In This Issue:

• From Extension:  Pasture Management by Ben Chase
• More Snippets about Grasses                  by Jerry Simpson
• Horse Health Awareness NCHC
• CPERL – Field Day, June 14th
• REINS Winter Classes Well Attended
• Horse Referendum Outcome

2008 REINS Steering Committee Election Results

Julie Hope – Chair

Nancy Rutherford – Secretary/Treasurer

Ginny Hargette – Media Coordinator

Janice Smith – Newsletter Coordinator

Janie Smith – Clinic Coordinator

Pasture Management: By Ben Chase - Extension

Pasture improvement - If you already have good stands of desirable grass and legume species, you can maintain a satisfactory horse pasture with proper soil fertility and management practices. Applying lime and fertilizer can drastically increase yields on many pastures. A soil test will determine pH (acidity), nutrient levels, and requirements. (Soil testing kits and information on how to take samples are available through this office) The response time is slow when lime and fertilizer are applied on the surface of established pastures. Depending on the lime needs and species present in the pasture, it can take some time for the stand to become thick and productive.

Forage Species - I like the KISS method of doing things, but if you have the management skills and are willing to use them, there are other forages that can be utilized. Perennial cool season grasses are Tall Fescue (low endophyte or low fungus varieties), Orchard grass, Clover and Warm Season Grasses are grasses like Bermuda grass or Crabgrass. The general recommendation is that you have 1/3 of your overall pasture acreage is in a warm season grass. With this system, pull animals off the cool season grasses during the summer (DRY& hot) and put animals on the warm season grasses. This lets you give your cool season grass stands a break and allows you to accumulate growth or stockpile, for grazing-harvesting later. Once the frost hits the warm season grass, rotate back onto cool season grasses and you can double crop on the warm season grass by then over-seeding with something like ye/Ryegrass or a blend there of.   More information is available by calling the Extension office.

Pasture renovation - If you do not have a good stand of grass, you may want to renovate the pasture by killing the existing plants and introducing productive species. This process usually results in the highest yield increase per acre, but will be relatively expensive to complete. The following steps are recommended for pasture renovation.

-    Soil test to determine exactly how much lime and fertilizer are needed.

-   Apply required lime several months before seeding.

-   Select a seed (mix) that compliments the pasture and your needs.

-   Destroy or suppress old pasture by mowing, plowing or use of herbicides.

-   Line up your equipment and quality seed that is needed -- determine method of seeding.

-   Use recommended seeding rate. Do not get carried away with too much seed. Remember if you plant a lot of seed, they may come up but if the plant stand is stressed (like drought) these young plants will be in competition with one another and if planted in a too high density can hurt the overall stand.

-   Plant at proper depth (one of the biggest mistakes - seeds are planted to deep)

-   What is your weed competition

-   Control weeds.  Weed Control can be tricky and a constant battle - Many seedlings fail because of competition from weeds. Tillage to prepare the seedbed will control many weeds. Herbicides can be used to control weeds when seeding no-till. Always read and follow label directions. Control weeds after seeding by mowing or grazing. Use herbicides on newly established stands as a last resort, since herbicides can potentially injure forage seedlings. Simply suppressing weeds by mowing or light grazing for a few months may be enough control for successful establishment. Also remember that if you are going to spray to kill weeds that most broad-leaf weeds killers will stunt/suppress or kill clover. It is probably best to delay seeding for two weeks after spraying many herbicides to allow the sprayed vegetation to die down.

CHEMICAL WEED CONTROL Products can be found in the NC Agricultural Chemical Manual at:

http://ipm.ncsu.edu/agchem/8-toc.pdf or (http://ipm.ncsu.edu/agchem/agchem.html)

-   Manage the seed once planted, protect from grazing until new plants are well established and have an established root system. Allow the immature seedlings to become established before putting the pasture back into full use, if at all possible. Overgrazing newly seeded areas is a major cause of seeding failures. A few brief grazing sessions can betolerated. For new stands of grass, you could maybe let the stand grow to maturity and then to harvest one cutting of hay before fully returning the field to pasture use. When it is not possible to keep animals off the pasture while the grass is getting established, consider splitting the field and seeding half the field at a time.

Grazing Management - Like you have all heard many times before, Rotation, Rotation, Rotation, - To be efficient and to stretch your available forage out, you have to manage your animals on your pastures order to get them to utilize the forage that's there. Divide the total acreage into sections so that it will be possible to rotate among them. The amount of time necessary to permit forage re-growth and increase plant vigor varies with stocking rate, time of year, rainfall, and the forage species present.  In most cases, a rotational grazing program is based on 2- to 4-week rest periods. Horses should be removed from a pasture when tall fescue and orchard grass are 4 inches in height and Bermuda grass is 2 inches in height. Legumes are less sensitive to grazing height than grasses but will be weakened by close, continuous grazing. Pregnant mares should be removed from fescue if it is endophyte-infected 2 to 3 months prior to foaling. Close grazing favors Bermuda grass over tall fescue and orchard grass. There is more leaf area close to the ground (and below the grazing height) with Bermuda grass, which provides energy for pasture re-growth. Try to avoid continuous, close grazing of any one area because this quickly reduces the amount of legume in the stand and increases the presence of weeds. On the other hand, lax grazing pressure allows the forages to mature and become less palatable and nutritious. If the grass is beginning to head, consider making hay or clipping that acreage.

-    Horses WILL selectively graze one forage species in preference to another and WILL avoid eating forage soiled with manure. One solution to such uneven grazing would be to follow the horses with other species of livestock (if you have them) because they will often graze what horses ignore. Dragging pastures will also be helpful, dragging helps to spread manure droppings, reducing parasite populations by exposing them to air and sunlight. Dragging also helps to smooth over areas dug up by horses' hoofs on wet soil.  Avoid grazing newly seeded areas when the soil is wet and muddy, as the horses hooves can cause damage to forage seedlings. A holding area or dry lot is recommended for such situations.

-    Avoid over or under grazing. Since horses are spot grazers (unless they are rotated frequently) they will seriously damage desired species in some areas. Rotational grazing is therefore desirable. While the correct acreage per horse depends on the season and other factors, generally it is best to provide at least one -- two acres of good quality pasture per horse. Set up various sections, letting the horses graze in each area for the time frame you can manage (3 days to a week), then move to another area. This system enables legumes and grasses to grow better, increasing feed availability per acre.

HORSE HEALTH AWARENESS
By NCHC

The North Carolina Horse Council reminds us that February 2008 was “Horse Health Awareness Month”  The month was designed to help owners call attention to their horse’s health needs. Some equine veterinary practitioners, horse organizations and REINS groups across the state held special clinics and other events for providing vaccinations and Coggins tests. If your veterinarian did not participat, urge them to do so next year! There are four especially important diseases that deserve special awareness:

• Rabies is always a fatal horse disease that is spread by wild animals and is a human health threat.  
• Vaccinate once a year.
  
• Sleeping Sickness (Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis) is mostly a fatal horse disease that is spread by mosquitoes.  Vaccinate twice a year.
  
• West Nile Virus can often can be a fatal disease that is spread by mosquitoes.   Vaccinate twice a year.
  EIA (Equine Infectious Anemia) is spread by biting flies.  There is no vaccine available.
  
• “Coggins” test once a year.

Regulations adopted by the State of NC required a negative Coggins test within the past 12 months on all equine over 6 months of age when being sold or ownership transferred. A negative Coggins test (within the past 12 months) is also required for all equine brought to a show or kept at any public stable or other public place for exhibition, recreation or assembly.  All horse owners are urged to become familiar with the regulations and have their horses tested. Encourage your neighbors to have their horses vaccinated and tested too. Questions can be directed to the North Carolina Horse Council office at (919) 854-1990.

CERA (Carolina Equine Rescue & Assistance) Field Day – June 14th at the ARK

The CERA FIELD DAY, is biggest fund raiser of the year and will be held June 14 at Why Not An American Ark in Monroe. 

CERA is looking for volunteers to help with all areas of the event.  Concessions, assisting with kids games, silent auction, dog show, helping to empty trash cans and picking up trash etc.  Volunteers are needed in all area's to assist with foster, barn help, recruiting new volunteers, fund raising and lots more.  If you are able to attend please mark your calendars and plan to attend this important event.

In addition, volunteers are needed to man a CERA booth at the Waxhaw Spring Fest 2008.                10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday May 17th and 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Sunday May 18th.

REINS Winter Classes a Great Success

Union County Reins Classes held between January and March 2008, included topics on Breeding & Foaling, Health Care, Nutrition, Pasture Management and Hoof Care.  The classes were very well attended a large number of area horse owners taking advantage of the curriculum.  Over 100 people participated   in the various course offerings. Thank you Julie Hope for arranging and running these course offerings! If there are other topics members would like covered, please email us at reinsunioncounty@yahoo.com.

North Carolina Horse Council Membership

Make your voice heard…join the North Carolina Horse Council.  Membership runs from January 1 through December 31.  If you are joining, please indicate that REINS Union County recommended you.  More information can be found at www.nchorsecouncil.com.

More “Snippets” about Grasses…

Bermudagrass for summer grazing

The predominant forage throughout the Southeast is Tall Fescue.  Fescue is a cool season perennial and is the choice for many producers due to its ability to produce significant tonnage while being persistent.  In other words it can handle some mis-management and responds well to good management.   That said, it is important to remember that Fescue is a “cool” season grass.  When nighttime temperatures begin to rise above 65 degrees, Fescue will move towards dormancy.  At this point, quality, (i.e. protein and digestibility) drops precipitously and overgrazing will damage the root system thereby weakening the stand.  Warm season grasses on the other hand respond to the higher temperatures providing rapid growth of high quality forage.  One of the most widely used of course is Bermuda due to its productivity and persistence.

March is the ideal time to establish bermudagrass for pasture in the Piedmont of North Carolina. 

As with all grasses, a well prepared seedbed-soil tested, limed and fertilized- is necessary.

For additional assistance with pasture management or forage questions contact Cooperative Extension.

The Horse Referendum Passed.

We would like to thank everyone for casting their vote!

The NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will continue to receive the assessment funds from manufacturers and/or distributors of horse feed, and will remit the money to the NC Horse Council.  The Horse Council has indicated that the funds will be used for 4-H programs, REINS volunteer programs, trails advocacy, equine research, representation of horse interests in government, marketing programs, enforcement of horse laws, and improved public awareness of diseases and other threats to horses’ well-being.

The Horse Council also uses the information collected to estimate the number of equines and owners, which enables them to campaign for you & your horses, donkeys, mules, etc.

Horsemen may receive a refund of the assessment by writing to the NC Horse Council within a year of purchase and including proof of purchase.