How does your pasture grow?

Our horses’ fields have taken a battering this winter. Sam Vickers advises on what action owners can take to help their paddocks recover

TURNING YOUR HORSE out into a grassy paddock not only provides him with fresh air and exercise to boost his mental and physical wellbeing but, more importantly, it offers him a huge amount of nutritional goodness — or at least it should. Ensuring that the grass he’s eating and the ground he’s galloping on is of good quality not only helps to maintain good health, but it also means that his paddocks will remain in good condition for future use. But how do you know whether your grass is of good quality — and how do you keep it that way?

There are lots of elements that contribute to quality grazing for horses. First, it’s essential to know what’s in the soil. The soil provides all the energy, protein and key nutrients to encourage healthy grass growth. A soil sample is easy to obtain with a DIY home testing kit from ProGreen Weed Control Solutions. It sends out a sample kit with instructions for you to complete at home and you simply return this to the laboratory for testing. Once the test is completed, you’ll be sent an analysis sheet that shows which nutrients are lacking. A grassland management company can then select a bespoke fertiliser for you, enabling the correct amount of nutrients to be applied to promote healthy growth.

It’s important to add the correct nutrients and minerals into the soil, but not overdose. We want a balanced pH level to establish good grass growth. Fertiliser is often spread in the spring (after paddock repair work and before weed spraying), but it can also be applied in early autumn. The land should be left ungrazed for at least seven days — and until it’s had a comprehensive soaking of rain. Some people ask for certain weeds to be kept in, but this usually requires a weedkiller that will leave that particular plant alone. Alternatively, you can ‘spot spray’ and just spray each individual weed that you want removed. However, this can be time consuming in large paddocks.

Drainage

Having good drainage in a paddock is often underestimated. Horses are particularly good at compacting the ground, which makes it difficult for water to drain away. First, therefore, ensure that any ditches and dykes around your land are clear and maintained. Dykes are there to remove excess water and if they’re blocked you’ll only encourage water to stay on the land. Next on the list is to get the land mole ploughed. A grassland mole plough has a leading disc that carefully cuts a channel in the grass. This is followed by a large leg with a bullet-shaped end that is pulled beneath the ground. This then breaks up the compacted surface and creates underground channels for water to flow through. It’s important to only use a mole plough that is suited for pasture, however. A large agricultural plough will rip up too much grass and have a negative effect.

Mole ploughing should be carried out when the land is firm enough to travel on without the tractor spinning, but soft enough beneath the surface for the plough leg to be pulled through at depth.

Harrowing and rolling

Harrowing is an essential part of paddock maintenance and is carried out in spring and early autumn. The harrow has a number of key roles, including aerating the soil to promote growth, levelling out poached areas, and removing dead grass and moss. It’s also used to spread out manure, but I recommend leaving the paddock to rest afterwards in case any live worm eggs are spread around. A springtime harrow usually has the best effect as it’s more aggressive and generally heavier than a traditional chain harrow, although both methods are beneficial. To consolidate the pasture, use a f lat roller. Rolling needs to be completed at just the right time — the land needs to be malleable enough to level it out, but not too wet that it compresses and compacts the soil, preventing water from draining away. Rolling is often undertaken after harrowing, but generally only in the spring.

For poached gateways, I rotovate the soil into a fine powder and then seed the ground before I roll it. However, you then have to keep animals off the area for a few weeks, which isn’t always possible if that’s the only way into the field. The other option is to dig out the gateway and lay stone or tarmac chippings.

You could also try fencing it off in really wet weather (using a moveable electric fence) to stop it getting poached.

Overseeding

After a heavy winter, a lot of badly poached areas struggle to regain growth. Once you have harrowed to level out the poaching and created a decent seed bed, you can then go ahead and apply seed. There’s a wide variety of seed to choose from, either online or from your local country store. Be sure, though, to get a variety that suits your horse — a low rye mix is recommended if your animal suffers from laminitis, for example. You then need to roll the seed into the soil to allow it to germinate and establish. For best results, you should leave the area ungrazed for as long as possible. The roots need time to grow into the soil, and if it’s grazed too early horses will simply pull the new seedlings from the ground. Overseeding can be done in the spring or early autumn when temperatures are above 10°C. I use a one-pass harrow, roll and seeding machine to reduce customer costs and keep compaction to a minimum.

Spraying for weeds

Some people factor weed spraying into their yearly maintenance. A number of chemicals are available to combat a variety of weeds, among them Headland Polo, ThistleX and PasTor. It’s best to consult your local paddock maintenance company or chemical supplier for the chemical most suited to your weeds as every paddock is different. The most common weed I get asked about is ragwort. Ragwort needs to be sprayed in its rosette stage in the springtime because the larger the plant grows, the less chance the chemical has of taking effect. As soon as ragwort has flowered, there’s little to no point in spraying it at all.

Whenever you spray for weeds, don’t cut or top the area beforehand. To kill weeds you need the chemical to land on the plant’s leaves and then be absorbed, like rain. The area should then be left completely alone for a minimum of seven days. Remember, though, that ragwort is still both poisonous and palatable when it’s dying off, so the pasture shouldn’t be grazed until the plants have completely disappeared.

Always read the label as every chemical is different. Ideally, weed spraying should be left to a professional maintenance company.