Many horsemen tend to be content to feed processed feeds and ignore pasture potential. Sometimes with high-value animals, that is wise. It is also wise to consider that good pasture can be nutritional and more economical than processed feeds.

Pastures can be unproductive, weedy, low quality, and barely nutritional. They can also be the opposite.

All horsemen cannot be forage production experts. However, to realize the benefits, they must use basic production requirements, know the science of pasture management, and apply acceptable use techniques.

There are many aspects of good pasture management. The scope of this writing does not allow thorough coverage of them, but you can obtain additional management information from the Noble Foundation, Oklahoma State University extension and research personnel, and other agricultural information services.

If you already have a pasture base, seek information on how to manage it. Use it partly according to horse nutritional requirements. Manage it for good cost-effectiveness per unit of forage or per day of horse feed. Plan and manage it for the long term.

If you are fortunate enough to choose what pasture to develop, study your lesson well. Seek professional advice, decide what is best for your region, soil, capabilities, and horses, and then establish and manage the pasture well.

Some important pasture management considerations are

1. kind and variety of forages adapted to soils and climate of your area
2. establishment procedures for good, early, useful pasture
3. resistance and tolerance to horse grazing and trampling in your area
4. need for fertilization and response to fertilization
5. methods of weed control
6. need for rotational grazing approaches
7. response to use and needed recovery periods
8. palatability of the forages for horses

Forage Fertilization for Production
Forage fertilization is almost always crucial for good production and successful horse pasture management. No forages produce well without good soil fertility, and few soils have enough inherent fertility for upper-level production. Most soils in the central United States must be fertilized to produce improved forages well.

Grasses need primarily nitrogen, but also phosphorus, potassium, and lime in many cases, as do legumes. Fertilization recommendations should be made on the basis of soil test results, objectives, and experience.

Fertilization must be done with some goal in mind:

1. You can apply fertilizer at a minimal rate just to maintain grass stands. Some operators might wish this rate to be the minimal effective rate, or just enough to carry light stocking.
2. You can apply fertilizer to get the most effective forage production per pound of fertilizer applied, that is, apply it at a rate at which pounds of forage produced per pound of fertilizer would be judged cost effective at an upper level of forage production. There are many ranges of fertilization applications that are acceptable for the land, the forage, and the operator's goals. Seek professional advice to determine the amount to apply.
3. You can fertilize at a maximum effective rate. This application would yield the greatest forage volume over the years.

Objectives vary, and what one considers well fertilized may not always be so. What is suitable for one horse pasture may not be for another. What is good for another livestock operation may be too good for a casual horse pasture, or vice versa.

Native range grasses are generally not fertilized. If it is judged wise to fertilize them, use low amounts of actual nitrogen per acre at 30 to 75 pounds, and phosphorus and potassium according to soil test results. Fertilize only once per season. This recommendation also applies to 'King Ranch' bluestem pastures.

Other grasses that respond well to fertilization include bermudagrass, Old World bluestems, crabgrass, weeping lovegrass, and winter pasture from small grains, ryegrass, rescuegrass, fescue, and other cool-season perennials. The following is a fertilizer guide for producing forage for a moderatequality horse pasture or meadow in southern Oklahoma and surrounding areas. This summary is presented for either warm- or cool-season forages; read carefully.

Early Season
Top-dress with nitrogen to apply 50 to 100 pounds of actual nitrogen per acre. The date of this application would be about April 15 to May 15 for the summer grasses and just before or immediately after stand emergence for the annual winter pastures, usually about September 1 to October 15. An application of 30 to 50 pounds of actual nitrogen per acre could be considered a minimal application for simple stand survival, stand maintenance, and low production if it were the only application.

Midseason
Top-dress with nitrogen to apply an additional 50 to 100 pounds of actual nitrogen per acre about June 1 to 15 for the summer grasses and about January 1 to February 15 for winter pastures. Spring applications during April should be considered for late winter pasture or early summer grasses.

Legume pastures should be fertilized according to soil test results for phosphorus, potassium, and lime. Grass and legume mixture pastures can be fertilized relatively lightly with nitrogen, at 30 to 50 pounds of actual nitrogen per acre, to allow maintenance of the legume and get some added grass production. Legume pastures in southern Oklahoma and surrounding areas almost always need phosphorus, and they often need potassium and lime.

The above information is only a guide and is far from the upper limit possible or the individual accuracy desired. The scope of this writing does not allow adequate discussion of fertilization methods or the rate variations and type of fertilizer. That information must be acquired elsewhere.

High nitrate content in forage may present potential animal health problems. For horse pasture, it is wise to top-dress several times at a lower acceptable rate than to top-dress once at an extremely high rate.

The most efficient forage production is from a higher-rate, one-time application coinciding with the warm moist seasons. Part of the reason for using lower rates of nitrogen is due to uncertainty in some horse situations. The nitrogen fertilization rates discussed above, however, are not considered high.

Visits to several veterinary schools and diagnostic labs have failed to verify any serious or common problems with nitrates or our suggested nitrogen rates. There has been little problem with nitrates in horse nutrition.

Precautions in pasture fertilization and liming should be observed:

1. Do not spill fertilizer or lime in horse areas.
2. If any is spilled, thoroughly clean it up and till the soil if necessary. Take no chances! If there is any doubt, remove horses until after a rain and new forage growth.
3. Do liming without horses on the area, and keep them off limed pasture until after a rain. Lime dust inhalation may cause respiratory problems.
4. In a single application, do not use excessively high nitrogen rates, generally over 100 pounds of actual nitrogen per acre in southern Oklahoma and the surrounding regions.
5. If fertilizer adheres to wet forage, it is wise to withhold horses until after a rain. The best choice is not to fertilize when forage is wet.