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The GREEN HORSE - sustainable horsekeeping

JUNE JULY 2010
Vol 32 No 1

In the June/July 2010 issue of The Green Horse you will find the following articles:

The GREEN HORSE
sustainable horsekeeping
Information Exchange
Reader’s Tips, Views and Questions
Growing Equine Herbs- for laminitis by Cath McDowell
Fertilisers part 3 - Soil Ameliorants by Andrea Carmody    
Property Safety - working or riding alone    
Horsekeeping and Waterways & Fencing Firsts     
Weed Watch - Stinging Nettle by Nicola Field
Pasture Harrowing by Andrea Carmody      
Sorghum by Andrea Carmody
Deeds, Steeds and Weeds   
Flood event to benefit horses for years by David Mason-Jones

The slow-moving floods that are currently making their way down the Darling River system in Queensland and NSW will bring enormous long-term benefits to the health of horses living in the floodplains of those rivers. “The effect of a flood event like this is as if nature was delivering a huge environmental vitamin pill to the floodplains,” says Peter Andrews, founding researcher of the Natural Sequence Farming Movement.

“Owners of properties where horses are grazing in the Darling River system should be careful, however, not to try and rush in and correct things they think nature is doing wrong in the wake of this flood. They should understand the natural sequences that will occur to the vegetation on their properties and manage their horses to best take advantage of the sequences. By rushing in and doing things, like slashing or poisoning weed growth, horse owners can actually undo a large part of the benefit delivered by the flood,’ he says.

The first thing to understand about these floods is that they are slow-moving and low energy events. The benefit this gives is that the water is not rushing away at high speed, and therefore, has time to soak in to the land for a long period. This gets the moisture deep into the soil and is a process known as ‘recharge’ of the floodplain. Once the water is under the soil and plants have grown to give a high percentage of ground cover, this water is effectively stored in a ‘grass covered dam’ and will continue to be available for plant growth for years to come, even if there is no further rain.

In a grass covered dam, the water is not vulnerable to sun or wind evaporation as it would be in an open farm dam.

“Owners of properties and horses need to understand the sequence in which their land will respond to the flood,” says Peter. “The first thing that will happen will be an enormous flush of new growth and this will consist of both grasses and so-called weeds.”

Both of these types of plants are making maximum use of water and the sun’s energy to restore the land. The best strategy is to take horses off floodplains at this period of new growth. This allows the plants to get the maximum opportunity to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to carbon in the ground and in the biomass of plants on the landscape. Although there may be green grass in the paddocks, this may be the time for the farmer to hold the horses in a set of yards and feed out the last of the hay reserves that may be held on the property.

Peter states, “Horses eating this new flush of growth are like kids in a lolly shop and can invariably eat too much. After a period when their gut has been accustomed to tough grasses, it is suddenly filled with an abundance of sweet rich grasses. The other danger is when the grasses get to their seed setting stage, at around 40 or 50 days growth, the horses will eat too much seed which can also cause them to become sick.
“So the important thing is to manage your horses’ access to this rich green pasture.

“After a long dry period the next stage in the natural sequence is likely to be a massive outbreak of what many farmers think of as ‘weeds’.

“These weeds carry out an incredibly important function, both for the soil health, and for the health of the animals that eat plants growing in the soil. Weeds are deep rooted and quickly help repair the oxidised soil and recover leached nutrients from deeper in the soil profile. Being deeper rooted than most grasses, weeds are an absolutely essential means of recovering these lost nutrients and bringing them to the surface. When they drop their leaves, weeds are distributing nutrients on the surface of the ground as mulch and grasses can then access these nutrients. Grasses containing good levels of nutrients are important for horse health.
“Owners should also be aware that the weeds themselves are also consumed, to a lesser degree, by their horses. Horses will naturally prefer to eat the more easily edible grasses but, if weeds are available, horses will source up to 10% of their food intake from these weeds. In this way they access health-giving nutrients directly from the weeds.

“Rushing out to slash, burn or poison weeds is therefore a great mistake for farmers interested in their horse’s health.

“The enormous flush of new plant growth that follows a flood will be most pronounced in the first year following the flood. Even without substantial follow-on rain in subsequent years, the plant growth will continue to be sustained through the residual recharged moisture in the floodplains.

“In these subsequent years the horse health danger posed by the initial growth of the fresh green grasses is not as great as it is following the first drought-relieving flood. Horse owners need not be so vigilant about keeping their horses away from the fresh green growth.

“In subsequent years there will still be cycles of grass and weed growth, but these cycles will come more into balance and the farmer will notice that, where a stand of weeds stood in one year, a stand of grasses may stand in the next year and vice versa.

“If these natural sequences are allowed to unfold without hindrance, the slow-moving floods we are seeing at the moment will provide health benefits to horses for years to come. The important thing is for horse owners to be aware of the sequence of events and not to go out and try and kill off weeds just because they think they look untidy in the paddock,” says Peter.

The sequences referred to by Peter occur in flood plains all over Australia after flood events. They are not confined to floods in the Darling River system.

David Mason-Jones is the editor of Small Farms Magazine. He is the author of ‘Should meat be on the menu?’, a book which dismantles some of the myths surrounding farm livestock and their global warming gas emissions. www.journalist.com.au

Above: Natural Sequence Farming researcher, Peter Andrews, demonstrates the rich grass growth in a formerly
flooded floodplain months after the flood went through.

Above: When the grasses really get going after a flood they are not limited to small the grasses one would find in lawns or on golf courses. Large stands of grasses will grow on the water in the 'grass covered dams' for years after the flood.

Photos courtesy of David Mason-Jones