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 I keep my butt inside
Posts: 3281
   
Location: Weatherford, Texas | For those of you on 5 acres or less:
- what is the layout
- how many horses/animals do you have on it
- how do you try to keep grass etc from being eaten away? |
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 Triple Extra-Ordinaire
Posts: 4244
Location: Okla | Section it off in 1 acres lots. Have stalls or small dry lot pens. Rotate horses onto grass for 8 hrs only. Give each acre lot at least 1-2 days rest a week and water, water, water to keep the grass growing. I have 3 horses on 5 acres and keep a decent amount of grass all the time. (Every horse spends one to two days a week in their dry lot) |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 989
| I have about 4 usable acres, with a ring, and 3 large dry lots. Also, 3 sections for grazing. I rotate sections and they are not out all day. Right now they are just out in the evenings. I feed hay all year round. The grass is more of a treat than used for replacing feeding hay |
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 Expert
Posts: 2276
Location: ohio-in my own little world with pretty ponies :) | We have 6 acres...about 4.5-5 pasture wise. Our land is sort of a rectangle type shape. Our house is up by the road in the middle behind the house is our barn and to the right is about a 2 acre pasture. Behind the barn is about .5 acre area and to the left is about 2 acres of pasture with a large run in. We have 5 horses but they aren't out 24/7. They are out a few hours a day. We are going to section the areas off more to keep them in some areas and rotate them around. |
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 Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | tripleE - 2014-05-13 1:20 PM Section it off in 1 acres lots. Have stalls or small dry lot pens. Rotate horses onto grass for 8 hrs only. Give each acre lot at least 1-2 days rest a week and water, water, water to keep the grass growing. I have 3 horses on 5 acres and keep a decent amount of grass all the time. (Every horse spends one to two days a week in their dry lot)
Ditto this!! My pastures are beautifull and it's all because of management. I put them out in the morning,and bring them in at night. I have stalls and pens. I do NOT let them on the pasture if it's raining, and if we have had a heavy rain day they dont go out untill the day after a dry day. I water at night so the grass gets the most benefit from the water and it waters much deeper then if I watered heat of the day.When you water, water deep. I turn it on before I go to bed, and turn it off first thing in the morning. I also do NOT let them on the pasture all winter long. They are in their stalls/pens all winter. Half the battle is over grazing, the other half is foot traffic so keep them off it in the winter, and when it's wet. I also let the grass get a good 6-7 inches tall in the spring before I even think about letting them on it. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1118
Location: The South | ThreeCorners - 2014-05-13 2:45 PM tripleE - 2014-05-13 1:20 PM Section it off in 1 acres lots. Have stalls or small dry lot pens. Rotate horses onto grass for 8 hrs only. Give each acre lot at least 1-2 days rest a week and water, water, water to keep the grass growing. I have 3 horses on 5 acres and keep a decent amount of grass all the time. (Every horse spends one to two days a week in their dry lot) Ditto this!! My pastures are beautifull and it's all because of management. I put them out in the morning,and bring them in at night. I have stalls and pens. I do NOT let them on the pasture if it's raining, and if we have had a heavy rain day they dont go out untill the day after a dry day. I water at night so the grass gets the most benefit from the water and it waters much deeper then if I watered heat of the day.When you water, water deep. I turn it on before I go to bed, and turn it off first thing in the morning. I also do NOT let them on the pasture all winter long. They are in their stalls/pens all winter. Half the battle is over grazing, the other half is foot traffic so keep them off it in the winter, and when it's wet. I also let the grass get a good 6-7 inches tall in the spring before I even think about letting them on it.
How do you water yours? We've been at our place for 3 years and we're just starting to improve our pasture. It's around 3-4 acres and we have 2 horses. We just sprayed weed killer a couple of weeks ago and our next step will be lyme, then fertilizer. I can't wait to have a pretty pasture and I bet the horses feel the same way. |
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Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | LindsayJordan84 - 2014-05-13 8:20 PM ThreeCorners - 2014-05-13 2:45 PM tripleE - 2014-05-13 1:20 PM Section it off in 1 acres lots. Have stalls or small dry lot pens. Rotate horses onto grass for 8 hrs only. Give each acre lot at least 1-2 days rest a week and water, water, water to keep the grass growing. I have 3 horses on 5 acres and keep a decent amount of grass all the time. (Every horse spends one to two days a week in their dry lot) Ditto this!! My pastures are beautifull and it's all because of management. I put them out in the morning,and bring them in at night. I have stalls and pens. I do NOT let them on the pasture if it's raining, and if we have had a heavy rain day they dont go out untill the day after a dry day. I water at night so the grass gets the most benefit from the water and it waters much deeper then if I watered heat of the day.When you water, water deep. I turn it on before I go to bed, and turn it off first thing in the morning. I also do NOT let them on the pasture all winter long. They are in their stalls/pens all winter. Half the battle is over grazing, the other half is foot traffic so keep them off it in the winter, and when it's wet. I also let the grass get a good 6-7 inches tall in the spring before I even think about letting them on it.
Home depot has some great industrial sprinklers. We have one that is on a tri-pod adjustable stand that we use a one inch hose with and it waters a huge area. Then last year my husband picked up at home depot a sprinkler thats really heavy duty. Looks like a tractor and it "walk's" along the hose. However you lay the hose, the sprinkler will walk along it as the front wheels straddle the hose. This one you cant use as big of a hose with as then it cant pull the hose as it moves. We set the tractor sprinkler at the bottom of the pasture at night, and by morning it has made it all the way to the top. |
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Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | Also....when I started on this pasture 4 years ago the grass was really sparce. I have just top broadcast horse pasture seed every fall so the winter moisture and spring snow melt will get the grass going. Now it is thick and lush and I wont have to over broadcast seed it any more. If you have a good thick grass sod, your pasture ground wont dry out so fast and it does take the foot traffic better. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1118
Location: The South | Woo hoo, thank you ThreeCorners! I never knew Home Depot had stuff like that, I'll be headed there this weekend.  |
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 Buttered Noodles Snacker
Posts: 4377
Location: NC | bump
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My mind still works
Posts: 8912
| I had 4 acres and I had 48x48 barn to the far right with 5 -13x24 stalls in it. Enough room for 200 sq bales and a lrg "common" area. In front of the barn was a small pasture and behind the barn, was cross fenced into 2 pasture. ( long and narrow) Circle driveway. At the back of drive but in front of pastures was a 20x40 detached garage with 2 stalls on the end of it. House sat to the far left side across from barn and it had a 8x10 well house just to the left of the driveway, that I used for extra storage but didn't really need that but was handy to have.
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 Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | We moved last fall but we had 9 horses on 5 acres and we always had grass- not all of it was pasture either. I had 1 big turn out pasture, 70x80 half pen and half paddock, then another paddock area that was probably about a half acre at best. I pulled everyone off the big pasture and turn out in the smaller pens in the spring and fall. We would seed every fall and fertilize. We usually planted winter wheat and rye for winter and then fescue and orchard so that it would come up in the spring. I kept a round bale out and fed beet pulp and alfalfa cubes to slow down the grazing some too. I had a barn with stalls that everyone stayed in unless they were turned out. I had a couple of sheds for hay storage. Looking back, we had about an acre and half of yard that I should have utilized and made into paddocks. Now we're on 23 and its much easier and quicker to manage. |
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I'll Be Your Huckleberry
Posts: 1488
Location: Arizona | We have 1.2 acres with 2 horses, 1 pony, 3 goats, and 6 chickens. We have a 120x60 riding area and a 40' round pen. I would think you could do a lot with 5 acres so long as it was flat and regularly shaped. I have no idea what grass is...so no issues there. |
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 Certified Snake Wrangler
Posts: 1672
Location: North MS | I have 5 acres. SE section has my house/yard and small wooded area in front next to the road. NE section has woods continuing around the edge and a large 30x60 or so shop. Between the shop and the woods is a 30' or so open area that used to be our garden and is now my horse trailer parking. We enter the property just to the west of the house and drive straight into the back into a hairpin turn going to the back of the house. I do this with my trailer and back into my one parking spot. Off the side of the shop I have a lean type shed with two 10x10 run ins. The horses get fed there each evening. The entire West side of the property which is about 3 acres is pasture. Nothing crossfenced. I move the horses to my parents for a few days for spraying and fertilizing. I just got my pesticide applicators license renewed so I am ready for week killing time!
I only wish I had more flat land. My house is on the highest point, my shop, driveway and trailer packing is flat and then my entire pasture slants to the west except in one corner that is designated as a flood zone. Water often backfloods into my pasture from the bottomlands to the South of me and bring in creeping buttercup seeds that I have to spray each year. If I had a flat spot I would definitely have a round pen or horse walker. As it is, I make do with exercising them around my neighbors field directly behind me that is completely flat.
I can feed 2 horses comfortably and 3 with adequate rainfall and fertilizing. They don't require feed, but I feel better giving them something each day. |
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