Fields still not open

[chalky284]

Can you believe the fields on my yard are STILL not open!! It's insane! The weather has dried the ground up really nicely, the rain has brought the grass on well now. But still it seems the fields must be bone dry with knee high grass before the horses can go out.

I'm sick of gazing at the fields on these lovely days and not being able to turn out.

Aaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhhh


Rant over

[Mildred]

All ours are out, so nice to see them munching

[rightrein92]

God that's leaving it late mine are out in their new summer paddock to rest the winter one now ;-) well they will be as soon as I finish putting the rest of the electric fence out after my coffee break I've given myself ;-)

[pippadee]

Ours aren't out either! YO said couple of weeks for grass to grow. Can't wait, it's been a long winter.

[Deleted]

Mine are still out on their winter grazing as the grass has shot up. Not going to bother moving then to summer field yet

[sarahp]

Mine still out on winter fields as the grass hasn't grown enough on the summer ones yet.

[chalky284]

Apr 20, 2013 11:26:29 GMT pippadee said:

Ours aren't out either! YO said couple of weeks for grass to grow. Can't wait, it's been a long winter.

Not good, but strangely it makes me feel less bonkers that its not only my area.


Though having begged a farmer today, he has given me the number of someone who may let me use his field, so if he would answer his bloody phone I may be able to get something sorted..................

[bessieboo]

I can't move mine to summer grazing and turn out yet as we have no grass here at all.:-(

[gilly]

our grass has not grown at all

[scruff]

I think people forget that you don't need lush grass for horses and surely it's better for them to have it "trickle" through to them over a few week rather than BAM...loadsa grass!!

[gilly]

yes thats right our ponies stalls have changed colour very dark , so he is getting something

[reachforthestars]

Mine is still out on winter grazing, the grass is still good in that field plus the field is massive so he is happy

[chalky284]

Apr 20, 2013 17:56:18 GMT scruff said:

I think people forget that you don't need lush grass for horses and surely it's better for them to have it "trickle" through to them over a few week rather than BAM...loadsa grass!!

My god! Someone else who thinks like me!! Think you should have words with my YO, it seems aesthetics are far more important than welfare!!

[michelle28]

I have two that I struggle to get weight on in winter and they have been out for 3 weeks on my fields that looks like just soil and they have both put weight on! So there must be something growing!

[caspa]

Mine are still in... Very fed up :-(

[sundance20]

Agree there must be something as my 24 year old hasn't broke out the field in 2 weeks "grass is always greener" haha

My old yard we couldn't put the ponies out till the start of may!

[sarahp]

But if you let them nip off every blade as soon as it shows it isn't good for the grass but weakens it and there will be little later on. Very much a balancing act, and it does depend on the makeup and management of the grass as to how it grows. If it's not growing yet and they eat off what there is, they will have to come back to the winter fields, be fed hay and wait for it to actually start growing!

I have 5 adult As still out in my 4 acre winter field that appears to be growing nothing. They are not having any hay any more and are fine, getting what they need, but I'm happy to have a rubbish field later on for fatties. Ds, youngstock and broodmares who will later have foals, all being well, need more, are still being fed ad lib hay in a different field and waiting for the grass to grow elsewhere for them.

[chalky284]

Apr 21, 2013 8:33:58 GMT sarahp said:

But if you let them nip off every blade as soon as it shows it isn't good for the grass but weakens it and there will be little later on. Very much a balancing act, and it does depend on the makeup and management of the grass as to how it grows. If it's not growing yet and they eat off what there is, they will have to come back to the winter fields, be fed hay and wait for it to actually start growing!

Interesting point! Our fields were used for 3.5months last summer, not grazed at all since. They don't get harrowed, rolled or seeded and no muck picking takes place. So as the grass has been left since September, would this still be the case for our grazing??

[Mildred]

It sound like the fields need maintaining, all grass needs harrowing and rolling to encourage tillering, otherwise no side shoots develop, and no air gets to the soil, muck picking and harrowing helps to break the worm burden of the field, leaving the grass since last September will only mean there's lots of dead grass smothering the new shoots which also won't help growth, not to mention fertilising the fields which should have been done in the last few months too xx

[GinaGeo]

I'm doing the same as Sarahp. They're on one paddock for a few hours during the day on dry days and are still being fed plenty of hay on the yard. The other paddock has been rested since september, and had muck spread on it in Feb to try and improve the soil quality, I harrowed a couple of weeks ago. They'll go onto that overnight at the end of May when the grass is more mature and not stressed.

I haven't got much grazing and what we do have is on poor soil, I have to look after my land whilst keeping my horse's happy and healthy. This means that I don't have grass turnout from about October through to mid April. They have a trash patch, a hard cored path and the yard all Winter instead. I couldn't cope, and my horse's certainly couldn't, with no turnout at all though, something should be offered.

[mara]

May be YO has got maintenance planned - the ground may look dry on top but it may actually need some work to allow air to the roots which if you put horses out before it's ready can make any maintenance pointless.

Given the choice, my ponies wouldn't be out on my own fields yet either.

[christine1056]

Well the entire yard got wormed at the weekend so that means its release weekend next week (weather permitting) all 70 horses will be out in the fields and we can't wait! Staggered turnouts then they all settle into their herds quite quickly, a few news ones to slot into herds but they have all been introduced int eh school and turnout paddocks over the winter so no battles are foreseen........stalions will be out as well in their own paddocks so then its time to repair the ravages of winter and get things all turfed out and scrubbed busy couple of weeks ahead for everyone

[chalky284]

Fields still not open...................

[michelle28]

I would be moving yard ASAP!

[nici]

We finally took possession of our new field last Wednesday After over 3 years of struggling for grazing, now we suddenly have too much! Ponies are loving it though. We've fenced off a small part next to their old field and have been allowing them in for an increasing number of hours each day. Glad I made sure they were a little lean coming out of winter, as they have already put on a little more condition. We're hoping to have them full time in the new field by the end of this week to give the old field a break, but they'll go back into the old field for most of the summer (prefer them to be on less good grazing there) and the new field will become our winter field - it's 4 acres and on a slope, so will hopefully provide decent winter grazing for the future.

[gillwales]

It depends on acreage and numbers of horses using it. It has been a very hard winter, the cold had burnt of the grass and you do need to give it a chance to recover or there will be no grass.

[chalky284]

Oh there's grass alright, has been for weeks now!

[smiggs]

Thankfully, I managed to get mine turned out this weekend now I've finally got some grass through!!! :-)