Fall Pasture and Forage Management

 Fall is right around the corner.  As we welcome cooler days and temperatures, it's also time to plan for cooler grazing options with the days getting shorter.  Growth of warm season grasses are already beginning to slow down, while many livestock and horse owners are stocking up on hay for the winter and making cool season planting decisions.   With that in mind, having the latest version of the Planting Guide for Forage Crops in NC is very helpful!  This guide can be your roadmap to selecting the best forages all year round, how much is needed, and other best management tips for success.
As always, contact your local county Extension Center for additional information and guidance; we are here to help. 

Management Tools for the Spring Transition

Management Tools for the Equine Owner

1.     Don’t graze too soon! It has been a long winter and hay supplies are dwindling but remember to wait for your pastures to reach a proper grazing height before turning horses out for long periods of time. Feeding hay a little longer come spring time can be a pain and time consuming but it will be worth it in the end. Your grasses are also trying to recover from winter and need all the help they can get to become bountiful again. Horses are hard on pastures because they have a full mouth of teeth unlike ruminants so they tend to rip grasses out of the ground at a higher rate. So, if you reseeded in the fall to have a more productive pasture for this year don’t shoot yourself in the foot by allowing your horses to pull newly established grasses out of the ground because they don’t have an adequate root base yet. Also, March and April are a great time to fertilize pastures, just be conscientious of temperature and weather. Consult with your local Extension Agent for further guidance.

2.     To further enhance your pastures production for your animals, adopting rotational grazing practices are extremely beneficial. Rotational grazing helps grasses rest and regrow for higher yields, helps deposit manure more evenly across the area reducing parasite loads, and helps make horses graze more evenly across an area so there is less spot grazing.

3.     Finally, one of the best management tools is to drag your pastures after moving horses off of an area. This helps break up the manure piles which in turn spreads out nutrients and helps reduce parasite activity. Some cheap drags can be made from a few old tires and works great to break up manure piles and not damage your forages.