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!
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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.
Buyer Beware: Beef Trickery is lying to the customer and destroying the Regenerative Movement
At Eremos Farm, we decided from the beginning to only raise animals as nature intended. Herbivores (Cows) would eat grasses that the land provided instead of being force-fed grain. Our cows are not forced into feedlots where conditions are unsanitary and humane practices are thrown out the window. Our cows are always on sanitary pastures and are offered a polyculture of grasses, legumes, and forbs to meet their nutritional requirements. Our cows are never fed antibiotics, hormones, or steroids to increase weight gain. They are only offered ethically harvested Organic Icelandic Kelp and salt to meet their mineral and electrolyte requirements.
We are transparent with our customers and encourage them to come and visit the farm to see for themselves. We want to ensure that customers are aware of being tricked into buying regenerative products that may be misleading to the consumer.
Product Greenwashing Is Destroying The Regenerative, Humane Farm Movement.
Product Greenwashing, also called “green sheen,” is deceitful marketing that exaggerates a business’s current or past practices in order for them to appear more environmentally friendly. It can range from misleading labels claiming the use of sustainable materials to exorbitant media campaigns touting the eco-friendliness of oil companies
Large multinational companies have seen the marketing advantage of making untrue claims on their products. Because of weak USDA labeling rules, these companies can charge more for their commodity products without producing them in a better way. They can add to their price, without changing their production practices.
Consider this:
International meat companies can shop for the cheapest grass-fed beef in the world, usually found in impoverished countries.
The cattle, hogs, poultry can be born, raised, and slaughtered in these foreign countries, and the meat be shipped on containers to the United States.
Then, it can be sold in your local grocery store with a USDA label that proudly proclaims "Product of the USA".
This is perfectly legal. It is hard to fathom, but it is undisputedly true.
This legal, but corrupt, practice will halt the transition of farms that would like to follow the path toward regenerative, compassionate, and fair farming. See below-
Add your voice to those of us who are trying to end this trickery by supporting the US Beef Integrity Act.
More information from the Organic Consumers Association:
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Services Agency allows the use of the “Product of U.S.A.” label on any beef as long as the meat passed through a U.S.-based inspection plant, and/or was blended with meat from animals that were born and raised in the U.S.
Sales of grass-fed meat are nearly doubling annually. But about 80 percent of the grass-fed beef market is supplied by imports, compared with the total beef market where imports make up only 9 percent.
Because those imports often carry a “Product of U.S.A.” label just because they passed through a U.S. processing plant, U.S. grass-fed and grass-finished beef producers are hit hardest by this policy.U.S. producers can’t differentiate their product in the grocery store from imported beef.
The U.S. Beef Integrity Act aims to give consumers what they want—honest labels. It would also level the playing field for U.S. grass-fed and grass-finished beef producers, whose practices are better for consumer health, and better for the environment.
At Eremos Farm, we are 100% transparent with our practices and have an open-door policy for anyone who wants to come and tour our farm. We want you to see for yourself the regenerative practices we follow daily. Click the button below to schedule a visit with a group and see for yourself, or pop by anytime for a self-guided tour.