Pasture Clean Up

Wasted Hay
Texans look away.

Quite a bit was still frozen in the middle
Something the article suggested would happen

Making little bunches to pick up

 Overall the winter bale grazing went well and we'll do it again. Next year I'm going to combine it with restricting access to one bale at a time, as well as keeping the cattle penned away from the feed over night. (This is based on another study I'll share later)

In the mean time, I have to clean up the hay rings left from the hay out in the field. There was only one bale the animals didn't eat and it was very very mouldy. Probably bales wet from the edges of the hay pasture.

The original article says that a few inches of hay is fine, the grass will come up through it, but anything deeper needs to be chopped or moved.

Ideally we'd be keeping the animals off the acreage we'd used to winter bale graze, with limited space and no fences we're not able to do that this year, so manual labour is my only solution.

Or this one I spread around to even out the nitrogen

Most of the bales got eaten completely down
and don't need any attention

Pastures are coming back nicely
and hopefully well fertilized for this summer! 

Trouble goes by the name "Harry" around here
On the ground they want nothing to do with it
but now it's all piled up on the trailer... 

That's it for the tree!

Hubby got the big dead tree in the paddock cut down, we took most of it for wood for the house but there was some of it that just wasn't a good size plus we had some old fence posts out here that had to go!

Diego & Harry "helping"

The whole pasture is really coming together. The grass has been cropped really short in some spots, but there are other spots that still have enough for the animals to browse on. The goats have done an amazing job getting the weeds down all over the place. Can't wait to get the new fences in next year (I hope!).

The pastures should come back beautifully as long as we keep the animals off them early spring, with all the drainage I'm not that worried about soggy fields but we'll have to see! With all the nitrogen the grass has gotten this year, plus if we can rotate the fields, we'll be sitting pretty for sure.

Paddock Measurements

Used one of those rolling measure things hubby borrowed from work; but couldn't find a clipboard in the 30 minutes I had to do it between when he came home and when the sun was going down.

Now to sort out what fence we're buying...

Paddocks to Pasture & Poor Megs

Poor Megs!
Just took off the skin so it's really superficial
but it could have been a lot worse if she had
gotten really tangled

 What was that I was saying about doing today what you can put off until tomorrow? Especially when it comes to fencing... We had a funny summer, couple dry periods but when it rained it poured! And all that water sitting in the ditch really compromised the dividing fence, so it was falling down & getting looser and looser.

I had it on my T.D.B.W. (to do before winter) list, but apparently I didn't get around to it soon enough.

You can see bits of her hair are still on
the fence

It didn't take too much to find out where she'd gone through the fence. Right beside the feed bucket, so she probably aimed an air-kick (she rarely actually kicks other animals, but she likes to show off) at someone and missed.

 So, I push aside other things that needed to be done and got straight to taking care of this fence before anyone else got hurt. It took hours and hours of back-breaking, hand-killing, I'm still soar the next day work. It's all down and out of the field but our yard looks like a I'm showcasing some sort of red-neck art installation.

I was trying to clip the fence at each post, but so many of the posts were rotten off at the bottom they broke when I tried to get the fence off them. These got rolled into the fencing so I removed the whole thing from the field in 4 big chunks. Plus digging out the 3 pieces of re-bar holding up extra fencing in the ditch between paddocks (I understand why those were there, but an extra long T-post would have gotten that job done better & safer!). I also got the last of the galvanized wire off the bottom line around the paddock, it was still in good (tight) shape, but we weren't using it.

For the winter we've got one big pasture, which is just fine. It was about time for the horses to start coming into the barn for meals (need to do that so I can change blankets when it's cold) and the only time I was splitting up the animals was to feed Maddie anyway. I'd still like to confine the cows in a paddock over winter, so they don't damage the grass; but based on what I've seen at other farms, cows don't really stray from the warm barn unless forced once snow hits the ground.

Meg is all cleaned up now, took some coercion on my part (not a fan of spray-things), but relatively painless all around. If the wound had been any deeper or I had found it sooner it would have been a vet call to close it all the way. As it was the wound was already mostly closed and had stopped bleeding (she probably did it overnight). She's also mostly sound on the leg and still running around like an idiot just in case the vet does come. So I sprayed some Iodine to keep it from infection and applied a liquid bandage for livestock (the silver) to keep it closed.

Flashy Girl!

I could have wrapped the wound but I know the goats/Meg would have taken that off very quickly so this was a better option (plus I'd have to catch her twice a day to change the bandage, eating up time I don't have). I would cold hose it but we've had a big temp drop in the last few days so that is already keeping the swelling down. Hopefully it will close and heal just fine, although she'll probably have a little scar where the biggest part of the wound is. Keeping her outside, and all the blood flowing through the leg as she moves is the best thing to do now that it's covered. I'll be keeping a really good eye on her leg for the next few days, watching for swelling, oozing, and if I'm going to need to reapply the bandage (if we do get either, I'll have the vet out for antibiotics).

We're definitely keeping the liquid livestock bandage in the first-aid trunk from now on. It wasn't cheap ($20 for a small can) but the amount of time/wraps it's going to save me, it was definitely worth it!

Outdoor Feed Station

It's just too beautiful to bring the ponies in, even for meals. They love being outdoors so I hate to lock them in, plus this is much faster. However, the goats love getting into the horse feed, so we had to put Maddie's feed bucket where they couldn't get into it.

This has worked very well. We didn't use a post because they all have electric fence on it, and it's not nice to get zapped while you're eating your breakfast. In the future we'll build something more permanent in their shelter (To Be Built).

Now, if only I could get Maddie to stop dribbling food to the goats...

(Blog note: I wrote this before Meg got hung up on the fence, she's fine, more about that Tuesday. As of the 15th we're not using the feed station any more, it did work really well for a month though and we'll be incorporating outdoor feed stations into the plan for the paddocks next year.)

The sceptic paddock

Out on the side of our house lays the septic bed. It's kinda tucked out of the way, with some cedar fencing to keep the livestock off it; it would be really bad news for the bed if the cows got over here. But we do have a few little creatures, with small, light hooves who do a bang-up job keeping it trimmed.

Plus it's close to the house, so my little bottle babies can maaaa or baaaa for "mom" any time they want. It's nice to be able to watch them out the kitchen window. 

It's raining out here
can I come in?

After driving me crazy for days I found out the front fence had heaved right up and there was a 2' gap for the goats to get out near the road. They're doing a great job clearing out the brush out front, and eventually I'd like to get some e-net so they can clear out all the weeds out there. It's not safe to have them just wandering around road-side though.

For now we've got a temporary fence up that actually keeps them in! We've had no more escapes, and I think we've plugged all the holes in the entire fence. The goats/Billy love having their own little paddock. We'll be re-doing this fence when we re-fence the front of the property, but that is years away.

Baler Twine

There are lots of reason why you should never leave baler twine to float around your property. This one left by previous owners met our lawn mower.

I don't let the string go out in the manure pile, since hopefully some day we'll be spreading that somewhere. If you want to save them, tie them in a huge bundle or have a special bag hung up just for them (they do have a million uses on the farm).

Hubby did not appreciate my joke about having prop fouled the mower...

Why Meg is mad at me

She hates me SO much right now...

 Meg is getting a little too round about the middle, so I decided it was time for a grazing muzzle.

We got an "easy breath" from  horseloverz.com, it's great. I love how well the breathing holes line up, I could probably ride her in this if I really wanted to (that would be a really stupid idea though)

Uh... I guess you need to put them on a little tighter then I did the first time... I did manage to catch her after 5 minutes (she's really mad at me!!) and got it on tighter, hopefully she won't get it off again.

The muzzle allows her to still eat grass (there is a big hole in the bottom), but makes it harder and so she takes longer, and gets less food. That way she can stay out all day long, but we can also get her down to a healthier weight! Right now she's wearing it for about 12-14 hours at night, and has it off during the day.

Bribery? /The results of poor pasture management

 There just aren't enough hours in the day sometimes! So the pastures still haven't been divided, which means the large animals are just roaming about, trampling the grass, and wasting most of it. Instead, we should have been shifting them between a few small paddocks so they eat up everything that is in one paddock, while the others rest, re-growing the grass.

To keep the cows in & happy we've had to go to round-bales. Which sucks during the summer, but I'd rather pay for that, then pay for cow damage if they got out again.

They've actually eaten very little of it since Saturday. I'm sore I didn't have my camera with me, but the little guys were laying on all the hay yesterday afternoon, lazily throwing it over their backs and making quite the little nest!

A hay-feeder would have prevented most of the waste, but it's part of our management plan to allow the calves to sleep in the old hay during the winter. It keeps them nice and warm!  Plus the livestock would all much prefer fresh grass anyway. At least this way, instead of rotting in a feeder where they can't reach the bottom, the hay will stay out out in the air & sun and hopefully not mold any more.

We're getting the hay for ridiculously cheap at $20/round bale w delivery (no I'm not giving out any names/numbers! My hay guy, MINE!) but unfortunately they were stored outside in the open, so they are already mouldy and unsuitable for the horses.

So the question becomes, can we get under here cleared out enough, stabilised enough, and weather-proof enough that we could get a whole load of round bales delivered when they second cut comes in.

It would probably save us a few $$$ but I doubt they are going to add any more daylight any time soon, so we'll see.

You ask for rain...

 

The whole happy herd hanging out in the pasture yesterday. 

 

The drainage ditch this morning.

It poured last night! Can't complain because we were hurting for a good shower, look how green the grass is just overnight!

Ponies didn't mind too much until it got dark and the temp dropped a bit. After being outside in the rain all day and soaked to the bone, we took pity and hurried through the rain to get their stalls ready and brought them in. 

The drainage ditch just added another reason to the long list of why I love this place. The animals are high and dry and the paddock gets to soak up as much of that rain as it needs.

"Goat Proof"

Goats are quite well known as escape artists, taking every opportunity to see what is on the other side of the fence. Present company included!! 

In fact the little buggers were sneaking out through the holes in the gate! I've determined they are sort of like rats, and can get their bodies through anything that they can get their heads through!

Harry with his cheeks full

Our guys are only 4 months old, and they will get larger, but Harry Houdini is a saanen x pygmy cross so he's always going to be a little smaller. I was speaking with someone the other day who asked if we were planning on getting milk goats, and mentioning they wanted Kinders (NubianX). I quickly told her about how our little guy is always getting out, but that Diego frequently stayed behind in the pasture, seemingly (1) because he wanted to (2) because he's larger and can't fit through the same holes.

Definitely something to consider when deciding what breed you want to raise.

Hi Diego...

If you're going to keep goats I'd suggest starting with a brand new fence and build it for the goats. Otherwise you end up with a lot of this:

At least they are keeping
the weeds down...

The corner of the front paddock is not what it used to be and the goats have found all sorts of holes. I tried adding more fence to the front lawn but they figured out they can get through that too... so I'm off to fix the sac. paddock fence today and they'll be confined w hay until I can figure out a way to solve this problem.

Have bottle fed goats does make them easier to catch, but also means when they see me they come running to see what is in my pockets!

After a whole afternoon of driving around in circles (not as much fun as you think it's going to to be!!) on the lawn tractor and the pasture is looking MUCH better. Wish I could keep the animals off it for a week, but without having the other pasture divided, we just don't have the space.

I ran out of gas before I got to the back but I fed hay with dinner anyway, the wild canary stuff they don't really like, since the grass is a little short. 

The mower also chewed up all the poop that was out there. Spreading it around or picking it up is a good way to reduce worms (as is rotating your pasture with other species, like cows).

The best part was when I was watching the ground for rocks I noticed a very strange little green one!! This tree was supposed to be cut down in the next few weeks because it's mostly dead. Really hoping this is a granny smith not a crab apple!

The tree is in really bad shape
needs lots of pruning

 I'm not really all that excited about having an apple tree of any kind in the field, because the horses will gorge themselves, and can get really sick. If it's a crab apple we'll be cutting it down, if not, I'll have to fence it off.

This one (behind the apple)
is actually dead and needs
to be removed soon

Weed control, FAIL!

Seemed like a good idea!
I quick run of poly-tape
so the goats/lamb would eat the
weeds down the side of the barn.

Harry Houdini at it again...
Apparently I didn't connect the fence
properly and we were off
on another goat-chase very quickly!

At least they stuck around
where they were supposed
to be as long as I watched
them!

I don't know how this came about, but putting a big pile of rocks right beside your barn is NOT a good idea. It's a great way to house rodents right against your barn though...

There is a big pile under all this vegetation and we'll be moving them a few feet to make a really nice garden wall.

The dog pen needs to go too

 The goats did a great job stripping all the "wild lettuce" that was in there, so I don't have to go weed in there again until we're ready to take the fence down!

Goat Logic

Why eat the lovely green lawn when we have dead crab apple leaves to eat??

Proof Billy is the brains of this brigade :) 

Basic Fence Safety (Part 4) Gates.

These gates were preexisting to the farm, and I have to say, they are a pretty inexpensive & ingenious way to do internal gates! It's basically a metal tubular frame, with fence wire wrapped over it. They are very lightweight and easy to move. 

Field fence wrapped gate into the cow field. 

Also between the sacrifice pasture
& the back pasture. 

This one had holes in it so we re-did it with a
smaller sized wire. It's the gate out of the
sacrifice paddock.
I have to say, I consider this gate
VERY safe for all my animals

We also have an electric gate.

Little hard to see, but it's sort of a
long springy coil of wire
I know you can get them from TSC
for about $25

I've never seen this type used with horses before, my mare is so scared of electric she won't come within 10' of this thing when it's stretched across. We are going to replace it very soon with a proper electric "gate".

Hubby just put it up
on hinges! Makes getting
in and out of the driveway
a little easier. 

This is the front gate to the property, your typical live-stock gate. They are pretty popular for horse gates, but make sure the tubes are close together enough that your horse isn't going to stick a leg through. This one is also hollow, so I wouldn't use it with any livestock. If they broke a tube it would be a very sharp thing to impale themselves on.

The most important thing about your gate is to remember to keep it closed!

Basic Fence Safety (Part 3) Wire types

The gauge or size of wire you're going to want depends a great deal on why type/size of animal you are planning on enclosing as well as the ages. Consider not only the livestock you have now but what you may have in the future. A little extra money now can save you from replacing the fence before it wears out.

Here is what we have.

Field wire

If you never plan on having babies on property (as in, you own all geldings and are not going to change your mind for the life-time of your fence) a field-wire (cow-sized wire) is inexpensive and combined with electric you've got a pretty good fence. This wire size always works great with cows/calves, but kids & lambs can slip through it, especially if even one wire is missing, creating a gap. 

This is not no-climb, but has a very small hole size.

V-Mesh and No-Climb 

Both are very similar, and are my choice for fence wire. As the name suggests they prevent your animals (like goats!) from climbing the fences with small holes. They also prevent stray legs from going through the fence & becoming entangled.


Chicken Wire

Chicken wire is not only good for keeping chicken (and other poultry) contained, it will also keep wild-birds out of places you don't want them to be.

I can tell you from personal experience, small chicks can fit through just about any other size of wire.

Electric Wires


The gray galvanized wire isn't good for horses because they can't see it. If you put flags on it & keep it tight you're minimizing your risks. I'm not really sure on why galvanized would be more okay with other types of livestock.

Wide-tape is better then thin rope for the same reasons, and white is best for visibility as well. We went with 1/2" up to 1 1/2" poly tape (depending on where it was located). 

How High?

First: Check local by-laws! There may be rules about how high your fences need to be, especially if you have stallions

If you're keeping miniature horses, your fences don't need to be very high at all. If you've got quarter horses, appaloosas or similar breeds (not built to jump), you can probably also get away with a 5' fence. Cows, sheep and non-flying birds, are also fine with a lower fence.

If you're going to house 17Hh Hanovarians, or stallions of any breed, you're going to want taller fences. The general rule is 6" above your tallest horse. Really if you're planning on building a big stud farm you're (1) not reading MY blog (2) already know about external fences and lane-ways.

If I were re-building all our external fences, they'd be 6' high because I know my mare can jump 5' from a stand-still. 

Basic Fence Safety (Part 2) No barbed wire, Please!

You can still see the chunk of some 
animal this wire took off. 

Like most fences, barbed wire is at it's most dangerous for horses when it is loose. As long as it is tight and combined with either 

• A very large acreage (100 acres) so there is little chance of the horses contacting the fence
• Electric stand-offs attached to the barbed wire.

It can be made safe. 

We have a small paddock, and even though we were putting up electric, I did not feel safe leaving the barbed wire on.

I don't want to post any pictures because they can be extremely graphic, but if you're curious google "horse barbed wire injury" and I'm sure you'll be taking it off your paddocks by tonight. 

It is a myth that cattle/other animals can not be contained behind electric fencing and require barbed wire. There can be a problem with "long-haired" animals (sheep/other fibre animals) because their wool insulates them from shock, however you can get a fencer strong enough to get through all that hair. 

Just some of the debris we removed from the front paddock

Loose fences of any material can be just as dangerous as barbed wire. It is very important to maintain your fences & keep them nice and tight. This helps with keeping other animals in as well.