Progress 10/01/10 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience was horseowners and undergrad students. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Sacrifice areas, pasture paradise, aerated composting systems are considered as permanent demonstrations and are available to the public to observe and receive hands on training. The detail of each project is described using self guided signs that are installed next to each project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results of the research and demonstration projects were disseminated in several ways including: 1- Equine field days 2- Hands ontraining workshops 3- Local conference and events such as town meetings, riding clubs 4- Videos 5- National conference 6- factsheets and extension newsletter 7- UMass Extension Crops, Dairy, Livestock, Equine website What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Sacrifice areas are areas with multiple benefits including keeping off horses when pasturesand/or soils are wet to avoid soil compaction and pasture be destroyed. One major accomplishment of this project was successfuly evaluating and comparing various footing materials for establishment of a low cost yet effective sacrifice areas. Another major accomplishment of this project was to introduce a low cost areated comosting system designed for small equine operations. The system was tested and evaluated successfully at two locations.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Masoud Hashemi and Atakan Kadi. 2015. Low Cost Aerated Static Composting Systems for Small Acreage Equine Operations. Waste to Worth conference, March 30 - April 3, 2015. Seattle, WA
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Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience were primarily horseowners. The research also provided valuable information to the students of "Pasture Management" course (STOCHSCH 211). Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Two educational workshops at Blue Star Equiculture and one field day at UMass Horse Farm have been provided to horseowners and students. In these events the following items have been presented: 1) Paddock Paradise as an innovative Pasture Management 2) Aerated composting Bins 3) Sacrifice areas with various footing and the cost of installations How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results were presented in various forms: 1) Extension Newsletter; Crops, Dairy, Livestock, Equine Newsletter 2) Workshops (Powerpoint presentations) 3) Self-guided laminated posters What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? 1) Instalation and demonstration of sacrifice areas at Blue Star Equiculture 2) Aerated composting pile at both Blue Star and UMass Horse Farm 3) Pasture renovation project at UMass Horse Farm
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The data on reducing of amount of nutrients and pathogen has been partially collected. Once completed, the results will be included in the final report.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Moshimer, P and P. Rickenbach. 2013. Blue Star Equiculture: Practicing Innovative Pasture Management. Crops, Dairy, Livestock, Equine Newsletter. 16(1): 6-7.
Magin, M. and P. Moshimer. 2013. Innovative Best Management Practices at Blue Star Equiculture. Crops, Dairy, Livestock, Equine Newsletter. 16(2): 2-4.
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Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Several best management practices were implemented in two selected equine facility: A- Hadley Horse Farm: six paddocks with various footing materials were established to be used as exercise (sacrifice)lots to protect pastures when either in non-active growth stage and/or pasture is wet. Each paddock was 50'X 50' After 12" of soil was scraped out 3 footing materials were used, each with and without using geofabric under the materials: 1- compacted gravel (12") 2- gravel (6") plus compacted stone dust (6") 3- Pine wood chips (12") Other BMPs demonstration in this location included using raised beds to demonstrate the most common pasture grasses and legumes in New England. Each species is identified witha laminated sign which describes the most important feature of the plant species including tolerance to winter hardiness, drought, frequent cutting(grazing), as well as nutritive value and palatability. B- Blue Star Sanctuary of Draft Horses: Establishment of paddock paradise. Paddock Paradise is an alternative natural boarding concept which encourages more movement to benefit overall health of the horse and being used as sacrifice lots for better pasture management. All wooden horse for keeping off horses from pastures and some fencing have been installed. The project will be continues and finished in spring 2013. Other activity in this location is fencing off horses from wetlands and stream that passes through the property. PARTICIPANTS: 1- Dr. Masoud Hashemi, Extension faculty, University of Massachusetts. PI and director of the project. 2- Dr. Sarah Weis, Associate researcher, University of Massachusetts. Responsible for pasture identification, sampling and analysis. 3- Kyle Bostrum. Hadley Farm Manager. Installation of sacrifice lots, and fencing. 4- Pamela Rickenbach, Director of Blue Star Equiculture. Non-profit organization. Help with developing paddock paradise concept and management at the Blue Star facility. 5- Paul Moshimer, Blue Star Equiculture Operation Manager, Non-profit organization. Help with installation of wooden posts and installation of fences. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences include: Horse owners Horse industry Equine Program students 4-H Program young children Veterinary and Animal Science students PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Currently there are over 30 horses at Blue Star Sanctuary with only 7 acres of usable land for pasture. Paddock paradise is a new concept and is implemented for the first time in Massachusetts. This practice not only minimizes point and non-point source pollution from this facility to the three rivers surrounding the land and maintains their water quality but also can save pastures (currently the lands are just bare soil with no plant growing in it). Several horse owners, mainly those with limited land acreage, have contacted us and are eagerly waiting to see the finished project so they can implement it on their facility. This and other BMPs that has been planned for this location will be used in annual barn meetings in April-May. The projects in Hadley farm have already been used to increase the knowledge of Stockbridge School of Agriculture students with Equine Program major. They learned from the project as a hands-on workshop and have practiced to calculate how much material is was needed, the cost of establishment of each exercise lot. Each year several thousands of visitors are coming to the facility either for riding, education and various events. All projects will be used as training tool to increase the knowledge of visitors. The first UMass Equine Field Day has been scheduled for April 26, 2013. All of these projects along with previous projects will be used in hands on various workshops.
Publications
- Weis, Sarah, Masoud Hashemi, and Stephen Herbert. 2012. Effectively reseeding pasture. Crops, Dairy, Livestock, and Equine News. Fall Issue: Pages 9-12. Howe, George. 2012. Equine pasture management. Crops, Dairy, Livestock, and Equine News. Fall Issue: page 13. Prostak, Randall. 2012. Weed management for pasture and hayfields. Crops, Dairy, Livestock, and Equine News. Winter Issue: Page 9.
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Progress 10/01/10 to 09/30/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Several pads or floorings are demonstrated to show the effectiveness of various floorings in reducing mud in exercise (sacrifice) areas. The footings consisted of the following: - Compacted gravel - Bark chips (hog's fuel)on top of geotextile - Bark chips (hog's fuel)without using geotextile - Control (untreated soil) Reducing mud in high concentration area. Best management practices for this purpose included the following: - Installation of gutters and downspouts - Sloped the land and install drainage pipe and directed the runoff water - Installing surface drain for controlling runoff water - Using compacted stone dust in high traffic area to allow water to drain into surface drain Overseeding a pasture and then using aerway to remediate hoof compaction and soil damage made to pasture by horses during wet periods. Then we dragged behind the aerway. PARTICIPANTS: Masoud Hashemi, Principle investigator., Faculty extension, UMass. Kyle Bostrum, Hadley Farm Manager, UMass. Provided technical assistance, machinery and materials. Neal Woodard, Technical adviser, UMass, provided technical assistance and helped implementation of best management practices at Hadley Horse Farm. TARGET AUDIENCES: Each year more than 2000 horse owners are participating in various events at the Hadley Horse Farm. Through this project, participants as well as students from Veterinary and Animal Science Department and Equine program of Stockbridge School of Agriculture will learn about implementation of best management practices to reduce the impact of equine operation on environment. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: We did not measured the amount of N leaching from paddocks with various footing. However, we added several more best management practices to demonstrate at the site to educate horse owners.
Impacts
More than 2000 individuals are visiting Hadley Farm annually. Demonstration of selected best management practices is an efficient training tool where visitors are able to compare treated and untreated areas and implement the appropriate practices on their own farm. Similar rechnique will be used in 2012 in another location in Massachusetts. Generated factsheets were posted on Crops, Dairy, Livestock, and Equine website (http://extension.umass.edu/cdle/) and also were handed out to the attendants of several educational workshops in 2011.
Publications
- We have generated 15 factsheets about various best management practices for equine. The titles of the factsheets follow: Hashemi, M. (2010). Basics for Livestock and Equine Nutrition. Hashemi, M. (2010).Basics of Pasture Management. Hashemi, M. (2010).Bedding Options for Livestock and Equine. Hashemi, M. (2010).Composting Horse Manure. Hashemi, M. (2010).Fly Control Measures. Hashemi, M. (2010).Housing for Horses. Hashemi, M. (2010).Manure Inventory. Hashemi, M. (2010).Manure Spreader Calibration. Hashemi, M. (2010).Manure Spreader Capacity. Hashemi, M. (2010).Mud Management for Horse Operations. Hashemi, M. (2010).Odor Control. Hashemi, M. (2010).Managing Pasture Weeds. Hashemi, M. (2010).Rodent Control on Farms. Hashemi, M. (2010).Sampling Soils for Meaningful Results. Hashemi, M. (2010).Transporting Animals.
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