Making a Horse Pasture <--Help-->

[jcaron2]

I hope someone can help me here. I have 3 horses that i cam currently boarding elsewhere. I have fenced in some of my acreage to move them on the property. Issue is that when I had the fenced in area bush hogged, there were small trees that got cut, I would say that they are an inch in diameter or smaller and they stick out of the ground 3-5 inches. I am really concerned about the horses stepping on the stumps that are left. I have been told that there is a piece of machinery that will pull them out sort of like a golf ball picker at a driving range. I am will to cultivate the area in order to make it safe for the winter and then plant the pasture appropriately next spring. I have other pasture that I can use then but it is not fenced. HELP, does anyone have any ideas how to remove the stumps that are left so that I can safely bring my horses home....

Anybody know if small stumps like these will come out with a Harley Power Rake or a Rockhound? I've never used either but that might be another straightforward way to get rid of them. You can probably rent one with a skidsteer or hire someone who has one. Or, if you have a tractor that can do it, you can rent one that goes on the 3PH.

 

[jgrreed]

Anybody know if small stumps like these will come out with a Harley Power Rake or a Rockhound? I've never used either but that might be another straightforward way to get rid of them. You can probably rent one with a skidsteer or hire someone who has one. Or, if you have a tractor that can do it, you can rent one that goes on the 3PH.

If you're going to go to that trouble, look around your area for someone with a Fecon style mulcher. That'll deal with them in short order...

-Jer.

 

[jcaron2]

If you're going to go to that trouble, look around your area for someone with a Fecon style mulcher. That'll deal with them in short order...

-Jer.

Wow! I'd never seen one of those before. Just watched a Youtube video of one. It looks to me like you could do a 5 acre field in an hour or two.

 

[jgrreed]

Wow! I'd never seen one of those before. Just watched a Youtube video of one. It looks to me like you could do a 5 acre field in an hour or two.

Ya, depends on size, but they can clear some bush in a real hurry. If you want to see a real monster Youtube 'Ironwolf Slasher'.

Someone with a skidsteer mounted Fecon head could zip up and down your fencelines in a only a couple hours I'm sure. I don't know what others will do, but the guys that I used to associate with that had the mulchers wouldn't actually 'till' the soil like they do in the Ironwolf video.

I think the skidsteer machines billed out at ~$300CDN per hour.

Might be worth considering a flail mower for yourself?? Check out the Caroni's at AgriSupply. That'd chew up those 1" stumps I think.

-Jer.

 

[Carykong]

Cultivation of your field and/or and pulling 1" tree stumps may not be necessary. Actually overkill from my perch. Your weed wacker can be adapted for a saw blade that could saw your tiny stumps flush to the ground without all the bending that would happen with a chainsaw. So hog it close as you practically can. With that visibility finish it off with your weed wacker sawblade. Good luck. As an aside. Hoedad with a sharp edge could flush up those tiny stumps with one stroke.

 

[Therard]

Thanks for all the replys, I live in Spotsylvania (Fredericksburg) Virginia. This is the only pasture that I have that I can use for this winter. This is my or will be my first year with the horses on the property. I am completely prepared to till the area and put the horses on hay until spring. I also have been thinking about the mud factor, but if I want to stop paying the monthly horse mortgage boarding fee, thats what I need to do. The stumps, if you can really call them that are only 1 inch or less in diameter. thats why i am concerned with them.

So Rick, how far from Spotsy are you?

I have a call in to someone to see what it will take to bush hog down at the lowest setting on the machine, just maybe with any luck they will just go away for the winter and I will cultivate the area early spring to get ready for next winter. I do have other areas but they are not fenced yet. I just bought the property early summer.

 

[slaveToHorses]

Gee, sometimes I wish I could send my horses back to the boarders! Your life changes quite a bit when you move them home. No more leaving the house whenever you want, no more vacations without arranging for a horse sitter, no more sleeping in (ever)...

You really must get rid of everything down to 6" below grade if you want it to be really horse safe. They dig in pretty deep with their hooves and can get tripped up by small stumps and roots, especially my Arabians. Not worth the risk. My horses run full speed as soon as I let them loose in a new pasture. Quite entertaining, if you know the field is safe.

Don't bother trying to remove those stumps individually. Heck your stumps are tiny. Best practice is to plow the field with either a deep running plow or subsoiler or rippers. That will not only help to prepare the field for disking and finishing but it will also get all the stumps and roots.

I build one of my pastures from pure virgin forest. Oh my what a job! I had 100+ft high Douglass Firs. The loggers used a huge LinkBelt trackhoe loader, a Cat D-8 with a stump buster spike on the rear (evil looking rig) and a Cat D-6. I followed with my backhoe, before then starting the plowing process. The rippers did the job of finding all the small stumps and burried roots, with my son walking behind hand clearing them before disking. That was one dirty summer. Virgin soil is dust powder. I always had to run down wind from the hand labor and had to position the backhoe so the dust would blow away from me. Even then we had to wear masks and bananas over our face!

 

[SuperCobra]

Thanks for all the replys, I live in Spotsylvania (Fredericksburg) Virginia...

Sounds like we are neighbors. I'm in the Wilderness. I went through the same thing. I've been clearing myself. Got little stumps out - it is the big ones that are a pain. The size you describe it doesn't take too much to pull them out. I was pulling them out with my truck before i got a tractor. They might not be tall enough to get a choker to stay on but maybe something like this would work unless they are already too chewed up:

Bailey's - Heavy Duty Brush Grubber

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DcTxT6E3Ss&NR=1

I agree that if you just cut them off flush they will be exposed again in no time. I rented a stump grinder for some of the big ones I couldn't push over or pull out and even though I thought I ground them far below the surface some of the ones on the high ground are exposed after a couple of years or erosion.

 

[jcaron2]

Thanks for all the replys, I live in Spotsylvania (Fredericksburg) Virginia. This is the only pasture that I have that I can use for this winter. This is my or will be my first year with the horses on the property. I am completely prepared to till the area and put the horses on hay until spring. I also have been thinking about the mud factor, but if I want to stop paying the monthly horse mortgage boarding fee, thats what I need to do. The stumps, if you can really call them that are only 1 inch or less in diameter. thats why i am concerned with them.

So Rick, how far from Spotsy are you?

I have a call in to someone to see what it will take to bush hog down at the lowest setting on the machine, just maybe with any luck they will just go away for the winter and I will cultivate the area early spring to get ready for next winter. I do have other areas but they are not fenced yet. I just bought the property early summer.

I'm right on the NC/VA border so I'm not too far south of you, and we finally moved our horses home about two years ago after two previous years of stuggling to get the pastures established. I don't know if things are different where you are or not, but I can at least pass on some of what we learned: First and foremost, it's pretty much mandatory to plant horse pastures in the fall. Every time I planted in the spring, the majority of the grass died during the hot, dry summer because it hadn't had the time or motivation to establish deep roots during the relatively short and rainy spring growing season. I don't mean it turned brown and went dormant until the fall rains, I mean it DIED - never to return. And that was WITHOUT horses on the pastures. The pastures that I've planted in the fall, on the other hand, have done amazingly well. (Too bad it took me so long to figure that out). I usually use wheat as a cover crop (I just mix in about 10 lbs of cheap winter wheat with each 50lb bag of grass seed before spreading or drilling). The wheat comes up within a week or two and grows (albeit slowly) all winter long. The grass lags behind a little, but also grows little by little all through the winter, protected to some degree from frost and erosion by the blanket of wheat. By spring time, the grass not only has well-established roots, but is also mature enough to take a normal dose of fertilizer without being burned. (If you're planning to graze horses you'll definitely, definitely need to fertilize in the spring - we have to fertilize every year). By late spring you'll have a nice hardy pasture that's ready to be mowed. Since wheat is an annual, once you mow it, it won't come back.

One more piece of advice: If you haven't done so already, get a soil test kit from your county's ag extension service (should be free) and get the soil tested. That way you'll know exactly what you need for fertilizer by spring time.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do; just thought I'd pass on some of what I've learned the hard way.

Good luck!!

 

[Dave5264]

Thanks for all the replys, I live in Spotsylvania (Fredericksburg) Virginia. This is the only pasture that I have that I can use for this winter. This is my or will be my first year with the horses on the property. I am completely prepared to till the area and put the horses on hay until spring. I also have been thinking about the mud factor, but if I want to stop paying the monthly horse mortgage boarding fee, thats what I need to do. The stumps, if you can really call them that are only 1 inch or less in diameter. thats why i am concerned with them.

So Rick, how far from Spotsy are you?

I have a call in to someone to see what it will take to bush hog down at the lowest setting on the machine, just maybe with any luck they will just go away for the winter and I will cultivate the area early spring to get ready for next winter. I do have other areas but they are not fenced yet. I just bought the property early summer.

I was in a similar position last year, while I didnt have the stumps issue, what I can tell you is this:

-Ensure you have a minimum of 3 acres (acre per horse, and that may be a stretch)
-If your looking to have them on the pasture in the next 6 months, do not plow / till/ seed it now. it will be a mess if they walk in it and any grass that grows in the first 6 months will be pulled out by the roots.
-Divide your pasture into a few sections if you can, rotate the horses through to allow some pasture to recover
-designate a winter sacrificial paddock, the fall and spring wet seasons with 3 horses will trun a padock to mud in no time flat.
-re your stumps, id use a bush hog or some other mulcher /grinder to take em out and not disturb the rest of the grass if you can.

I started with a 3 acre paddock divided into 2 ( 2x 1.5 acres) - not enough for my 3 Icelandic horses. They took down 1.5 acres of 2' high hay in less than 2 weeks. 1 month and both 1.5 acre paddocks were down to stubble !. I had to scramble last year and erect a couple of temporary paddocks to keep the beasts fed and allow my permanent paddocks to recover

I now have 4 paddocks, the 2 small original ones, 1 of 4 acres on a hill (spring paddock) and another of 6 acres (summer paddock). the 2 small ones I rotate as sacrifical and which ever one I sacrifice needs to be re seeded in the spring. I re seeded last years sacrifical in April and it came back beautifully this year. My pasture seed mix is 35% Timothy, 30% Rye Grass, 30% Feskew, and 5% Red clover (no cover crop used, although i know many folks do). I didnt have any issues with grass drying out in the summer up here.