Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Pasture vs. Dust Bowl?





What is the state of your pasture? My pasture is small, however, I keep it open during the summer so the girls have running room. Last year I was able to keep in good standing with always something to nibble on. This year, mainly due to lack of rain, it has become a virtual dust bowl or dry lot. I always supplement with hay regardless. We did get a little rain last week and I've had a squeegee of new grass growth since but mainly enough to keep the dust down. I know I've heard of people flooding their pastures. How do you maintain your pasture? I'm curious to know.

8 comments:

Pony Tail Club said...

The lack of rain here is causing us the same problem. We want the horses in the pasture in the summer, it's so much better for them, but this year has been tough. We water the pasture, but there is still not enough grass, we've had to feed hay too.

Kathy C said...

We too have lack of rain. I recently talked to our county ag extension agent and he gave me a plan of attack to get rid of the weeds and hopefully bring some pasture back. My 3-1/2 are currently grazing on a very large pasture so it's still okay, but our initial dry lots are full of weeds and dust.

Christine said...

Interesting to see that the same is happening over the other side of the world! We're not yet broken from a bad season and my boss' normal lush 200 acres was just dirt and dust this last season!

I've seen some minimise by rotational grazing.. but if you don't have the land mass in the first place to do so you have to put more horses on less land to give another area a break... seems a catch 22 really!

Rising Rainbow said...

We have actually had more moisture than usual for this time of year. My pond is normally all dried out by mid June and still has water now. So my pastures are green.

I have too many horses for them to be lush but they would be if it wasn't for the size of my herd.

whitehorsepilgrim said...

Same here, dry weather and dusty pasture. I've been sending my herd out into the woods, where there is some grass and foliage to eat, with a herdsman. The forest service here allows this for a fee per animal. We've been feeding hay too. That way my pasture isn't a complete dustbowl. Now there has begun to be a bit of rain, which is very welcome. The well is worryingly low too, and we need more rain.

BarnGoddess said...

Weve had tons of rain in OK earlier in the summer. My 30 acres is still lush but needs brush-hogged in some places where weeds are growing and my horse refuses to go.

maybe I should get some goats..

Anonymous said...

Hi, new to this webpage..I have about 1 1/2 acres and thinking about bringing a horse onto it...need some advise on preparing my pasture, fencing, watering, protection sheds,etc...does anyone have any advice for me or know where I can get info to get started?

Callie said...

To Anonymous. I've created a post hoping with some of the things I've learned and hoping that others will add to it.So keep reading. Also give theis entire sight a scan over as there are many posts with comments about lots of things that may help you.