Our YO has left a message saying that she is fertilising the fields tomorrow. I know from last year its the little white nitrogen balls. It hasn't given any rain until thursday night here so how long should I leave my mare off the field? There isn't anywhere else to put her in the mean time so will have to stay in and ride + graze in hand.
Ideally the horses should be left off field for 2-3 weeks (with nitrogen based fertiliser), you need about 1/2 inch rain to dissolve the balls and wash it in,
I use the little fertiliser balls and on the instructions it says leave fields for 10-14 days. I put some down a couple of days ago and i can't see the balls anymore but I would always wait the full 10 days. Can you not split the field in half with electric fencing and fertilise half the field one month and the other half the next?
I have never kept mine off a newly fetilised field, the rep I contacted re this product never said there could be a problem. It so far has never caused any problems.
Sorry but I would NEVER EVER use nitrates on horse grazing fields - in fact we won't even use them on the hay haylage fields. We ALWAYS use organic ferts here.
But if you have no other alternative then keep your horses off until the products have washed (remember they will erode in the wind and sunlight but still be there on top) well into the ground plus at least another 10 days. JMO - sorry.
I agree with Jingo---nitrogen fertiliser and horses is bad news. Onviously you are on a lvery yard though and have no choice in that, but would definitely keep horses off for at least 10 days.
After that I would also bear in mind that no matter how short that grass is it is artificially high in nitrogen so horses grazing there are at a higher risk of getting laminitis so perhaps limit grazing time accordingly.
As it is a livery yard we have no say in the products used and we cannot split the field. I seem to be the only one who is worried. Everyone else are putting thier horses back out this afternoon! So I either keep my mare in for 10 days on her own or put her out. She is limited to 5 hours a day anyway as she tends to put too much weight on.
We keep the horses off for about a month. BUT BEWARE of puddles formed when it does rain. One of our dogs drank the run off water and died from nitrate poisoning.
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England
Posted - 12 May 2008 : 9:28:14 PM
