Equine Grazing Site Makes Impact Out of the Starting Gate

Eighty-four participants at the first Pasture Walk held at the University’s Equine Rotational Grazing Demonstration site joined in on the excitement and learning opportunity during the unveiling of the novel education site. On a scale from 1 to 5 (1 = no increase in knowledge and 5 = very significant increase in knowledge), participants indicated that their knowledge had improved the most for how to set up a rotational grazing system (3.73), proper forage species to plant in horse pastures (3.56), and the benefits of using a vegetative heavy use area (3.53).Also, many indicated that they will adopt new practices on their farm including reducing turn-out time when pasture growth is insignificant or during poor weather conditions (64.1%), renovate pastures to thicken forage stands (56.8%), and add additional paddocks to existing pastures to allow for rest and regrowth (48.7%). A big thanks to our project partners and sponsor for making this novel education tool possible.