Horse manure/fertilizer/pasture?s

[Fuddy1952]

Our pastures I keep bush hogged or I mow. I've had soil tested, report came back great except a little high in nitrogen level.
Help me settle an argument I have with two neighbors! I think horse poop is a great fertilizer. When I mow the "mounds" get pulverized. Both neighbors say "that's terrible, it makes weeds!".
I've always noticed the best greenest grass is where horse or cow piles are. To me, they pass what they eat, so if pasture doesn't have weeds how's that possible? Also can seeds really go through the horse digestive tract and grow?
As a kid our neighbor had Percheron and Belgian draft horses. One year Dad had a large garden and asked neighbor if we could get a trailer load of manure from their stall, so we did (neighbor was happy getting barn mucked out!). That was the best garden we ever had and I don't remember having weeds!
Thanks in advance!

 

[Bearsixty7]

I actually have limit experience with horse manure as we never had more than 3 horses at a time growing up and they roamed their pasture and just had access to a stall when they wanted so we only had to muck a stall every few years.

Usually you let the horse manure "season" a year or at least 6 months. You don't want it too "hot" possibly meaning high in nitrogen.
The place I get it here turns their pile every so often, this I think helps keep the pile uniformly warm and killing most seeds that do exist before its used. It also helps more of the straw break down.

 

[Wagtail]

I chain-harrow and then mow/mulch the horse paddocks regularly.

No invasive weeds have occurred, and that's including having fed them with round-bales from other locations.

Good grass too, as long as I've got good rain.

 

[3Ts]

Two things:
1) Weed seeds can pass thru a horse and germinate. I've had problems with this in the past.
2) Horse manure does help plants grow. Had nice looking plants where we had lots of horse manure

If you can control the weed seeds going into a horse you should be fine using the manure. It would help kill weed seeds to compost it before using it.

 

[jeff9366]

Nutrition is excellent but consider periodic aeration of your horse pastures too.

Hooved animals pack the soil, displacing oxygen.

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[sea2summit]

When you get a soil test back with the application rates there is math for chicken/cow/horse manure readily available. Some require more seasoning than others I think cow and goat can be applied directly. Also manure will tend to build soil rather than chemical type fertilizers which generally focus only on short term plant health.

 

[TASMAN17]

Garbage in, garbage out. If they are primarily being fed by grazing now, then the seeds they pass will be the same ones your pasture is already producing.

Running through with a harrow on a regular basis is important and doesn't take as long as mowing - important to break up the clumps and expose more manure surface to sunlight to reduce parasites, break it down fast, even out the nutrients so you get more benefit across a greater surface area. Mower kind of works, but really doesn't down get into the thatch and low level solids you need to in order to not kill off grass spots and get it spread out over more area.

Horses are selective eaters if they have a choice, so you will be mowing the weeds down that they ignore, unless you make smaller pasture areas and rotate them so they aren't as free to graze selectively.

Manure spreader throws lots of clumps out if it isn't liquid, so best to do early spring or in the fall before or after grazing. That is best done using manure from paddocks and stalls that is aged and not 'hot'.

Just my experience. Sounds like you are lucking in your soil. Our pastures are acidic so I am constantly putting lime down spring and fall to work the pH up. But my corn fields that abut them have no problem. Not sure how many samples you pulled to test, but it can vary a lot depending upon whats under your topsoil.

 

[JimRB]

Another thing is if you are buying quality well fertilized hay for the horses then the manure will do some nice greening. Horse manure is not very high in nitrogen (2% according to one article) as a general rule so there is no burn risk. Our stall manure goes into the compost heap and is ready for gardeners in a year with lots of worms. I would like to spread it back onto the pastures to renovate but I cannot convince my wife of that idea.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Garbage in, garbage out. If they are primarily being fed by grazing now, then the seeds they pass will be the same ones your pasture is already producing.

Running through with a harrow on a regular basis is important and doesn't take as long as mowing - important to break up the clumps and expose more manure surface to sunlight to reduce parasites, break it down fast, even out the nutrients so you get more benefit across a greater surface area. Mower kind of works, but really doesn't down get into the thatch and low level solids you need to in order to not kill off grass spots and get it spread out over more area.

Horses are selective eaters if they have a choice, so you will be mowing the weeds down that they ignore, unless you make smaller pasture areas and rotate them so they aren't as free to graze selectively.

Manure spreader throws lots of clumps out if it isn't liquid, so best to do early spring or in the fall before or after grazing. That is best done using manure from paddocks and stalls that is aged and not 'hot'.

Just my experience. Sounds like you are lucking in your soil. Our pastures are acidic so I am constantly putting lime down spring and fall to work the pH up. But my corn fields that abut them have no problem. Not sure how many samples you pulled to test, but it can vary a lot depending upon whats under your topsoil.

Thanks!
I had soil tested from three main areas. Each kit was a box suggesting I sample 10 areas, about a teaspoonful each, then mix that.
My thought is to keep it mowed so weeds don't propagate. Horses seem to like pretty much everything. Some bare areas I use plastic stakes every 10ft or so, seed and straw, electric wire on stakes until grass grows (fescue, rye, etc). I do feed quality hay which I'm sure seeds as well.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Another thing is if you are buying quality well fertilized hay for the horses then the manure will do some nice greening. Horse manure is not very high in nitrogen (2% according to one article) as a general rule so there is no burn risk. Our stall manure goes into the compost heap and is ready for gardeners in a year with lots of worms. I would like to spread it back onto the pastures to renovate but I cannot convince my wife of that idea.

I do compost the stall muck, basically just dumping over a steep bank near barn. I don't turn it like I should, but after a year or so it's full of earthworms (and small mushrooms).
Pitchfork into wagon, spread that onto bare spots, pasture and front yard (if some bare areas). If rain predicted for few days I'll seed it. It seems to do well. Probably should add some lime.