Winter is approaching, requiring us horse owners to make strategic decisions about how to care for our pastures. The measures we take now are crucial to getting through the winter in good shape and creating a solid foundation for growth in the spring.
Some important steps that should be taken now.
Pasture welfare is animal welfare
In autumn, the weather is usually changeable, causing the fructan levels in grass to rise and plant growth to be delayed. Besides, rain often makes the ground soft, making it more likely that the horses will damage the ground by treading on it.
Therefore, the question always arises:
How long can the horses still use the pasture in autumn? The grass should be sturdy enough for the winter. This means that the land must not be grazed too low, and damage to the sward must be avoided.
In most cases, the pastures are closed between the end of September and mid-October at the latest.
The grass that then shoots again in good weather conditions serves the plants to build up nutrient stores for the winter. This growth may and should be mulched again late in the year but should not be grazed on under any circumstances.
Winter is always the hardest time for grass. Grazing the land in winter causes lasting damage to the plants and ensures that the undesirable stress-resistant tall grasses spread more and more from year to year, making the pastures unsuitable for horses within a few years. It then costs a lot of time and expensive plant material to repair the damage.
Instead, horses should be provided with winter exercise areas, paddock tracks or other forms of open-air housing to ensure they get exercise and fresh air, but to relieve the pressure on pastures and protect them from the harsh winter conditions.
Clean feeding places
Many stables begin feeding hay at the end of summer because there is no longer enough grass available in the pastures, resulting in feed spots. The same applies to additional feeding with hay cobs for senior horses or concentrated feed for sports horses in the pasture.
These feeding places should be cleared now to prevent the ground becoming covered with old leftovers. Otherwise, they form an ideal insulating layer under which the mice can thrive in winter. The tasty young grass in spring as a food source quickly turns the mice into a nuisance, and they can strip the entire area bare, meaning that the grazing season for the horses is lost due to a lack of growth.
Tackle the weed
Of course, the battle against unwanted plants is an all-year-round affair, but now is the time to get rid of any remaining ‘weeds’. Stinging nettles and thistles should be mulched before they can go to seed. Before using the mulcher, however, you should pull out the last flowering ragwort and grey cress plants and dispose of them. The latter have already produced their seeds and if you mulch them, the weed will spread even further across the fields. Shrubs and hedges are also being pruned now.
This maintains the quality of your pasture and prevents the uncontrolled spread of unwanted plants next spring.
Strategic reseeding
It is now too late for immediate reseeding, as the plants that still germinate before winter will otherwise be too weak to survive. The seeds are too expensive for that. But now is a good opportunity to check the pastures for gaps before they are cloaked by neighbouring plants in spring. By buying good, equine appropriate reseeding mixtures that are suitable for the soil and climate conditions early on, you can ensure that reseeding is done in the spring and that the right seeds are available at the right time.
Soil analysis and adapted fertilisation
At the end of the growing season, it is time for soil samples. This is because grazing constantly removes nutrients from the area, which must be replenished in a targeted manner if you want to keep your pasture healthy in the long term. A thorough soil analysis shows which nutrients the area is lacking. Ordering the appropriate fertiliser before winter ensures that you are prepared in spring as soon as the weather conditions are right, and the fertiliser can be applied. If you don’t have enough storage space for your fertiliser, you can arrange to have it delivered in the spring.
©Adobe_Stock/AlDa.videophoto
Sharing resources with others
It is helpful to network with other pasture owners to share experiences and combine resources. This way, you can achieve more together. Various machines and devices are essential for pasture management. Within the network, these can either be borrowed or purchased jointly, which reduces the costs for each individual member. It is advisable to buy new machines in autumn or winter, as you then have enough time to make a selection and compare. Retailers want to sell their old machines before the inventory at the end of December, while manufacturers want to know which products they should pre-produce for the coming months. Both sides often reward deals like this with discounts.
Winter is also a good time for further training, for example to become a pasture consultant, nothing is more constant than change. And how about being better informed next spring than you were last?
Conclusion
Preparing for winter properly makes all the difference to maintaining the quality of the pasture and ensuring healthy nutrition for horses in the next season.
If you have any further questions or require more detailed advice on your individual grazing issues, please do not hesitate to contact our grassland expert Helmut Muß: Die gute Pferdeweide
Guest author Helmut Muß
Als Landwirtschaftsmeister hat er jahrelange Erfahrung in der Gestaltung hochwertiger und artgerechter Pferdeweiden.
In seinen Seminaren, Webinaren und Beratungsvideos teilt er sein umfangreiches Pflanzenwissen unter dem Titel "Die Gute Pferdeweide".
Seine Philosophie der Weidepflege entwickelt sich stetig weiter durch seine Reisen und den Austausch mit Pferdehaltern im deutschsprachigen Raum, immer getreu seiner Maxime: "Die Weide vom Pferd her denken".
https://www.diegutepferdeweide.de/
🇬🇧 Helmut Muß, who grew up on a farm and has a deep passion for nature, has established himself as a consultant for pasture management.
As a Master of Agriculture, he has many years of experience in designing high-quality and species-appropriate horse pastures.
In his seminars, webinars and advice videos, he shares his extensive plant knowledge under the title ‘Die Gute Pferdeweide (the good horse pasture)’.
His philosophy of pasture care is constantly evolving through his travels and exchanges with horse owners all over Germany, always true to his maxim: ‘Die Weide vom Pferd her denken (Think about pasture from the horse's perspective)’.
https://www.diegutepferdeweide.de/
- Making hay in a rainy summer: what should you look out for? - 14. June 2024
- Soil differences and their significance for horse pasture - 31. May 2024
- Pasture care: preparing the fields for winter - 19. October 2023
