When you can’t get hold of the organic, GMO, low sugar forage you need, one alternative is to grow your own…if you are lucky enough to own your own land.
We are very lucky; we have a consistent supply of organic meadow Haylage from a producer large enough to keep our little herd going all winter, although it was close this year! It hadn’t occurred to me that we could grow your own…
This summer is the horses’ third year of living on our field. After a couple of years of experimenting, we now track around the edge in summer, growing the grass in the middle long for winter foggage, also known as standing hay.
Over the last couple of years I have learned more about how natural biodiversity in the horse’s diet is vital for good hindgut function. I have been following the wonderful work that Carol Hughes does at Phytorigins, using the wild Carneddau ponies of North Wales and their environment as a source of inspiration and study. Carol is very generous with her knowledge and shares much priceless information on her public Facebook page
https://m.facebook.com/groups/1862115997153052
Sarah at Forageplus has also been a big part of my learning journey and introduced me to the work of Albrecht, an American agronomist who was all about preserving the diversity of the micro-ecosystem within the soil itself, vital for the health of all animals and for our survival.
Forageplus offer a soil testing service and advice on soil mineral balancing to Albrecht principles. As far as I know, they are the only company in the UK to offer this service.
I wrote a couple of years ago about our early experience trying to explain Albrecht to our local agronomist-
https://www.nelipotcottage.com/albrecht-and-the-agronomist/
Since then we did manage to soil test and treat as per the recommendations for two years, giving ourselves a budget break this year because treating your land isn’t a cheap fix, although much cheaper than vets bills!!
I have also been reading about re-wilding, and the remarkable ability of the land to heal itself if left alone. Our land would have started life as a lowland meadow
http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/UKBAP_BAPHabitats-29-Lowland%20Meadows.pdf
With a bit of mere and moss thrown in
A work colleague recently bought a house in North Wales with a 3 acre native upland hay meadow. Talking over coffee about the recommendations he had to follow for the preservation of this incredibly rare habitat made me think- could I get our field nearer to its original ecological state? And how much healthier for our horses would that be?
So, no chemical fertilisers or weed killers. In fact
Encourage and embrace plant diversity. Rik gave us some seeds from Wales, and I bought some native wildflower seeds from https://www.meadowmania.co.uk/
A single hay- cut followed by grazing, but the grass clippings must be cleared not allowed to rot and thereby fertilise the field.
Regular aeration- we have not achieved this yet- seems to be he hardest job to convince a contractor to do, but it is vital as it gets oxygen into the soil for the roots and the root dwelling organisms.
After cutting, grazing by herbivores is allowed and harrowing the dung. Ideally the herbivores should not have been treated with wormers as these kill the dung eating insects. We don’t worm unless necessitated by faecal egg counts and tapeworm saliva tests
https://www.nelipotcottage.com/targeted-equine-worming-programme-action/
So what changes have I noticed?
We had over 10 species of grass that I could differentiate in the field this year. We have had almost no ragwort this year – 15 plants pulled to date in the improved area, the track has a few more tiny rosettes but has not been treated as per Albrecht.
We have lots of new herbs and wildflowers, including this wonderful Prunalla Vulgaris, also known as ‘self-heal’.
The huge expanses of clover were not evident this year- instead we had swathes of new grass.
And we had enough grass to cut!! I was thinking we would have to pay someone to cut it and take it away as there wouldn’t be enough to bale but in this funny spring the grass just grew and grew.
And then shrank again in the heat…
Nonetheless it was still worth a go.
It doesn’t look like much once it’s mowed and rowed
However the baler kept spitting out good sized round bales
So there we have it- 3 months worth of home grown organic meadow Haylage. I am both delighted and gobsmacked. If you can’t buy what you need, do think about whether you could find a way to grow your own… there is no more satisfying feeling than seeing your own land produce a crop.
Although strictly speaking, we grow horses, not grass.
I hope I have inspired you- it is possible to grow your own hay or Haylage, to suit your own horses’ needs.
Next time, I’ll be able to tell you all about these guys
And what I will have learned from meeting them in their own natural habitat- in the wilds of Mongolia 🇲🇳
I love this! I am tentatively starting out on my own ‘rewilding’ project on our patch of land. We are coming to the conclusion that, expensive as it is, we need our own equipment (harrows, rollers, aerators, seeders etc) as although we have helpful, willing contractors, they have to fit us in to their schedule and that is not always the right schedule for the land/weather. We are over-seeding with Meadow Mania’s Gold Standard as we can afford it; one 3/4 acre paddock was ploughed up during the building of our stables so we seeded that and the horses love the mixed grasses, herbs and wild flowers in there. As a bonus it is also beautiful to look at. We’re hoping that the seeds from this areas will help us out by distributing themselves too. Additional trees are high on the agenda too but I think the lottery win needs to come soon….
Yes we are thinking about a roller Harrow and aerator too. It’s the towing vehicle we are trying to work out