Dr. Krishona Martinson, University of Minnesota Extension Specialist, and Dr. Carey Williams, Rutgers University Extension Specialist discuss how weather and season affects growing patterns in grasses. We get into the details on how temperature affects dormancy and why just because the grass is green doesn't mean the horses should be grazing!
Dr. Krishona Martinson, University of Minnesota Extension Specialist, and Dr. Carey Williams, Rutgers University Extension Specialist discuss how weather and season affects growing patterns in grasses. We get into the details on how temperature affects dormancy and why just because the grass is green doesn't mean the horses should be grazing!
26
00:04:38.170 --> 00:04:56.950
Kris Hiney: welcome to extension horses, tackbox talk series horse stories with a purpose. I'm your host, Dr. Kris Hiney, with Oklahoma State University. And today we're gonna be doing a timely topic. Talking about fall pasture care. And even if there is such a thing, or does just Mother Nature take care of it? So
27
00:04:57.030 --> 00:05:05.010
I've invited 2 of our favorite guests back to the program that are pasture experts. So welcome back, Dr. Krishona Martinson.
28
00:05:05.900 --> 00:05:13.630
Krishona L Martinson: I thank you for having me and our other pastor expert from the other side of the country. Doctor Carey Williams, welcome back, Carey.
29
00:05:13.750 --> 00:05:15.479
Carey Williams: Hello! Thank you.
30
00:05:16.010 --> 00:05:25.799
Kris Hiney: Alright. So fall pasture care. Is this actually a thing, or is it just like, yeah, you know, it gets colder. The grass goes dormant, and then we wait for spring.
31
00:05:26.880 --> 00:05:51.109
Krishona L Martinson: Kris, it is definitely a thing. And if you are located in an area of the country where you have distinct seasons, it causes a lot. In my opinion, it causes kind of a lot of debate and confusion. So I think this is a timely topic where we can lay out some of the things that people need to consider if they want to fall, you know, graze their horses into the fall season.
32
00:05:52.930 --> 00:05:55.560
Kris Hiney: Okay? Well, what are those?
33
00:06:03.340 --> 00:06:30.649
Carey Williams: Yeah. So I totally agree with Dr. Martinson. Here in New Jersey. We've got the same sort of. And right now, you know, we're entering mid November. We've what we've started to see in the last week or so is frost. So the grasses are gonna be going dormant overnight because there is a frost. So we wake up. Ground is covered in a frost. So what does that mean? Well, what that means is, your grasses don't grow at night.
34
00:06:30.710 --> 00:06:48.459
Carey Williams: where normally, when your grasses are growing, they're gonna start to use the carbohydrate stores that they maintained, or that they they accumulated all day long, and then they use it overnight, but instead, now they go dormant overnight. So that means they're not doing anything. So what happens then is in the morning.
35
00:06:48.460 --> 00:07:08.630
Carey Williams: The grasses are now full of all the sugars and nonstructural carbohydrates that they've accumulated during the day. So what a lot of people might tend to see, especially if you have these horses that are metabolically, you know. You know, having problems, or what we call the the insulin resistance. The horses with the Ems
36
00:07:08.630 --> 00:07:32.949
Carey Williams: they might start to have problems with some of the spring or the fall grasses. So you know, the the worst case scenario is, yeah, we have some of these ponies that are prone to laminits. I just get some laminitic changes. You might just see sore feet, warm feet, things like that, and you might think, well, I haven't done anything different. I've kept my management the same. Well, it's probably not your management. That's the problem. It's probably expected
37
00:07:32.950 --> 00:07:59.669
Carey Williams: that now these grasses are starting to accumulate the sugars that they normally wouldn't have if you weren't having those overnight frost. So I think that's probably the biggest thing to take into consideration. If you have any horses that are really sensitive to the changes in the carbohydrates and the grasses. So have some questions about. And I know you guys are meteorologists or well, actually, Dr. Martinson is an agronomist. So you are gonna have to answer these questions. So
38
00:07:59.870 --> 00:08:03.770
so the the time of year, where, like it is colder
39
00:08:03.990 --> 00:08:17.759
Kris Hiney: at night. But in in Oklahoma ours is a little different. But we'll kind of talk about different parts of the country, but it's gonna be brilliantly warm today, so it'll be, you know, low seventies, so does the grass then.
40
00:08:17.850 --> 00:08:28.749
Kris Hiney: or cool season grass cause our our warm season has gone night. Our cool season grass. Will it grow like much more robustly with these warm days? What's going on with them?
41
00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:35.469
Krishona L Martinson: Yeah. So cool season grasses are kind of a unique creature. Right? So.
42
00:08:35.530 --> 00:08:40.730
Krishona L Martinson: And I think there's a few things we have to define. So Doctor Williams talked about a frost.
43
00:08:41.340 --> 00:09:09.250
Krishona L Martinson: What we really pay attention to in Minnesota is the frost, but also that first killing freeze. So a freeze is defined by the National Weather Service as so many hours. I believe it's under 26 -28°F that completely stops the growth of the grass for that growing season. So like right now, we have had a hard killing frost in Minnesota. Only a couple of weeks ago we had a really late frost.
44
00:09:09.250 --> 00:09:19.980
Krishona L Martinson: but if I look out my office window, the grass still appears green, but just because it looks green, it doesn't mean it's growing so. What carey was talking about is
45
00:09:20.390 --> 00:09:33.819
Krishona L Martinson: exactly what you described. Kris. You have these beautiful like this week in Minnesota for being in November. We are unseasonably warm. We're gonna be in the sixties with lows in the upper thirties, in the in in
46
00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:49.969
Krishona L Martinson: the low fortys. Now, if this happens before your first killing frost, what Doctor William describes happen during the day, plants accumulate nonstructural carbohydrates so that they can survive in the absence of sunlight overnight.
47
00:09:49.980 --> 00:10:05.910
Krishona L Martinson: so they accumulate them during the day and use them at night. The problem is in the fall. Plants slowed down that use of nonstructural carbohydrates, I believe, when it's below something in the forties, and it stops at 32 degrees.
48
00:10:06.030 --> 00:10:27.430
Krishona L Martinson: So essentially, the plants are locking in these non structural carbohydrates. So that is what happens with our cool season grasses, and why it is so important to pay really close attention to the frost cycle, and also that first killing freeze that we have, that ends and ends the growing season for all perennials.
49
00:10:27.670 --> 00:10:31.900
Krishona L Martinson: So we just have to watch legumes just can't.
50
00:10:32.050 --> 00:10:51.919
Krishona L Martinson: They can't accumulate nonstructure carbohydrates in the same way. And then, of course, as you mentioned Kris, our warm season grasses at the hint of a frost. They piece out right. They are dormant, they are done. So it's really the cool season grasses that we watch carefully during this fall weather, because again. Beautiful sunny day
51
00:10:52.050 --> 00:10:53.390
Krishona L Martinson: accumulate
52
00:10:53.420 --> 00:11:01.249
Krishona L Martinson: cool night. They don't use. They just keep building and building and building and get these really high levels of non structural carbohydrates.
53
00:11:01.330 --> 00:11:21.260
Kris Hiney: So, and maybe the easiest way for people to think about that, you know, especially here in Oklahoma. We it's real easy to see warm season, cool season, like. Here's some green. Here's some brown but they don't really grow well, I mean, so you said the difference between annuals and perennials. So do the annuals still keep go growing, then.
54
00:11:22.260 --> 00:11:45.180
Krishona L Martinson: so my understanding is, everything will really grow depending on their tolerance to cold. But once you hit 32, once you hit that killing frost. I think it's like so many hours of 26 degrees. I think it's like 3 h of 26 degrees that ends the growing season for anything, whether you're an annual, a perennial, the flowers on your patio right
55
00:11:45.220 --> 00:11:52.339
Krishona L Martinson: it it ends the growing season, and in the northern part of the Us. Our growing season will usually end
56
00:11:52.500 --> 00:12:01.379
Krishona L Martinson: sometime, you know, around mid-october this year. It was the first part of November. So you just have to watch the weather.
57
00:12:01.990 --> 00:12:26.720
Carey Williams: Yeah. And that's exactly. That's a really good explanation, Krishona way better than I could have given. But that's exactly the timing that we're in right now in New Jersey, you know it's middle of November. We had some really warm weather up until about a week ago, and then we had several nights that dip 28-26 to this morning was actually 26 degrees. Granted, I don't know when we hit 26.
58
00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:51.159
Carey Williams: Were we 26 for that 3 h, mark, or did it just hit 26, and then go back up. I do still be a little bit of growth in our grass, not a whole lot. So I think we're really close to that? That hard freeze? Which in that case, and so I'm gonna kind of take us to that next step is, what do you do now that you have 0 grass growing in your pasture anymore? So yes, it's green.
59
00:12:51.160 --> 00:13:10.900
Carey Williams: and the horses might love to nibble on it. But what do you do when you get to that point where there's no more growth coming back? And we did a little bit of research on this a couple of years ago with a graduate student of mine who looked at recovery of grasses over a winter you know, winter of not being not being utilized.
60
00:13:11.020 --> 00:13:22.989
Carey Williams: Your pasture if you stop grazing them now, basically, right before that hard freeze, you are much more likely to start grazing earlier in the spring and have a better grass growth in the spring.
61
00:13:22.990 --> 00:13:46.639
Carey Williams: But if you keep grazing them now through December, or until your first snow, or what, or until they all go brown. If you keep grazing them, you are gonna have to wait much later in the spring to start grazing again, or there's a good chance that you might never get good growth in your pastures again. And that's when you're talking about needing to do more. Renovation could be a total renovation, it could be interseeding, etc.
62
00:13:46.730 --> 00:13:57.339
Carey Williams: So my recommendation is, get the horses off the pasture, so that you're more likely to continue grazing once you actually do do have a a good spring weather.
63
00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:04.090
Kris Hiney: Okay? So I have a question then related to that.
64
00:14:04.270 --> 00:14:17.689
Kris Hiney: so that we like for our horses. We dry lot them right? So we do like pull them off. I think we pulled them off mid October this year, as things kinda to taper down.
65
00:14:17.750 --> 00:14:37.370
Kris Hiney: But but the exercise factor right? So when they're in the dry lot, they're like more per I'm bored. This is stupid. So they're not doing very much. So we typically periodically will just let them out into the big pasture so they can like run around and do their thing. There's not much going on out there. Is that gonna be super detrimental to the pasture.
66
00:14:38.610 --> 00:14:40.010
Krishona L Martinson: So
67
00:14:40.690 --> 00:15:00.480
Krishona L Martinson: I mean, the one thing to consider is the more hoof traffic, the more grazing pasture pressure pressure pressure you have. It does put additional stresses on those pasture grasses. And you know, Kris. I don't know if your pasture is warm season or cool season down is warm season. Oklahoma, all right. So
68
00:15:00.610 --> 00:15:25.169
Krishona L Martinson: from a nutritional standpoint, or really not nutritional, but from a concern of higher nonstructure. Carbohydrates. That's not a concern. But I would still be concerned and just hoof damage and grazing pressure, because horses just have this innate desire to graze. So even if the grass is dormant, it appears that they're going to nibble now in the northern part of the Us. Where we have predominantly cool season grasses
69
00:15:25.230 --> 00:15:40.899
Krishona L Martinson: that can lock in those really really high levels of nonstructure carbohydrates. We also worry about a nutritional issue primarily for horses who have a metabolic disorder. You know. History of laminitis, you know.
70
00:15:40.940 --> 00:15:50.520
Krishona L Martinson: Pick your disease right? We do worry about them grazing even when they dig in snow, even when they they graze in the fall. So
71
00:15:50.520 --> 00:16:12.189
Krishona L Martinson: our biggest question that we get this time of year is, when do we pull the horses off for the year. So you have that killing frost. We do recommend that people wait about a week to turn them back out to graze just to let those nonstructure carbohydrates level off a bit. We can't guarantee they'll they'll really bottom out. But we know there's a small reduction
72
00:16:12.190 --> 00:16:29.629
Krishona L Martinson: that first week after that frost. But if you are lucky enough in your pasture is still 6 to 8 inches tall, you can in theory continue to graze your horses a week after that killing frost until they graze it down to about 3 or 4 inches, and this is cool. Season grass. Speak
73
00:16:30.070 --> 00:16:57.770
Krishona L Martinson: once they graze down to 3 to 4 inches. Remember, it could be green. But there is 0 regrowth happening. You need to pull them off for the winter. Otherwise you're over grazing. And exactly what Dr. William talked about. You're gonna have less forge in the spring. You're going to delay re grazing in the spring, and you have the chance of some winter injury, especially if you have a really cold and open winter open, meaning no snow cover, because snow is very insulating to the grasses.
74
00:16:57.910 --> 00:17:11.299
Krishona L Martinson: and if you have a cold and open winter in your pastures over grazed, you have a higher risk of completely losing your entire pasture. And then you have a new problem on your hands. The expense of reseeding and renovation.
75
00:17:12.099 --> 00:17:19.829
Kris Hiney: Okay. so sounds like, you guys are highly recommending, like, you put a fence up or dry lot them then.
76
00:17:20.540 --> 00:17:49.300
Carey Williams: Yeah, unfortunately, it doesn't work for everybody's management. So you do what you can. If you have a dry lot, and you can feed the feed hay in the winter season. That's ideal. A lot of people say. Well, then, all my money that I've been saving to get my pasture open I'm using in hay. Well, eventually you'll come out on top in terms of your finances, because you won't need to worry about the reseeding and the renovation of your pastures, because that can get very expensive.
77
00:17:49.300 --> 00:18:13.279
Carey Williams: The study that I was mentioning that we did the pasture that was not rested. Even the winter prior that was not rested. It never came back to its full capacity. It had higher weed growth weed infiltration, and it maintained its lower sword, height, lower herbage, mass, I mean everything. It was just all thrown off, and it never came back. E. Even up to almost a year after
78
00:18:13.280 --> 00:18:31.339
Carey Williams: after the grazing ended. It never did come back. So you're starting to talk about, you know, a lot of money to get that renovated so that it's back up to being productive enough to give our horses the nutrients that it needs cause. Really, that's one of the main reasons. We, you know, have them on grass. Turnout, right
79
00:18:31.340 --> 00:18:39.889
Carey Williams: is for nutrient value. If you don't need the nutrient value, then you might as well just have a dry lot. Not worry about it. But then you're talking about a lot of money, in hay, right
80
00:18:40.050 --> 00:18:45.349
Kris Hiney: alright. So, Carey, I Kris, I'm gonna take over your hosting duties. My apologies.
81
00:18:45.730 --> 00:19:08.330
Krishona L Martinson: I have a question, you know, because we we all, we all are scientists, but we all are also horse owners, which I think makes us, you know, so unique. So there is this practical standpoint. And II mean, like you both. I filled a lot of questions. So one of the questions was, this individual had just bought a horse.
82
00:19:08.370 --> 00:19:14.519
Krishona L Martinson: It turned out the horse had some a history of laminitis that wasn't disclosed, so now she has this
83
00:19:14.550 --> 00:19:22.909
Krishona L Martinson: laminatis horse, and she has it in a small pen. But she was thinking that the minute there was a killing frost she could just forget it, open the gate.
84
00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:35.630
Krishona L Martinson: and I had to tell her that was unfortunately not the case. But then she had an interesting point. I mean. Last year, you know, previous in Minnesota, we had, like a bajillion feet of snow, not a Bajillion, but, like you know, 3 feet of snow.
85
00:19:36.100 --> 00:19:48.499
Krishona L Martinson: Well, horses will dig through snow, but at a certain point they just so. Carey, did you ever look at like at a certain point? If you do have 2 or 3 or 4 feet of snow cover.
86
00:19:48.500 --> 00:20:12.149
Krishona L Martinson: I wonder if that's insulating enough? The horses can't dig through? It is in that point. Is it safe to open up the gates and let the horses run like Kris was talking about. And really you don't have a risk to the P. Or your risk of the pastures minimal in your risk to that laminitis horse is minimal. But they can be out and exercising. What are your thoughts on that? Because I don't. I didn't really know how to answer that. I think there's minimal risk.
87
00:20:12.220 --> 00:20:14.449
Krishona L Martinson: But you might know more with your study.
88
00:20:14.750 --> 00:20:28.570
Carey Williams: Yeah. And and frankly, yeah, I think that's a very good point and a very good question, and unfortunately, I mean, unfortunately for me, but unfortunately, we don't get that much snow. You know the last amount of snow cover we had here in New Jersey was
89
00:20:28.600 --> 00:20:44.719
Carey Williams: ha! You know, maybe a foot, and then it was gone a few days later. So we really don't have that that persistence with snow, and we really don't have that much cover of snow to have that installation. So I've never been able to do the research there. It would be really interesting to do. And and I've actually kind of
90
00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:50.690
Carey Williams: toss this around, you know, for even a you know a master's project, or, you know a quick and dirty student project is.
91
00:20:50.690 --> 00:21:14.840
Carey Williams: let's just all of these different times of year that we can do it, whether it's different times of year. Different. You know, climates and weather patterns and things like that. Let's just continue to test the same fields, because, you know, we have a situation where we have a bunch of different fields, and they're all, you know. The cool season grass mix, and they're very consistent. So you know, hopefully we can. We can one day do that. But I think you do have a good point. I feel like once
92
00:21:14.840 --> 00:21:35.620
Carey Williams: your horses can't get to the grass level, however much feet of snow that would be. Yeah, I think you would be safe to turn them out. Let them go run around, get their legs stretched. What we do. See here. One of the points I was gonna bring up a a little bit ago was, you know, we have very wet pastures in a lot of New Jersey, especially in the fall.
93
00:21:35.620 --> 00:22:00.609
Carey Williams: so I would be really cautious to allowing horses out on it when it's very wet, and they're gonna do a lot of that hoof traffic and hoof damage with their with their hooves and just tear it up so if if you do, have, you know more of a frozen ground underneath that snow, or you can be also be assured that they're not gonna get their hooves in and really start turning up a lot of mud and damaging those roots. I think you'd also be better off
94
00:22:00.610 --> 00:22:13.069
Carey Williams: then if you had a 60 degree day. All of a sudden it went to 30, and you had a lot of snow. Then you're not gonna have that good ground freeze and you might end up still, even though there might be a foot or so of snow, you're still tearing it up.
95
00:22:13.100 --> 00:22:19.750
Carey Williams: cause I you know I agree. Hoof hoof damage is probably along with grazing just as detrimental.
96
00:22:20.410 --> 00:22:47.309
Kris Hiney: So this is, you know, kind of that again. It's what what your goal is, and I think that's why it's so hard, you know, for us extension especially, you guys told me, don't put them on pasture. But guess what I'm still gonna do right, but I do have them dry on it. But to me, like I also want them to have that enrichment. And like that's my way of also inducing exercise in them is still like, Okay, I want you to run, and that's what they do.
97
00:22:47.310 --> 00:23:02.430
Kris Hiney: If I turn them out periodically right, instead of just all the time. I know that they're gonna run an exercise and it's not. It doesn't rain here, so no worries there. Like, I'm trying to like, manage as many things as possible. And
98
00:23:02.830 --> 00:23:15.579
Kris Hiney: and you either, it feels like sometimes, okay, where we're just gonna take care of the grass and then screw you horses or take care of your horses like. So I think it's a really hard balancing act on how to take care of both entities.
99
00:23:16.360 --> 00:23:31.820
Krishona L Martinson: Yeah. And you know, Kris, I think it has to go back to what you mentioned with your goals. If your goals are pasture management and you are set up to have a dry lot then. Great, but a lot of
100
00:23:31.890 --> 00:23:54.449
Krishona L Martinson: you know, we can tell you what is ideal and what is the least amount of risk. But the reality is the ideal situation, a dry lot, a rotational grazing system, hay feeders, water shelter that all costs money. And yes, that is the gold standard for horse care. But horses can be cared and be well cared for under new, under numerous different management scenarios.
101
00:23:54.450 --> 00:24:03.309
Krishona L Martinson: So if your goal for your horses is enrichment, and you are willing. And you know that's gonna result in pasture, some pasture establishment and maintenance.
102
00:24:03.400 --> 00:24:15.180
Krishona L Martinson: Then then then do it like. That's the risk that you are taking. If your goal is, hey? I just spent 10 grand on this pasture. There's no way my horses are touching it, and I have a dry lot, and I have hay.
103
00:24:15.520 --> 00:24:35.050
Krishona L Martinson: Then that is your goal. You know that you are going to be putting in more money, and hey, your horses are going to be less exercise, but your pastures maintain. So there's a there's a spectrum there, and you have to. You just have to fit where it's best, and I think our jobs are to say, here are the risks. Here are the rewards.
104
00:24:35.070 --> 00:24:40.149
Krishona L Martinson: Here are the kind of the pros and the cons, and then you you
105
00:24:40.250 --> 00:24:44.170
Krishona L Martinson: you you have that educated decision that you are choosing
106
00:24:44.210 --> 00:24:56.360
Krishona L Martinson: based on your personal situation. But you know where you're gonna have to put your money, either in pasture management or hay? Or maybe you have to build an indoor arena so you can have exercise right like I don't know what it is.
107
00:24:56.450 --> 00:24:58.050
Krishona L Martinson: but it's a trade-off.
108
00:24:58.070 --> 00:25:16.490
Carey Williams: So here I can put in a little plug for rotational grazing, because if you practice rotational grazing, you might have 2 or 3, or even 4 smaller fields. So you don't have to use them all at once. If you are going to use, you know. Pick one of the pastures that. Okay, yeah.
109
00:25:16.900 --> 00:25:33.400
Carey Williams: Get a little rough. And maybe eventually, we're gonna have to reseed or do some pasture renovation. Use that for the winter. Use that as sort of your sacrificial pasture, but save some of the other ones. So you don't have to destroy all of your pasture, your whole farm all at once if it's broken up into smaller pieces.
110
00:25:33.510 --> 00:25:57.949
Carey Williams: So you know you have 10 acres. You have 5, 2 acre pastures, or whatever you can. You can decide what time of year you wanna graze what and which ones you wanna save so? And again, it does not ideal for every farm. But if you can have a situation like that where you're only gonna have, you know, a portion of your farm destroyed or renovated. It's more ideal than having to do the whole farm at once.
111
00:25:59.660 --> 00:26:08.519
Alright now. So we kind of talked about. Big strategy is at a certain time of year with the killing frost you pull the horses off, and then maybe don't let them back out again.
112
00:26:08.840 --> 00:26:18.070
Kris Hiney: or we we do it safely. Is there anything that we have to do as pasture caretakers other than just say no more horses.
113
00:26:20.670 --> 00:26:22.590
Krishona L Martinson: Well, II you know
114
00:26:23.790 --> 00:26:26.919
Krishona L Martinson: I think there's a few trains of thought
115
00:26:27.630 --> 00:26:44.920
Krishona L Martinson: you you'd wanna make sure that your fertility, your soil fertility, is strong going into winter, so we can take a soil. Test. It's very affordable in all parts of the us, and it's good for 3 years. So I would just make sure that
116
00:26:45.020 --> 00:27:07.829
Krishona L Martinson: your pasture is fertilized according to your soil test, because that gives it the highest chance of over wintering it might be nice to do any just kind of maintenance like pick up. I mean, I have. I'm fortunate enough to have a wooded pasture, but I'm also at the point where I pick up sticks and limbs and trees all year round. So just do some basic maintenance.
117
00:27:07.830 --> 00:27:15.950
Krishona L Martinson: Ii also. It's sort of nice to to mow it to reset it if you're able to. So keep that mower set
118
00:27:15.950 --> 00:27:26.810
Krishona L Martinson: and a minimum of 3 hopefully 4 inches for your cool season. Grasses. That way. It's everything's kind of reset and ready for that spring growth. So I just
119
00:27:26.870 --> 00:27:49.930
Krishona L Martinson: you know, I don't worry about leaves, because, you know, in a treed area, you you just. It's not practical to pick up trees in a 5 or 10, or pick up leaves in a 5 or 10 acre pasture, but bigger sticks, soil, fertility, mowing if you can. Those are really the things that I that I would do. I don't know if if you know either of you have other suggestions.
120
00:27:51.040 --> 00:28:10.350
Carey Williams: you know. That's pretty much what I always recommend. I don't recommend doing too much else. Just make sure that the soil fertility like you said is is where it needs to be. You know. That'll show as well as fertilizer. Any liming that might be needed as well to adjust the ph, but yeah, we usually say, once you're set, and our kind of target is.
121
00:28:10.350 --> 00:28:27.969
Carey Williams: you know, aim from middle to the end of September to get that stuff done. That way. You can. If you do, have a little bit of regrowth in the late fall. You can kinda take advantage of that but then, once you hit that, you know this time of year that we're in now, and that frost and freeze points.
122
00:28:27.970 --> 00:28:30.270
Carey Williams: You really don't need to do a whole lot more.
123
00:28:31.810 --> 00:28:38.310
Kris Hiney: Okay? So now I gotta pick your guys brains, and if you don't know the answer to these, you can just say, I bow out.
124
00:28:38.450 --> 00:28:42.630
So you're talking about pastures
125
00:28:42.850 --> 00:28:44.650
Kris Hiney: where you have winter
126
00:28:45.730 --> 00:28:49.070
Kris Hiney: are the rules different for places where winter
127
00:28:49.390 --> 00:28:58.849
Kris Hiney: it like people put coats on. But I think they're silly, like what happens in that those parts of the world do you completely change the rules?
128
00:28:59.310 --> 00:29:21.459
Carey Williams: So that does what we call the transition zone. So the transition zone between the northern part of the country and the southern part of the country. So there is a lot of people in those areas that they can graze. Lucky them year round, you know, and we're talking about parts of, you know North Carolina, South Carolina, you know. They've got this nice mix of cool season grasses, warm season grasses, so they always kind of have some sort of growth.
129
00:29:21.540 --> 00:29:47.909
Carey Williams: and and they can graze year round. And again, lucky them! Granted, it's a lot of pasture maintenance. So yeah, make sure that your pastures are are fertilized and limed, and make sure you have your current soil test within the last 3 years, and that you do maintain that maintenance cause. Then, yeah, you might be able to keep your your pastures going, depending on on what? What's in your in your fields? If you're in an area that has more of the cool season than the warm season.
130
00:29:47.910 --> 00:30:12.999
Carey Williams: You might be a little little better off, but you know it depends. If you're even further south, and you might want more warm season. But hopefully. And this is when I can give a really good plug to your county cooperative extension. Agents and educators, whatever part of the country you're in, and anybody can just Google say you're in North Carolina, North Carolina cooperative extension, and it'll come up with all your county offices.
131
00:30:13.010 --> 00:30:37.929
Carey Williams: Really rely on your county people that know your soil, that know your climate, that know your grasses, and they can help you make recommendations for your specific area as to what you might need to do. There are, you know, like we all are extension specialists. We're within the Land Grant University in that State. But we work very closely with county or regional educators and agents. So
132
00:30:37.930 --> 00:30:45.080
Carey Williams: I definitely recommend everybody take advantage of the free resources that education that extension provides.
133
00:30:45.660 --> 00:31:03.950
Kris Hiney: Yeah, absolutely. And that's, you know, wanna reiterate that because you know, for our experts there. I can only have so many people on the podcast at a time. Right? And so you guys are experts in your area. But but yeah. Georgia, Louisiana, Texas. It's a whole different ball game. And so you really do need to understand your
134
00:31:04.040 --> 00:31:16.909
Kris Hiney: region, although there's the commonalities that don't over Graze. Don't you know, destroy it? That's going to be the same everywhere. But what continues to grow and what doesn't is definitely regional. So we want people to to recognize that.
135
00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:20.890
Kris Hiney: Okay, you guys, any other
136
00:31:21.110 --> 00:31:26.220
Krishona L Martinson: fall pasture tips for us before we put this episode to bed.
137
00:31:26.320 --> 00:31:43.930
Krishona L Martinson: So Dr. Hiney, this isn't really fall pasture specific, but I think it is worth mentioning. I think in the spring we've done a really good job of educating horse owners to slowly transition their horses in the northern part of the Us. From baled hay to fresh pasture.
138
00:31:44.050 --> 00:32:10.399
Krishona L Martinson: I think the reverse. We don't do a very good job of reminding people the importance, so say, on October fifteenth you just don't automatically shut the gate and put them on a round bail hopefully. There is a little bit of a transition. If you are in the northern part of the Us. Where we don't have pasture year round, where maybe you've started supplementing some hay and horses are always going to choose fresh pasture over dried hay, at least in every situation I've observed.
139
00:32:10.400 --> 00:32:39.639
Krishona L Martinson: So even if you can start to slowly get the horses acclimated back onto, hay? Just so that it's not a hard shut off between pasture and hay again. We do a really good job of doing that with the spring transition. But I also think we need to remind people to slowly transition their horses if they can, back to hay in the fall from a fresh pasture situation.
140
00:32:39.640 --> 00:33:07.040
Kris Hiney: so I gauge if I put hay out, if they want to eat the hay before they go out to pasture to graze, then the grass is started, they tell me right, and so then I will start putting more hay out, more hay out, and then when I get them to where they. I just shut the gate. So. But I actually, the horses to me are using some feedback where they're like, oh, if I want to eat this hay, I'm like, oh, I know your pastures not very good anymore, because everything's going dormant. And then this is higher quality than what's available to you.
141
00:33:07.630 --> 00:33:10.900
Carey Williams: They can be smart sometimes.
142
00:33:11.350 --> 00:33:18.099
Carey Williams: Yeah. And I was just gonna include that in New Jersey. A lot of people, especially this time of year, have started to do.
143
00:33:18.100 --> 00:33:42.640
Carey Williams: They're not turned out in the winter in the E evening or overnight in the winter, so they'll start bringing their horses in overnight, so that's kind of a nice way to transition to hay as well, because they'll be feeding them, hey? While they're in this stalls overnight, but they're getting turned out during the day. So that's kind of a nice way to transition as well to more. All, hey? Diet is, if they're in sort of part of the day and outside part of the day. So, but yeah, it all depends on your management. Goals.
144
00:33:42.780 --> 00:33:47.090
Carey Williams: and and how horses are managed in your scheme
145
00:33:48.200 --> 00:33:54.369
Kris Hiney: excellent. so there's no one. Size fits all. It's all got to be what's good for you.
146
00:33:54.850 --> 00:33:55.510
Carey Williams: Yep.
147
00:33:55.730 --> 00:33:59.940
Krishona L Martinson: exactly, and always just pay attention to the weather.
148
00:34:00.150 --> 00:34:02.500
Carey Williams: Just pay attention.
149
00:34:03.020 --> 00:34:18.310
Well, thank you guys so much for giving us some good tips, and maybe some more things for people to fret about like, oh, no, I gotta worry about fall, too, and the spring. But so we're just trying to educate you guys. So like, that's that's our whole goal. Give you information. So
150
00:34:18.690 --> 00:34:39.510
Kris Hiney: well, I really appreciate it. Again. And if you have more questions about pasture management, you can email us at extension horses at Gmailcom, our visitor website, extension horsescom. There's lots of information. I think there's some short courses available as well on pasture and pasture maintenance. So
151
00:34:39.540 --> 00:34:46.459
thank you again. And this has been another episode of our tackbox talk for stories with a purpose.
152
00:34:46.870 --> 00:34:47.899
Carey Williams: Thank you all.
153
00:34:48.040 --> 00:34:49.070
Krishona L Martinson: Thank you.