Cat Creek Rd Properties Sheridan

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

RE: "local advice"

Also, a lot of folks out this way would never say "no, that's wrong" ... it's too harsh of a statement, even if it's correct. More typically, you'd hear something to the effect of "most folks might do it this way" ....

I oversimplified... being the very well-mannered young man our extension agent is I think my jaw would have dropped had he turned to me and said anything approaching "no". I listen carefully and from years of experience I've learned you often don't get the right answer unless you ask the right question, which I really did try to do. Regardless, I think part of the problem was that he is a relatively recent arrival from out of state plus yes, the extension office here seems far more geared towards 4H and the like. Given local conditions, it doesn't surprise me.

It has to be said that most "newcomers" around where we are (and they're few and far between) don't try to ranch - should they buy acreage they merely lease it out and allow someone to run cattle on it, thereby maintaining their tax advantage without the headache and they can still come out and hunt at week-ends.

Originally Posted by NVDave

that's like saying "You might have more success growing evergreen trees in Wyoming over fruit-bearing trees." It is a huge category of plants, in other words.

Oh fiddlesticks. There goes the plan for a mango grove.

It's trying to form a "picture" in my head of what's required seeing as I appreciate that no one is going to find this information out for me, nor can one believe what one is told by people with an interest in selling land or property. Obviously people keep horses in Wyoming... it's not beyond the wit of man. And keeping healthy, happy horses and healthy, productive pastures isn't beyong the wit of man either. It just requires a lot more work and - at this stage for us - we can subscribe to the motto that prevention is better than cure.

Again, thank you both very much.

[wyoman]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

I think 5 acre pastures would be plenty of room for the daily turn-outs from a horse "mental health" standpoint.

The only way you'll know for sure if the pastures can survive that level of grazing will be to try the rotation schedule. With the variability of moisture, soil quality, cool/warm season grasses, and seasonal temperatures ... it's very difficult to predict for any site. But at least you're on the right track with the rotation schedule to minimize the pressure for any given 5 acre area, although my bet is that there will be times of the year when you'll have to keep the horses "in" because the grasses will be stressed with any grazing on them.

Just for perspective ... and we're in SE Wyoming, which has less moisture than your area ... we have a neighbor on 40 acres who had three mustang rescue horses. These horses are never ridden and are allowed to graze about 35 acres, divided up into two pastures, with no supplemental feeding given except during winter blizzard conditions. They were pretty much starved as of three years ago, and we called the county animal control dept to check on them ... the county ordered the owner to start feeding the horses or be cited for animal cruelty. He's been supplemental feeding them, and they're now down to two horses this winter. At a time now when the pastures should be "greening up" a little with cool season grasses, they're barren. It's taken the horses just 5 years to wipe out an otherwise good producing area of dryland pasture, as the owner is again not feeding the horses and they're losing weight. They'd have done better to have been corralled away from the pasture for the winter and fed, rather than trampling down the wet ground and killing off potential surviving growth of the cool grasses. These horses were the source of a lot of ill relations with the neighbor, who kept her horses and livestock well-fed ... the mustangs would crash the fences to come over and eat her hay, sometimes 2-3 times per week. Now that she's gone, there's no hay for those mustangs to break fences to reach.

I expect that the site will be nothing but a tumbleweed patch by this summer. We'll see.

Another neighbor has 8 horses on 60 acres, cross-fenced into several parcels. They bring the horses in for feeding, but otherwise let them roam during the day. The ground was in CRP for a long time, and was in pretty good shape when they took it over 3 years ago. It's a little too soon to tell how it will fare this year, but I don't see the horses grazing it very much during the year. The horses are western competition type horses (on the pro rodeo circuit), and are well cared for with feed and grain and supplements, so if they're grazing during the day, it's out of boredom.

Amen again

[wyoman]

Originally Posted by FiveHorses

Very informative post - thank you.

Given what you've written, what would you suggest as the minimum acreage per horse be given in this area of WY assuming the following:
horses confined in run/stable/corral approx 14-16 hours (i.e. overnight), supplementary feeding with hay &/or alfalfa (&/or hard feed if necessary). Pasture to be cross-fenced and rotational grazing practiced.

I appreciate that there are going to be local variations dependent on all sort of other issues, but I'm just really looking for a ballpark figure.

The goal of all this being to maintain the pastures in the best health they can be in given local conditions while giving the horses what they require insofar as their mental and physical health is concerned.

there isn't any pasture there-fence all you want-I would put up runs for the poor nags and only let 2 or three out at at a time to chew whatever forage that is left after the fight for dominence

[sheridannative]

Hello, I lived on Cat Creek for 30 years and my folks still do. Sunsprit has no idea about how many cows or horses the Cat Creek property can handle! We figure about 20 acres of "total ranch property, including hay ground) to run a cow/calf pair. 100 acres is not even close! You could run 5 horses easy on the 35 acres. You will need to hay them in the winter just like everyone else in Wyoming does though.

[dirty johnny]

The area varies so much.Let your horses graze dirt and you'll end up with all kinds of teeth problems.

You end up with so much burn off from drought etc.that it's not uncommon to have to supplement feed year round.