Ah May -- the night temperatures are finally warming up enough to where there is less risk in letting your horse graze -- the sugar/starch levels of the grass are finally following the "rules." You know them: (1) The non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) level is lowest before dawn and (2) The NSC is at its highest, and therefore, most dangerous level late in the afternoon, especially after a sunny day where the grass has produced sugar and starch as it is exposed to sunlight.
I'm often asked is it safe to let the horses out at night. The answer is, "most likely, yes." Of course, there is never a guarantee. Afterall, grass is a living organism and its NSC level changes with the temperature, amount of sunlight, as well as the amount of rainfall, mowing, grazing and other stressors. But, in general, the grass starts "burning" up its own NSC for energy once the sun starts to set. Many horse owners have had great success with putting their horses out on pasture around 9:00 pm and take them off of pasture, on to a dry lot (which free-choice, low NSC hay), around 8:00 am.
What is your method of managing pasture-grazing during these pre-summer months?
I'm often asked is it safe to let the horses out at night. The answer is, "most likely, yes." Of course, there is never a guarantee. Afterall, grass is a living organism and its NSC level changes with the temperature, amount of sunlight, as well as the amount of rainfall, mowing, grazing and other stressors. But, in general, the grass starts "burning" up its own NSC for energy once the sun starts to set. Many horse owners have had great success with putting their horses out on pasture around 9:00 pm and take them off of pasture, on to a dry lot (which free-choice, low NSC hay), around 8:00 am.
What is your method of managing pasture-grazing during these pre-summer months?
Hello Juliet,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you do this forum! It's interesting that you find May a safer month. One of my barn-mates has had trouble in May, but it could also be fallout from not being careful enough in April. My strategy is twofold: 1) in my freezer I have samples I took today from the two summer pastures, at two times of day (am and pm). Tomorrow they go off for analysis. That should give us better information about the risk of our particular grass. 2) We are continuing to do a slow increase in total number of hours on the grass for the remainder of this month, turning out mornings and after 7 pm. Until the end of the month they will still get a NSC 10.9 hay meal a couple of hours before being turned out on the grass, so they have food in their bellies to start.
For a variety of reasons at our barn it would be difficult to put the horses out all night. Even if I wanted to do that on my own my horses would be upset not being with the herd, and the others would miss them too. So we have the above arrangement for the whole herd. So far so good, all horses seem to be getting thru the spring in good shape.
Hi there - is your name Jenna?
DeleteI find May to be safer than March or April simply because in most areas, the night time temperatures are warming up to above 40 degrees F. But, as the season progresses, it will get even safer as sugar/starch levels decline due to decreasing growth.
I will look forward to your pasture analysis results. And if you can put them out for the night a little later than 7:00 pm, that would be better. I prefer after 9:00 pm, bringing them in before 10:00 am the next morning. But, as you said, it would be difficult to do this at your barn. Being with his buddies is a very important aspect of mental health -- they require it to feel safe against predators, real and perceived.
Keep up the excellent work!
Best wishes,
Juliet Getty
I live in South Florida and we are just starting into our rainy season which means growth season. So would I go more my what our growth season is than the actual month?
DeleteHi Jenna,
DeleteYes, every area is different and in South Florida, the higher levels of rain can influence growth.
Susan, I apologize -- I got your name mixed up with another person's post.
DeleteJG :)
Yes, please call me Jenna.
ReplyDeleteOur pasture tested at very high ESC, 18-22% depending on time of day (a.m. vs p.m.). WSC was virtually identical to ESC which means our NSC is almost all starch and ESC. At its peak, the number for NSC is 24%. The ESC is in the 3rd standard deviation above the mean in the Equi-Analytical database which creates a puzzle as to why our pasture's simple sugars are in an outlier position. But regarding horse health, I am glad I got the pasture tested as it is not a safe place for our pony at the moment!
Thanks so much for this forum and your encouragement.
Hi Jenna,
DeleteWarm weather grasses do not accumulate fructans, which is why your ESC and WSC are nearly identical.
18-22% is very high indeed and I am very glad you chose to analyze your pasture. But since it is a living organism, things changes and you may find that by mid-summer, the numbers are more reasonable.
Juliet Getty :)
Hello again Juliet,
ReplyDeleteAn addendum to my earlier post -- the Dairy One folks made an error in my lab analysis. Good thing I queried the very strange ESC numbers! They redid everyting using wet chem and now the numbers make sense. I encourage everyone to make sure you can read and understand the forage analysis numbers as they can be wrong on occasion and only if you know what they *should* look like from the Equi-analytical database will you be able to detect it. We are still high NSC but now the a.m. numbers are significantly lower and I will target very early morning grazing on our grass until a bit later in the season. Wonderful idea to test one's pasture, it does give good information and is worth the effort IMHO. Thanks Juliet for the encouragement to do so.
Hi again, Jenna,
DeleteI didn't see this post before responding earlier. I am very glad to hear that your ESC levels are better!
Glad to help,
Juliet Getty
Yes, it was such a curious thing to have an outlier ESC, I am glad I questioned it. In reviewing the numbers again, I see that the new pasture we just rotated to was, in mid-May, a bit higher than the one we just transitioned off of -- an NSC of 20 at 8:15 am, and 24 at 6:15 pm. So, it is pretty high. We will continue to be very careful with that grass. Today we are increasing time to 1.5 hrs in the morning before 8:30. We are in for a dry, warm spell so that will help the grass settle down further.
DeleteWhat is your ESC + Starch value? I like to look at both NSC (WSC + Starch) as well as ESC + Starch.
DeleteHow do I transition a horse I am betting to free choice?
ReplyDeleteGreetings (name?),
DeleteTo get started, it is best to have your hay tested. I recommend going to Equi-Analytical's website: www.equi-analytical.com to see how to take a sample. And order the Equi-tech test.
I have an article on my website library on evaluating your hay analysis report, so this should be helpful: www.gettyequinenutrition.biz
Once you know that your hay is appropriate to feed to an insulin resistant horse (I am assuming that you have one), you do not actually "transition" but instead, put out more hay than your horse could possibly eat. It is important that the hay doesn't run out, not even for 10 minutes. If it does, the horse will never get the message that the hay is always there -- all day, and all night. Put enough out at night so that there is some left over in the morning.
At first, the horse will definitely overeat. But after a few days, he should start slowing down his intake and when he walks away from the hay, that is the "magic moment" that tells you that he knows it will be there when his returns. And he is starting to self-regulate.
I highly recommend that you read my book on the Easy Keeper, part of my Spotlight on Equine Nutrition Series: http://gettyequinenutrition.biz/TeleSeminars/TeleseminarBooks/SpotlightonEquineNutritionTeleseminarSeries.htm
Keep me posted,
Juliet Getty :)