Grazing and paddock rotation

chunky monkey

chunky monkey

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May 2, 2007
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Just wondering if anyone has grazing rota for there fields. If so how long does the horse go onto the paddock for. It seems most have winter and summer grazing fields. But does this mean the horse stays on the field for 6 months of the year. Who's horses graze the same peice of pasture all year round so it never gets a break.
 
We rotate between four fields. The main fields are rested for six months. The other two usually get four months. We tend to have too much grass for mine and not enough for the stress heads who drop off.
 
Grass needs 21 days for a growth cycle, so when I grazed paddocks I had them split down so they got at least that rest in between grazing.

The last place I was at that had summer and winter grazing, you had to walk through the 10 acre winter field to get to either of the two 5 acre summer fields. The horses were on the winter field from clock change to clock change. The two summer fields were rotated monthly.

At the old yard mine would be on the track for about 8 months of the year, and graze off the middle for the remaining 4, I always tried to give the track the spring growth season to recover.
 
We are split in 3 - one is 2 acres and the others are 1 1/2 acres the summer paddocks run from April/May through to September dependent on how the grass comes through in spring and we split them into 2 large paddocks and 4 small paddocks - Lammi risk ponies so have to be careful.
The Winter field is closed off for this period - in September the girls will get access over night for a couple of weeks in the winter field as soon as the pond starts to fill then they go in there full time and the boys move up and the small paddocks are then rested until spring, the girls will move up to 2 acre field in December that was cut for hay in summer until April/ May and the boys move into the Winter field following the girls on and the summer paddocks are then fully closed down.-, the 2 acre field is the only one to be fertilized due to the farmer needing hay - hence why the boys are kept off it. It works really well for us so far.
 
I strip graze, so as the leading edge gets opened up the back is closed behind her, that way the whole paddock gets a rest at some point, obviously though it depends on how fast the grass is growing as to how much she gets which in turn decides how much rest it gets.
My friend has two paddocks much like Obc and rotates monthly through the year, others on our yard never rest their paddocks at all, then fertilise spring and autumn.
 
I have one field, about 3.5 acres.

In the summer the boys are on a track around the edge. In the winter they are in the centre section. I'm considering making a sort of wiggly track in the centre this winter to keep them moving! The only area used year round is in front of the shelter and up to the water trough.

It works well for us.
 
We rotate all year around. We have lots of paddocks and some they stay in for longer than others and some are meant for bad weather and are much nearer to the byre.
We've had a field ploughed and re seeded and flattened so that's looking good now but I think it will be spring by the time OH has fenced it.
 
Trewsers said:
We rotate all year around. We have lots of paddocks and some they stay in for longer than others and some are meant for bad weather and are much nearer to the byre.
We've had a field ploughed and re seeded and flattened so that's looking good now but I think it will be spring by the time OH has fenced it.
Click to expand...
I keep forgetting you have been at your place a year :)
I recall all your searching and the longing to move.
 
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newforest said:
I keep forgetting you have been at your place a year :)
I recall all your searching and the longing to move.
Click to expand...

Yes we celebrated our first twelve months on 24th June, time flies doesn't it? I love it here, it's my idea of heaven. Though today tis a slightly windy heaven lol it's been 60mph and set to go up overnight. Bah, too early for this!!
 
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Kite_Rider said:
I strip graze, so as the leading edge gets opened up the back is closed behind her, that way the whole paddock gets a rest at some point, obviously though it depends on how fast the grass is growing as to how much she gets which in turn decides how much rest it gets.
My friend has two paddocks much like Obc and rotates monthly through the year, others on our yard never rest their paddocks at all, then fertilise spring and autumn.
Click to expand...

Yes I do pretty much this through the summer as both Dolly and the donks in particular are very prone to weight gain. However, I have just now turned them out on the 4 acre field that the 4 summer visitors (rescue ponies) have decimated. I am hoping as there is very little left on there that it will encourage them to move around more in search of grass and it is also now very slow growth on there and a large percentage of weed. Never done this before so crossing everything it will work without anyone going down with lammi. :oops:
 
i rotate all year, it depends what my pregnant mares, youngstock, yelds etc need. Im fortunate that I can do that here.

When I just had 1 horse and a companion pony on 3/4 of an acre I obviously couldnt really rotate much. However i used to split it in summer and graze half at a time then during the worst of winter i fed hay on a hardstand area and they were penned on there. Not ideal but it worked for years until we moved more ponies arrived.
 
I'm much the same as @Jessey and @Jane&Ziggy as in mine are on a track all spring and summer and then I open up the middle sections for the winter. although I have had to open up a section of the middle at the moment as we have had so much rain that the track was getting very churned up plus I have had to close off the back field track as my girlies aka the sheep have a gentleman visitor come to stay a while with them, so I think with the horses on 2.5 acre track instead of their usual 4 acre track meant it was just getting to much use. I can't risk the horses and the ram together.:rolleyes::)
 
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Kia’s herd grazes the same field all year. I normally gets four weeks of rest come beg of sept but it didn’t this year as it didn’t suit certain people to have grass in the field :rolleyes:

Normally Kia goes into the hayfield after Its had the midden put on it for a few weeks to get some weight on for winter, however last time I put him back in the other gelding thought he was boss and Kia gave him quite a sore one before the other gelding backed down. He literally knocked him off his feet. I felt so bad and I don’t like fighting in he herd but it’s that horses nature unfortunately as he was kept in a gelding only her for 23 years and we have mixed herds so he gets very territorial when I remove Kia for any length of time. So he stayed put this year.

I’m annoyed that the field isn’t getting a rest just because certain people have fat horses and aren’t willing to do the work to solve it. They would rather starve then in starvation paddocks all day them out them back in the field at night to gorge :rolleyes: as it’s not looking great right now with not a lot of grass and it being very wet.
 
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