THE accompanying picture shows an area of a paddock which has been sacrificed for winter turnout.

You can see that the land owner has put out a round bale of haylage, left in its plastic, and the horses have pulled at the bale and churned up the surrounding area.

Bales of hay and haylage should never be left in the plastic when fed to horses as the horse could potentially pull on the plastic out of boredom and be at risk of choke or colic. Loose plastic can also get walked into the soil and this will create problems down the line when the ground dries out.

Ideally if you are feeding forage to field-kept horses it should be placed in a covered feeder to protect the forage in all weather conditions and to minimise wastage due to trampling or fouling.

LAND MANAGMENT

If you have an area of land which is being sacrificed each winter it might be worth considering an all-weather surface, you will find more information on all-weather turnout areas on page A49.

When it comes to dealing with land similar to the area pictured, in spring move the animals off this land and onto a fresh grazing paddock as soon as possible. Allow the land to dry before driving in a tractor to clear the area as you want to avoid additional compaction of the soil where possible.

Start by removing leftover hay/haylage and debris. If you want to restore the area for grazing, then traditionally a soil sample would be taken to assess soil quality. The land would then be ploughed, power harrowed, re-seeded, rolled and fertilised appropriately based on the results of the soil test. If the land is just harrowed and left bare then weeds will develop and flourish.