Introduction- Small Farm Pasture in Ohio

 There are no good articles on management of small horse farms. I have been searching for a definitive guide on what to do and how to manage my pastures. Nowhere can I find the information I am looking for.

 We have 4 horses, and 6 acres, large land management practices will not work here, but being innovative keeps our horses off of hay most of the year.

 For example; some articles tell you to close the pasture for a year! This will NEVER happen on my property, others tell you to plant in the Spring or Fall. This presents some other issues, which I will address later. Many tell you to use expensive seed drills and large agricultural equipment.

I have a small Kubota, and won't be spending thousands on large tractors and equipment anytime soon. 

 You can NOT go out and overseed without doing some preparation of the field first. The practice of just spreading grass seed is a waste of money. I have tried it several times with different overseeder products, and it just will not work. Although, if you do some preparation of the field first, overseeder pasture blends are great! 

 Fertile ground is extremely important, so I bought a soil test kit on Amazon. It arrived with one empty bottle of phosphorus test solution, which had leaked in the package. I sent the kit back, and just bought some pH test strips. My soil is 7 on the pH scale. It is just about perfect for grassland. I will bet that if I test again in another year, it will be 7. If I test again in 100 years it will likely be 7. That doesn't change the fact that when I put down seed the plants need nutrients.

Disclaimer: you will have to develop your own process for management of your property. I am only sharing what works for me! Thanks for reading.

To prep a site for planting, I start a month or two in advance by using a weed control product. There are several available, and I am not going to cover that subject here. Once that is done you can prep your site.

Here is the process:

1. Break the ground.
2. Grind the clumps.
3. Spread the seed.
4. Pack the seed.
5. Water the seed if possible.
6. Fertilize.

Here are the tools:

3 point cultivator.

 

Disk harrow.

 

Seed Spreader.

 

Lawn roller, or cultipacker. (I use a lawn roller not pictured here to pack the seeds.)

As you can see I have not invested thousands in the tools that I use to maintain my pastures. It has taken some trial and error to get the combo right so I hope this blog helps. I will try to cover as many of the experiences I have had with our pastures, which hopefully will give you ideas on management of your small horse farm.