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Part 5 Keeping your pastures and paddocks productive and healthy
by Jake Western
Good Grasses, Lush Legumes Keeping your pastures and paddocks productive and healthy--for both your horses and the environment--starts with the right forage plants. By Jeremy W. Singer, PhD If you own a horse property, you continually face pasture-management decisions that affect the productivity, persistence and appearance of your forage crops--and crops they are, whether or not you consider yourself a farmer. How many horses will you turn out in this field? Will they be on continuous turnout or be limited in the amount of time they spend on the acreage? How will you manage the manure dropped in the fields? Does the grass need fertilizing; does the soil need lime? How often should you mow? Should you rotate horses from pasture to pasture to give plants time to recover and regrow after being grazed down? Even if you've never consciously considered these questions, you've made one choice--to do nothing--from among the pasture-care options that have consequences on your finances, your horses' well-being and the "health" of your land. Effective pasture management requires a serious commitment along with an understanding of the forage species that are suitable for your property. Additionally, you need to understand how your management decisions interact with the forage species' characteristics to determine how productive and persistent your pastures are likely to be. A recent horse-pasture site assessment conducted by Rutgers University found that most of the 40 New Jersey properties studied were overstocked, with more than the one horse per 1 1/2 to two acres recommended in that region. Under these conditions, the most important characteristic for a forage plant is tolerance to grazing pressures, so it's not surprising that two very persistent species--Kentucky bluegrass and common white clover--dominated these pastures. Where ample acreage supports each pastured horse, less tenacious species with other desirable characteristics, such as greater forage output or better drought tolerance, can thrive. In making your selections, then, your first consideration is to seed your fields with species that will survive in your area and under your pasturing conditions. Your second concern is tending the perennials to maintain healthy turf year after year of productive use. Unless you already have some crop-growing experience, you're wise to involve some knowledgeable advisors and/or custom planters in a major pasture renovation or establishment project. But to gain a working knowledge of pasture options, familiarize yourself with four essential forage characteristics listed below, then check out the various grass and legume species on the accompanying chart for their rankings in these areas. Finally, you'll be prepared to mix and match the species suited to specific fields. 1. It's right for the region. Forage species are adapted to different growing environments by their tolerance of seasonal temperature extremes and moisture levels. For example, perennial grasses are divided into two primary classes, according to their temperature tolerances. Warm-season grasses usually have a tropical origin, making them happiest in temperatures above 75 degrees (Fahrenheit), and generally they do not survive in locations with freezing winters. Cool-season grasses thrive in temperate climates, particularly when the thermometer sits at 68 to 72 degrees, but they can also serve well in warmer environments by making the majority of their growth in the early spring and late fall when temperatures are cooler. Even if species are adapted to your region of the country, local variations within these large areas or uncharacteristic weather patterns may prove to be incompatible with their needs for growth. For instance, an unusually cold winter may cause the sudden disappearance of a pasture plant that had produced faithfully year after year until then. 2. It's compatible with soil moisture levels. After narrowing your forage choices to grasses and/or legumes that are generally happy with the growing conditions in your locale, the next step is to focus on the individual pasture or pastures you want to improve. All the pastures on your farm won't necessarily share precisely the same characteristics and thus shouldn't be seeded with the same forage species. Soil-moisture levels are important factors in plant survival, with different species showing distinct preferences for wetter or drier conditions and different degrees of tolerance for deviations from their ideal. Soil-drainage characteristics as well as rainfall amounts affect the success or failure of pasture seedings and subsequent persistence. You could improve soil drainage in chronically wetter areas of pasture by installing a tile-drainage system to carry away the excess water and improve moisture retention in the impervious soils higher up to reduce runoff, but this is expensive. The cheaper approach to growing good pasture on the acreage is to seed it in a forage species that's tolerant of wet soil conditions. (However, if a pasture is very wet, a tile system should be considered because of the potential for nonpoint pollution from excess nutrients in manure.) At the other extreme, drought is a major deterrent to pasture productivity. If you live in a location that receives little rainfall during the summer, be sure to use species that can tolerate dry soil conditions. Forage species with very shallow root systems are the first to succumb to drought, while perennials with deep roots can tap into moisture retained well below the soil surface. 3. It's tough enough for the rate of grazing. If you pasture a few too many horses for your acreage or if your pastures don't get any rotational rest periods, you need to plant forage species that tolerate frequent feeding. Pasture grasses and legumes have differing abilities to recover from grazing. Those species whose regrowth always originates underground tolerate frequent grazing better than those with aboveground regrowth sites. For example, Kentucky bluegrass always initiates regrowth from its root system, while timothy and smooth bromegrass have regrowth sites that are aboveground at certain growth stages. If these latter species are grazed while their regrowth sites are exposed, the damage inflicted by close-grazing animals will eventually kill them. 4. It's quick to root and eager to grow. Ease of establishment is another important consideration when choosing forage species. Red clover establishes quite effectively by broadcasting seed on the soil surface while other species do not. Perennial ryegrass can germinate in three days, while Kentucky bluegrass usually requires 14 to 21 days. After germination, the rule of thumb is to leave new seedings or renovated pastures ungrazed if the plants can easily be pulled out of the ground; wait until the plants have established strong, well-anchored root systems so grazing horses won't pull them out of the ground. And, again, some species reach this stage of maturity quicker than others. Mix and match: Horses prefer to graze multiple forage types, and mixing several species of grasses and legumes in a field can extend the forage availability through a greater part of the year. For instance, when cool-season Kentucky bluegrass goes dormant under the stress of a hot, dry summer, drought-tolerant smooth bromegrass produces good grazing, then the roles reverse in the cool, wetter fall weather. Mixing of grass and legume species provides a better level of nutrition for the grazers and also benefits the soil, with the legume "fixing" nitrogen in the soil, thus reducing the amount of supplemental fertilization needed for the grass plants. Growing multiple species reduces the impact on forage production if disease should affect one plant type. Finally, planting a really tough species, such as tall fescue, in high traffic areas and more palatable species in less trampled areas may produce more consistent ground cover. The one thing about mixing species is that plants are competitive creatures, and the most aggressive species in the mix may eventually crowd out the others. A common seeding mixture in the Northeast, Midwest and upper South contains Kentucky bluegrass, endophyte-free tall fescue and white clover. Kentucky bluegrass and white clover both tolerate frequent grazing but are sensitive to dry soil conditions. Tall fescue withstands dry soil better and is also fairly tolerant of frequent grazing. Furthermore, it produces more forage than Kentucky bluegrass and resists trampling. Most pasture mixes contain small quantities of white clover because legumes have higher calcium and protein levels than grasses, thereby improving the pasture's nutrient delivery. Of the other grasses, timothy and smooth bromegrass are also commonly found in horse pastures in the Northeast but they aren't major forage species because they do not tolerate frequent grazing. However, they can be good choices for well-managed pastures allowed regular recovery periods through rotational grazing. Orchard grass, which is more tolerant of frequent grazing, is high yielding and establishes quickly and is usually recommended in combination with Kentucky bluegrass and white clover. Perennial ryegrass can be substituted for orchard grass in this mix, but it's not winter hardy, and usually has to be reseeded each spring in more northerly locations. Reed canary grass tolerates wet soils, but even the new low-alkaloid varieties are not as palatable as other pasture choices. Legumes contribute significantly to pasture productivity even though they usually make up the smaller portion of the forage mix. The most popular legumes for horse pastures are common white clover and ladino white clover because of their comparative hardiness and safety. Alfalfa requires more careful management than clovers and may be too "high powered" for free-choice intake. Red clover that's infected by a alkaloid-producing fungal disease called black spot can cause excessive salivation, commonly called "slobbers," in horses who graze it. Bird's-foot trefoil is another legume recommended in the Northeast, Midwest, and upper South, but it is seldom actually found in pasture mixes. It tolerates wet soil conditions better than alfalfa and red clover but is harder to establish and does not withstand frequent grazing as well as the white clovers. Warm season grasses such as Bermuda grass, Bahia grass and Dallis grass, are usually recommended in the lower South. Because these grasses are active only from April to October, forage for the rest of the year can be supplied by overseeding southern horse pastures with annual winter grasses, such as annual ryegrass, wheat, oats or rye. Grazing preference studies conducted in the South have found that annual ryegrass is preferred by horses. Wheatgrasses are commonly recommended in steppe or desert areas with subhumid to arid climates, which in the United States includes uplands in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and across the northern Great Plains. Tall wheatgrass is usually the preferred species, but location ultimately determines which species is most likely to persist. Establishing or renovating pastures is an investment in your property and your horses' health, so the more information you collect beforehand, the more likely you are to economically produce good pasture. Unfortunately, little specific research on horse-pasture preferences has been done, so most pasture-species recommendations come from dairy and beef research. Palatability differs between cattle and horses, but the guidelines for growing conditions hold true. Your local cooperative-extension office can provice more information on forage species adapted to your locale and uses. Diligent pasture maintenance is always essential to keeping your forage crop up and producing, but getting the right plants growing on your land will assure that your efforts are rewarded with the most bounteous results.bolt on saddle bag
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