Washington -- the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[twelvegates]

Thanks for the input and reports on your own animal husbandry. MtnSurfer, with regard to your second link -- OMG it has been a long time since I haunted the COTH forums -- that was a trip back in time, with all of the familiar names responding. Made my day!

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by twelvegates

Thanks for the input and reports on your own animal husbandry. MtnSurfer, with regard to your second link -- OMG it has been a long time since I haunted the COTH forums -- that was a trip back in time, with all of the familiar names responding. Made my day!

twelvegates, I'm happy to hear it. It was dumb luck on my end for the most part. Your question interested me as a non-horse owner and nature lover. I've seen so much green since moving here including early and extended spring along with colorful summers, I knew there had to be significant grazing opportunities. Of course, those come with their own unique challenges as Diana and Mayfair mentioned including some best practices.

Derek

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

OK That makes some sense. We have wetland buffers as well. That is how wetlands work, they may not be wet all the time, but they hold water in the wet season. Some counties are more restrictive than others on what can be done inside buffer areas. Generally not the kind of area you'd want to keep horses on anyway. There are good flood maps and soil maps that can help us evaluate property for suitability to have horses.

What I was told is that in compromised watersheds(all that takes is to have a certain species of salmon go on the threatened list in that creek or river), they won't allow animals on property not AG zoned. A co-worker of mine bought his folks small berry farm on 20 acres , wanted to add chickens and a few cows, and he can only have 2 coups of chickens on it and no cows, in the corner furthest away from the creek buffer which isn't even on his property. Its not the wetlands, however that is certainly another major issue. The problem here, is all the AG parcels are 10-20+ acres with one home and they are huge $$$$$$$ as a result. I don't have or want horses or livestock so its not a problem for me, I don't want to hear barking dogs and sirens all night and lawnmowers and pressure washers at 8am every weekend morning so my acreage at the soon to be new place, provides a different kind of buffer

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by mayfair

Pasture is usable in summer whenever it dries out in spring through the fall rainy season. Most use gravel sacrifice lots for winter to protect the pasture.

Some very drained pastures can take limited use in winter, but full time winter use results in compacted soil and mud and then you'll just get weeds and a poor quality pasture in summer.

My prior boss, had a large round pen with a gravel base and wood chips on top for the wet season. That was the area I spoke of that ate up gravel and chips, and a couple truckloads had to come in twice a year to do that area and a path back to the horse stalls/barn (they only had 2 horses). They have to bring in hay for feed then, but in the summer the pasture was always tall and provided plenty. But, I feel we don't get average rain for WA here, we get more, sometimes a lot more.