Reasons for Poo Picking from you fields Pros and Cons
PROS
There is always for and against this topic here are some plus for clearing the fields:
There is always for and against this topic here are some plus for clearing the fields:
- Reducing the risk of Grass Sickness
- because It can be embarrassing if you show new liveries around and the fields are covered with ****, makes it look like you don't care for your land
- keeps the worm burden down
- stops the grazing having sour patches
- you muck out your stable so why not muck out the field
- gives the horses nice clean area where they don't have to spend time trying to eat round all there droppings.
- You people spending fancy time making sure the bed it mucked out yet they leave their play area a mess!!!
- good time to dee ragwort at the same time
- also to spot any broken fencing or rubbish discarded in the field
- also to spot rabbit holes
- find any lost shoes which could penetrate soles
- If you also drive the ponies in the field when the horses in and you do not want the trap covered in **** either
- If you jump in the fields and droppings all over the place can make a horse slip when jumping
- visitors walking in the fields don't want to walk in it in their good shoes
- Can be hard work raking and pushing the barrow then empty and start again
- Tedious
Chain Harrow your manure
Pros
- Can cover a large area in fast time
- Harrow your pasture in the summer – it takes temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit to kill parasite larvae
- Do not drag your pasture in the spring or fall. This practice only aides in spreading the larvae which can over winter and be infective the following spring.
CONS
- If you haven't got a good de worming protocol in place the manure will have an egg load and the eggs are often quite tough, and you'll have spread them all around in a thin enough layer that the usual habit of not eating around the piles won't be true. So you'll be happily reinfecting your horses.
- Breaking up manure piles in the heat of the summer so that the sun can kill the parasite eggs is a good idea, but using a harrow can spread parasite eggs more widely over the entire field. Bottom line: if you must harrow your field, don't do it in the spring or fall or when you have horses on it.
- if its too wet to harrow you will end up ripping the field up
- If you leave it, or birds spread it - the eggs have got onto the grass and then you've lost the control benefit.
- Chain harrowing is spreading the muck across the whole field so unless it can be rested afterwards for a few month at least, all its doing is just that, spreading the muck around.
- The muck then cover the whole paddock so none of the grass is 'clean' and can eventually become horse-sick,(sour and unpalatable for the horses to eat) .
- It can also increase drastically any worm burden.