poaching the ground during wet weather (excessive poaching should be avoided by housing during the winter months, and periods of excessive rainfall). Poaching will allow annual weeds and poorer grasses to ingress on the original sown ley.

What grass types are best for horse grazing?

• Pony Paddock mixture has been specifically designed for ponies and horses. It contains approximately 50% timothy, meadow fescue and creeping red fescue to produce an extremely persistent, dense and hard wearing sward. The remaining 50% are productive perennial ryegrasses. Agricultural mixtures of grass seed should be avoided as these contain higher sugar, higher protein grasses which can result in obese horses and laminitis. A herb mix of 1 to 2kg/acre can also be added to the ley, adding valuable trace elements and minerals to the diet.
• For haylage chose medium term cutting ley for horses which contains a mixture of productive Italian Ryegrasses, hybrid and perennial ryegrass together with some timothy and meadow fescue. This will produce large quantities of haylage for 3 to 4 years before it needs to be reseeded or overseeded.

On areas prone to drought, poor drainage or shade, do I need different grasses?

The same mixtures are recommended for these areas but it may be worthwhile draining/ditching wet fields. Overhanging trees and hedges may also need to be cut back. Drought conditions will obviously limit grass growth; it may be worthwhile looking at aerating the land to increase depth of grass root growth & reduce the impact on grass growth in dry spells.