| | Alberta is home to over 300,000 horses, or about 35 percent of all horses in Canada. The size of horse operations range from a significant number of small acreages and land holdings, to larger farms and ranches. Every one of these operations has an impact on the landscape and the environment, with manure and pasture management two of the key management issues.
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To help horse owners address these important issues, Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development's AESA (Alberta Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture) Program and the Forage and Horse Branch recently released a new management tool, Caring For Alberta's Rural Landscape, Manure and Pasture Management for Horse Owners.
"This 50-page manual is designed to help horse owners be environmentally responsible and to use good management practices in their operations," explains Christine Sweet, Provincial Extension Coordinator in Edmonton. "The manual goes beyond helping to understand what good management practices are, to tools, techniques and steps to implementing proper manure and pasture management strategies." All horse owners are expected to manage their landbase responsibly. PMU and feedlot horse operations are currently regulated under the new provincial Agricultural Operation Practices Act (AOPA).
"From a manure management standpoint, horse owners need to be aware that they have the potential of damaging the environment," explains Les Burwash, Manager of Horse Programs in Airdrie. "Horse owners have to be responsible stewards of the land that is in their control, and manage manure to prevent contamination of waterways or overloading the soil with excess nutrients, such as phosphorus."
One important manure management strategy for horse operations is composting. A joint research project with the Olds College Composting Centre showed that bunker type composting works very well. "This provides horse operations with a very effective way of composting manure out of stables and small holdings, with a minimal amount of capital investment," says Burwash. "Any operation that has the availability of a small tractor or something with a loader to turn the manure in the bunkers can easily implement this on their operation." The resulting compost can be spread on the land, or sold as a marketable commodity to horticulture operations or local gardeners.
"The way horses graze presents pasture management challenges that are different from other livestock like cattle or sheep," explains Burwash. Horses tend to be spot grazers, overgrazing some areas and avoiding other areas completely. Smaller land holdings are particularly vulnerable to overgrazing, because of the tendency to overstock the land with horses and the resulting problems with weed infestation and the growth of less productive grasses. "With larger farms and ranches, the best pasture management strategy is to maximize pasture use to minimize production costs," says Burwash. By effectively utilizing pasture, managers can increase production efficiency, which should result in more profitable production.
Horse owners will find lots of valuable information about good manure and pasture management practices in this new manual. "We're really excited about the release of this manual, which has been an extensive two-year project," says Sweet. After much initial research, we discovered there wasn't anything available with the depth of information and management strategies that we wanted to include, so we developed this manual specifically for Alberta horse owners. To obtain a copy of this manual free of charge contact Alberta Agriculture's publications office (call 1-800-282-5697 or email: publications.office@gov.ab.ca).
For more information, contact:
Christine Sweet |
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