The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Pets & Working Animals => Horses, ponies, donkeys & mules => Topic started by: WarescotFarm on June 27, 2012, 04:29:45 pm
-
I have a mini falabella and pygmy goat on a 1/3 acre. Although this is plenty of room for them to gallop and play and should do most of the year for grazing they only eat the top 1/2 of grass.
The bottom 1/2 they very rarely eat. I have even scarified the grass to remove weeds and reseeded with a mixure of grasses perfect for horses but they are not interested.
It means I am running out of grass and going CRAZY! :-[
Any help or hints?
-
Our pygmies don't eat much grass, they prefer hay and a cup of goat food twice a day.
-
Do you poo pick daily? Not that you have to, but poos are left to be rained on even if you pick them up later, the grass is tainted to the horses. Goats are more browsers anyway so wouldnt expect them to eat down to the ground.
I would split the paddock in two, so that one half gets a complete rest and loses any 'taint' (altho you may have done this when reseeding to no effect!).
Horses also like some grass species and not others (altho one would have hoped they might like a horse mix). Basically anything with lots of timothy in it is usually very agreeable.
-
The soil might be more acid in one area. Try a soil test at both parts of the field. Some form of lime might be required in the sour area.
-
The soil might be more acid in one area. Try a soil test at both parts of the field. Some form of lime might be required in the sour area.
This
They will only eat the best grass and not eat anything that could either make them ill or wont get much out of nutritionally unless they are starving.
Usually with horses those its more to do with if they or another horse has been to toilet in that area, they wont eat from that area again for a good few weeks and that is if the droppings are cleared.
Im not sure about goats other than that i know they dont eat much grass compared to sheep and are better on brush type land or fed plenty of hay and branches alongside the grass
You can do more advanced tests that you can send soil samples off to check for more things than just PH levels but ph levels tell you alot. once you have it sorted if they still wont eat it and you are worried about the rest getting worn down you could section it off whilst the rest grows back.
Is the rest of the grass getting long? you could also cut it down but make sure you collect all of the grass clippings as they can give colic, the new grass growth might tempt them
-
Over grazing makes the ground sour and horses will avoid this.