How to save $25,000/year with 6 horses

As I was creating pastures yesterday, my mind continually thought about everything we are doing and how I can get the word out to others. I love to save people money and tell them about things that work. Adaptive grazing principles work with horses. You, your horses, and your pocketbook will benefit.

Today I want to tell you how I am currently saving $2000/month by NOT feeding hay and NOT cleaning stalls. The process is incredibly simple, and it also makes your pastures healthier. Our farm is not fancy. It is an old Angus cow farm from the 18th century. Many buildings are hanging on by a thread, and the infrastructure is very much in need of repair. We are very aware, and we are working on it! The money that we save through adaptive grazing allows us to spend money on what matters. Right now, the most important thing is that our animals and our pastures are thriving. I am so proud every time I go out and look around. Everything is glowing.

As a successful business owner in the property management space, I want to apply business principles to farming. If we can’t focus on decreasing excessive farm expenses to make farms more affordable, the next generation will never want to attempt this industry. What’s worse is how we house horses has been shown to cause significant harm via increased stress indicators. . You can check that information out in my other blog article discussing the latest Kentucky Equine Research on stress indicators in stalled horses. Their research is challenging the status quo.

Today I am discussing saving money with horses. As I created a new pasture space for them, I calculated how much hay we do not have to feed them and how much shavings we do not have to purchase. (When we feed hay at shows, we only feed hay purchased from Nicole@ SweetGrassFarms.)

Today, I made this video going over a new pasture space, and it only took about 45 minutes. I have six horses and created their living and eating space in 45 minutes. Let that sink in for a second. If you have cleaned stalls before, the average stall takes about 15 minutes, including filling water buckets, taking horses out to pasture after or bringing them in, replacing shavings, and sweeping up after. Folks, you are MOVING if it only takes 15 minutes/horse. That would mean cleaning stalls for six horses takes an average of 1.5 hours. Some barns take much more time, so the savings could continue to increase if the barn work is more tedious.

Here’s what I do NOT have to do/pay for by creating a new pasture space:

1. Clean stalls- Savings of paying barn help and an additional 1-hour day, 7 hours a week, or 365 hours/year. At $12/hour, that’s a $4380/year savings.

2. Shavings- $200/month or $2400/year in savings.

3. Barn utilities- Savings of at least $100/month or $1200/year.

4. Hay- Savings of $60/day for my situation- $1800/month or $21,600/year in savings.

That’s a total of $29,580 saved with 6 horses.

I have a large run-in barn where the horses can always go. I let the animal decide what it wants. It’s amazing what happens when you do that. Each of my pastures is connected to the run in the shelter so they can decide when they want to get shelter.

So how do you save over $25,000 a year if you have six horses?

For any of this to work, you have to think differently. You have to step away from current industry norms. The horse industry seems to be a big competition on who can create the most prominent and prettiest barn. It is just a little ridiculous when you think about it because none of it focuses on the benefit to the horse. It is all who can create the best aesthetics. Horses were meant to graze continuously in their herd. They wouldn’t run to the prettiest build barn if they had a choice. I want to encourage horse and land owners to use horses (and other herbivores) to work their land for them. Think about what spaces are not currently fenced in and wonder if they could put their horses there instead of turning on their mower. This is how you get healthy soil and don’t have to supplement it with hay. Think about heavily wooded areas that could be thinned to create more pasture space. You win by looking around and being creative with what you have. You may have too many horses that your land can handle. Leasing land may be a good option. Just drive down the road and contact landowners whose land looks forgotten. I bet they would be grateful if animals started grazing it. The ideas are endless.

If you want a jump start on adaptive grazing with your horses, sign up for our adaptive grazing mini course on our website. You can connect with us by clicking this link if you need more help.

The money you save could be used for things that matter. I’d love to hear your comments on what good things you can spend money on instead of things that may not matter.

For better pastures, think "Portability"

When I first started learning about sustainable farming and intensive grazing, I was in a state of confusion. Instead of discussing grass types, fertilizer, and irrigation, I knew instead about organic matter percentage in the soil, key lines, available daily forage calculation, soil fungi, cow days, and many other new terms which meant nothing to me.

There is an art and a science to managing pastures. As someone with over 30 years of riding and training horses, I had never heard anyone talk about correct pasture management, much less about soil management. What generally is discussed is the best permanent fencing type, where the barn needs to be, stall layout, shavings dealer, electrical outlet layout, etc., etc.

I realized I had a lot of barriers to overcome to understand how to manage pastures to feed horses optimally. The first barrier equestrians must overcome the idea of “portability.” So often, equestrian facilities are full of permanent 4-board fencing paddocks and large bank barns (I call them bank barns because the bank typically owns them).

Horses are turned out on the same paddocks day in and day out. The paddocks are never rested and generally turn into the bare ground with maybe 1-2 inches of green scattered randomly. Most horses are grouped with only 2-3 other horses. Some places require that every horse be turned out by itself. The barns are full of hay to supplement the paddocks because the grass cannot grow high enough to feed even a turtle.

The skyrocketing price of hay and the idea of building a $200,000 barn left me stuck. Is this the only way to own horses? I haven’t even made any money, and I’m already hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost down this road. Why does this not make any business sense?

Around this time as I was planning my equestrian facility layout, I was learning how to run a grass-fed beef operation. My friend Mark Vejnar gave me the book “Salad Bar Beef” in March of 202,1 and I was hooked. After getting Covid later that month, I read over 10 of Joel Salatin’s books on sustainable farming and permaculture. Joel Salatin helped me understand that herbivores need only a few things to be healthy and well-managed pastures, mineral, and water. It dawned on me that 1. a horse is a herbivore and 2. I have over 100 acres of grass. This is the answer!

Joel Salatin helps farmers understand that herbivores will do the mowing for you and your farm, but there is a specific way to approach rotational grazing with herbivores.

When I first started intensive grazing, the idea I had to accept was that you have to move animals daily to fresh grass. This is the basis for intensive grazing management and has many benefits to the horse (herbivore) and the grass. Many people push back and state, “but how can you keep a horse in?” Let’s be honest; they could if a horse wanted to get out of a four-board, six-string, or fence. They would jump, run into it, or shimmy their way through it. We use single-strand Polywire or Polytape because we are setting up a psychological fence. It is always electrified; it only takes once before the horse realizes they need to stay away. In our experience, herbivores, especially horses, don’t get out because they have enough to eat. Horses escape because they have either run out of food in their paddock and are frantic to get something to eat, or their buddies have been taken from them and panicked.

Another reason they don’t get out is that we keep our horses together. We practice keeping all horses together mainly for convenience, but if they have enough to eat per animal, they are too busy eating grass to nitpick at each other. The behavior issues that horses experience are because they must fight for the supplemented food thrown at them.

- “But they will founder on all that grass!” The art of rotational grazing applies to understanding how much available dry matter. If you only put horses on the amount of food they can eat in one day, they can’t overeat. That is a big hurdle you must overcome. You aren’t putting them on a 2-acre field full of clover. 2 horses and perfect grass may only require a 10x20 meter space for that day. That small space will take roughly 8 minutes to set up, and your horses will have enough food for the day.

Keeping the grazing paddock small reduces the amount of " dessert“ available to the horse. Most of the sugars are in new, short grass. We graze horses once grasses have reached full maturity and have the optimal balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Our pastures have a polyculture of grasses and legumes, meaning that the horses will pick out what their bodies need. We find that our horses do not gorge themselves because they always have a fresh palate of attractive options to choose from.

Portability reduces the risks of gastric ulcers: Right now, Veterinary Medicine online states that between 91%-100% of racehorses experience gastric ulcer occurrences. Performance horses experience a 90% rate of gastric ulcers. Another article in Veterinary medicine states that 60% of performance horses share gastric ulcer issues. Horses need to be grazing for 17 hours a day. The basis of treating gastric ulcers needs to start with pasture management so the horse can have consistent forage when THEY need it. We spend so much time focusing on our barn layouts and fencing materials instead of focusing on helping the horse stay in their natural environment. We have crippled the digestive system of equines, and the gastric ulcer medical industry has skyrocketed into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Now, you may be thinking- How much time am I going to spend moving these horses each day? Probably between 20 minutes. Check out my video here on how I show you how to lay out a new pasture with Polywire and step-in posts. If you think that’s excessive, then think about how much time you spend cleaning stalls each day and how much money you spend on shavings, electricity, hay, and other artificial upkeep. Are you asking what’s best for the horse? You will find that what is best for the horse will not only save you money in the long run.

We are in the business of helping others manage their farms better so if you need more help with your farm/pastures, email us!

If this article was helpful for you, consider buying me a coffee so that I can continue to write more engaging content to help you with your farm management.

Portable feeding trailer with high quality Nutrena and Purina feeds that can move wherever they are. It isn’t pretty but it is very effective and makes feed time a breeze.