Ask SAM: HEADLINE

This column is provided by Larimer County Extension's Small Acreage Management (SAM) Program to assist rural residents.

Dear SAM,

A rancher told me that five horses are usually tougher on a pasture than five cows. Is that true?

Charlie G.

Dear Charlie,

Often true. And it's mostly because of their mouths and their feet.

Cattle eat by wrapping their tongues around the grass and pulling the leaves into their mouths. Inside the mouth, they grasp the grass between their lower jaw and an upper pad. Then they swing their heads to sever the grass.

Horses on the other hand grab the grass with their lips and nip it off with their front teeth, or incisors. The dexterity of their lips and ability to nip with the teeth allows horses to graze the plants closer to the ground. This results in less leaf area being left behind, so the plants have fewer resources to fuel regrowth.

The horse's grazing style also allows for greater forage selectivity. My young son can use a small spoon to pick his peas out of his mixed peas-and-carrots. Give him a bigger spoon, and it is harder for him to avoid the carrots.

Similarly, horses can pick out their favorite plants more effectively than cows. The narrowness of the horse's mouth and the frontal nipping grazing style make selective grazing possible.

Horses often choose succulent young grasses that aren't ready to be grazed. Repeated grazing of the young plants can kill the grass. Cows, on the other hand, are not able to pick out the young plants.

Hoof traffic is a second threat to pasture health. Horses and cows are heavy animals with small hooves. This results in many pounds of pressure per square inch under their feet.

Horse traffic is often more damaging than cattle traffic. Horses tend to run, turn and kick more than cattle. These behaviors put a lot of force onto the ground, which can damage plants and even tear them out of the ground.

Add a steel horseshoe to the bottom of the hoof, and the damage gets more severe.

While these generalities are useful for comparing cattle and horses, pasture health will ultimately depend on your management practices.

Keep animals off your pasture when the grass needs to rest, and over-grazing won't be a problem regardless of the animal species.

Don't let your animals run around on wet or drought-stressed fields, and hoof traffic damage will be minimized.

Five well-managed horses can have much less impact than five poorly managed cows.

Understanding how your animal and plant species interact will help you to improve your management.

SAM

Have a question about rural living? Write to Ask SAM, Larimer County Cooperative Extension, P.O. Box 543, Fort Collins, CO 80522.