Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Tissue Sampling Pastures

This article from TheHorse.com goes into a good bit of detail about how and when to sample your horse pastures to determine nutritional value.  It also suggests soil sampling and fertilizing to assure high quality forage.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

New take on intensive grazing

Horse pastures can be difficult to manage even under intensive grazing situations because of the horse's selective grazing habits.  One way to over come this issue is to use smaller paddocks and move the horses more often.  This article outlines how to follow horses with other species to clean up what the horses miss.  Multi-species grazing.  I thought it was going to be about forages.  It turned out to be about animals.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Spring Pasture management

Spring pastures can cause problems for some horses.  Now is the time to manage those spring pastures.  More from the Horse.com

Friday, March 25, 2011

Poisonous Plants Webinar

Poisonous plants are a definite concern in horse pastures.  This Webinar will help you learn more. 

Friday, February 18, 2011

Hay testing

So how do you know if the hay you are buying is really "good" horse hay?  Lots of people equate alfalfa with "good" hay, but alfalfa is really too high in protein to be fed to almost all horses.  Some horses that get a huge workout every day can deal with alfalfa.  Horses can receive all the nutrients needed to thrive from hay.  grain is needed only on rare occasion and oats is the preferred grain if used.  Quality of hay required depends on the growth stage of the horse, the amount of work the horse does and whether or not the horse is pregnant.  Purdue University has some very good information on hay quality and horse requirements.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Horses on a diet.

Here is a good article about over feeding grain and even pasture. I really suspect the grain is more of a problem.  Horse Diet