Success Story: Rotational grazing including reed canary grass

Farm Owners: Mary Gumingo and John Rudeen

Topics Addressed:

• Fencing
• Reed canary grass and flood areas
• Mosquito control

Summary:

Mary and John decided to divide their two pastures into four and rotate them as needed. The main drawbacks they saw to implementing the new management practices were time and money investment. To manage the manure, they spread it every day during the summer, drag the pastures in the spring and fall, and compost during winter. All the weed control is done through mowing once each month and hand-pulling every week, no chemical control is used.

“Mowing and removing weeds by hand has made a huge difference in the quality of our pastures. Also dividing our two pastures into four has allowed more rest for the pastures and next year each one should get a full 30 days during the growing season. Dragging the pastures for manure also seem to encourage more even grazing and fewer flies”.

• See their rotation map and calendar (pdf)

Advice from Owners:

• Your pasture will get so lush your horses could founder, be careful and manage accordingly
• Reed canary grass is great for summer and late fall grazing
• Weeds are a never-ending battle

Pasture in 2000: No paddocks, no grazing control
[click to enlarge-30K]

Same area supports two additional horses
[click to enlarge-30K]