RE: Re: introduction to pasture

[Marlene Moss <marlene.moss@wcom.com>]

** How long can we let them graze at a stretch? We could let them into the
back pasture and then do a rodeo roundup back into the dry lot but how long
the first day and then by what increments can we raise the time until they
can just be turned out 24/7? This is such a pain in the pituti!!!

Do you others on ridecamp have this problem on a yearly basis and what do
you do??**

Spring gets going pretty slow here in south eastern Colorado.  We are just
barely getting some green, and it's still buried below a lot of dried grass.
So far we have been working on the assumption that if they're out 24x7,
they'll adjust at the rate that the grass is growing in.  Of course we are
still feeding hay, so if we were worried about a fast growth spurt of the
grass, we'd just lock the horses in a run until they finish their hay and
then let them out at the grass, hoping that a fuller belly will slow the
eating of the new stuff.

Seems to be working so far.  But we do have years where the spring thaw
makes one pasture unsafe so we just feed hay before turn out into the
smaller pasture (which has much less grass with more competition!)


Marlene
www.mossrockendurance.com