Do you have an old over grazed worn out pasture? Regenerate it!
If you're trying to keep horses on limited acreage it takes knowledge and willingness to keep your equine pals fed and active. Hay and Supplements can be very costly.
High-quality pastures are one of the best and least expensive sources of summer feed for a horse. A well-kept pasture also is the most natural and healthy environment for exercise and rest. Productive, well-managed pastures can provide most of the feed requirements of horses for the least cost. Good pasture alone is sufficient to meet all of the nutritional requirements for many classes of horses. At the same time, poorly managed pastures supply little or no feed and frequently are the source of internal parasites.
Get it wrong and your supplementary feed bill could be excessive for eight months out of the year. Get it right and you can keep your feed bill at reasonable levels and maintain your horse on quality grass for a good portion of the year.
Generally, with excellent management, one horse can be kept on as little as one acre. Life will be a lot easier at one horse on two acres. If running horses together, an owner would be doing exceptionally well to maintain a ratio of one horse per one acre.
In a year, a single horse can graze through 15 to 20 acres of pasture. If you're under grazing pressure, you've got to do everything you can to keep good quality grass growing. They depend on you.
Benefits of pasture reconditioning include:
• Improved animal performance and productivity
• Improved feed quality
• Improved pasture growth throughout the year to help regulate growth setbacks caused by overgrazing
• Introduction of improved pasture genetics
• Reduction of unwanted weeds as well as a reducing the potential of Endophyte infected species
• Improved soil drainage and aeration
Overused and overgrazed pastures, all too often are a common and familiar site on smaller acreage enclosures. Once a pasture starts to decline, they can deteriorate quickly. Pasture restoration and rejuvenation processes can restore a non- productive or low production pasture and return it to vigorous growth in a short time.
Most pastures were never planted to pasture specific animals, they were simply a field of native grass and plants that were fenced in and used as a means to graze livestock. These pastures are generally not very productive when grazed intensively. Native grasses in the north simply don't regenerate quickly enough. Further, these types of grasses are also usually low in nutritional value for horses. Undesirable grasses and broadleaf weeds can overtake a pasture quickly when grass struggles to grow under intensive grazing.
No-till pasture regeneration can double and even triple the production of low yielding pastures and is the preferred method.
Now that you have a basic understanding of why over grazed pastures need regeneration from time to time, you can see the benefits of having Michigan Food Plot Specialists no-till your pasture to create a lush and healthy environment for your horses to graze.
You may be asking yourself, how do we start?
Schedule an appointment with us and upon arrival we will survey the pasture(s) and obtain soil samples which will be sent out to be analyzed. It cannot be stressed enough that without proper soil pH and nutrients in the soil, proper pasture restoration cannot be achieved. While we wait for the results this is a great time to decide what type of grasses and legumes you may be considering.
It's time to develop a plan of action.
Depending on pasture size, we may wish to consider the option of sectioning your pasture so grazing can be rotated throughout different areas allowing for proper regrowth and prevent future over grazing. Amend the soil to provide optimal growth, treatment with herbicide if necessary and lastly we sow the seed.
Contact us today to start the process of getting a healthier pasture for your animals.
