Walking On Volume 6, Issue 3, March 2019 | Page 11

Back to Basics Mowing Your Pasture Regular mowing makes pastures more productive. It can also reduce herbicide usage. After rotating your horses out of the pasture, mow the pasture with your mower set at about four inches. This will allow the good stuff to grow back. The bottom 2-3 inches of grasses are where the sugars and proteins are stored. These sugars and proteins are needed for regrowth. Dragging Your Pasture As soon as your horses are rotated out of the pas- ture, you will want to drag it. Dragging a pasture breaks up clumps of manure and spreads it evenly around. By breaking up the manure and exposing it to the sun, parasites are killed. By the time your hors- es are moved back into the pasture, the manure has turned into fertilizer and most parasites have been eliminated. Keep in mind that, although dragging breaks down manure faster, it will not kill all the para- sites present. Keep your horses on a worming schedule. You can use almost anything to drag your pasture. I’ve seen people use old bed springs and chain link fences with bricks laid on top. Most people around here use four wheelers to drag. They are easier to handle and it seems like everyone owns one now. If you have a lot of money to spare, you can buy a pasture drag. Horse Pasture Rotation - Putting it All Together I’ve crammed a lot of information in the above article. The actual management of horse pastures is really easy and doesn’t require much work. Using the information above, here is what it actually looks like in practice: Starting with three or four pastures (I’ve got two horses on 3 - one acre pastures). Put horses in pasture number one. When the pasture is grazed down to about 3 inches average (nope, I don’t go out with a tape measure - I simply guesstimate that the average height is about 3 inches), I move the horses to pasture number two. Hopefully pasture number two is at least six inches high. Now, I take my drag into pasture number one and drag the pasture. Then I mow it with my mower set to four inches. It takes about a half hour to drag and 15 minutes to mow. I’m done for a week or so. When pasture number two is grazed down to about 3 inches, I rotate the horses to pasture number three. I drag and mow pasture number two. I’m done for a week or so. When pasture number three is grazed down to about three inches, I move the horses back to pasture number one and I drag and mow... Very simple. Saves money. Makes my horses happy and healthy. Read free horse articles [http://HorseArticles.net] at HorseArti- cles.net. From basic horse care to advanced training, you’ll find the horse information you need. Visit Horse Articles [http://HorseArti- cles.net] now to read more free horse articles. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Di_Stalt- er/399924 The Walking On B ulletin B oard! Attire / Tack Awards Advertise your farm or business. 30 words - text only - $40 for one year • 30 words with photo or logo - $75 for one year. (phone, email & website do not count toward 30 word limit) Don’t miss out on this affordable advertising opportunity. Email [email protected] to place your ad today! 11