Review Question: The reason that cows and horses do not pasture well together, especially...?

Question

in situations where pastures are poor is...
a.cattle are too often recumbent causing excessive pasture crushing.
b.interspecies fighting results in muscle bruising on the cattle and lacerations on the horses
c.horses graze pastures too low for cattle to effectively graze.

I'm leaning toward A, but could really use some help figuring this one out,
thanks,
Dex

Answer 1

A-C + bot fly warbles are possible but not always in occurence. Depending on the ratio of cows to horses and vice versa and the size of the pasture and the climate and the available graizing etc. We have over 50 horses and my husband has about a dozen steers and all of our animals ge talong fine on about 90 acres (divided into several pastures) we rotate every few weeks to keep from over grazing and parisite infestation (our beef in free range/grass fed and cert. organic so no wormers allowed on cows but horses are regularly dewormed). If I had to blindly choose an answer I'd have to say all of the above are a possibility but every case situation is diffeent. I see steers wrestle eachother for dominance but my horses have never taken on a steer (although we have never had a drought nor have they ever been in conditions that would lead them to fight). In my opinion, horses and cows eat the grass down to about the same level on average and both crush vegitation as they graze, lay down and walk over it and they both leave just as much manure behind. Sorry that I couldn't pick just one, but everyone who has probably has their reasons base don experience to do so.

Answer 2

The answer 100% is C. Horses graze grass by grasping it with their front teeth and chewing. Sheep and goats also graze in a similiar way. But cattle, believe it or not, use their tongue and teeth in combination to grasp the grass and pull it into their mouth. They cannot graze as close as horses, so it can be a bit of a problem. If this sounds far fetched, look up the topic cattle grazing or something similiar on google and you'll see that I'm not pulling your leg.
Question A - recombent means to lay down, and believe me, cattle do lay down but it doesn't crush the pasture anymore than a horse would! And B, yes some cattle and horses don't get along all the time, but you don't normally find a horse hurting cattle unless they are really aggressive, and almost never does a cow (or even a bull) hurt a horse unless they are in a small corral or such and they have a good set of horns.
I live in rural Alberta on the farm, grew up there as well and many times my horses have run with the cattle. It can work fine in most cases. In truth, if your horse has grazed the pasture so low it doesn't work well for the cattle, then you're overgrazing things anyhow!
Hope that helps.

Answer 3

All of the above. Horses will try to imtimidate cattle away from the feed bins and the best grazing spots, kicking them or whatever. I dont know about the lacerations on the horses, mine always won the battle. Cattles are very destructive to pasture. The good news is that rotating (cows on a field one year, horses another) can actually be beneficial to the animals. They arent affected by the same exact worms. Cows can ingest certain worms without any ill effects that would infest and possibly cause serious problems in a horse. And horses can graze a shorter pasture, cows only have teeth on their bottom jaw, this makes it extremely difficult for them to get ahold of the shorter grasses. If you have an overgrown pasture, you can put the cows on it to shorten it and then give it over to the horses. Horses (in my experience) seem to be less nervous with a few cows around, probably because cows arent as flighty as horses can be.
I would be far more worried about deer using my horses' pasture than cows.

Answer 4

The only issue I've ever seen with horses and cattle in a shared area is that neither will eat the grass in an area where there is a cow patty. They just seem to turn to cement not break down as quickly as horse droppings. That's why in cattle pastures that are grazed down you see tall green rings of grass that they don't eat.
If the pasture is poor you should be feeding extra forage anyhow so there's not much to the arguement but if one of these will definately be a "correct" answer I'd guess towards "C" myself.
Grass perks up pretty quickly after being layed upon. and they're fairly likely to find a specific favorite spot to go down each day, not just all over till they've crushed it all.

Answer 5

Is all three an option.?

Cattle ruin pastures, and since cattle are much tougher animals, they can eat just about the worst, moldy crap out there and still survive and produce milk and be happy cows, but horses cannot live well on that kind of ground. And if you're talking about 1 horse in with a herd of 50 cattle, that's a lot of pasture to be used up, turned muddy & rocky, and just get ruined.

Sometimes, cattle will fight, and occasionally, I've seen cattle mount horses or vice versa - this can cause damage to both species, and if the cattle are not polled, then I don't even want to begin to talk about the bad things that can happen to horses - especially if there's a bull in the herd

And C is correct as well - horses do graze pastures too low for other animals to graze upon --- this is one thing that spurred cattle & sheep farmers to shoot free range wild horses a long time ago - they were upset that the horses would pull the grass out and ruin their stock animals' grazing land. Cows don't pull the grass out as deeply as horses will, and cows don't graze as tremendously long out of the day as horses need to. Cows chew their cud, but horses graze constantly.

Answer 6

I would answer C. Horses and cattle can pasture well together on a large plentiful pasture but horses do tend to eat all the way down to dirt. They can also pull the grass up by the roots so cows have a tough time competing for grass if they're on too small a pasture. Cows can also eat a lot of things that horses can't so a horse pasture has to be better geared toward the horse

Answer 7

Where pasture is good cows and horses do very well together because cattle will graze all the grass but horses have areas that they tend to over graze and areas where they will only go to the bathroom. Sometimes these are called smooths and roughs.
We have a mare here being trained who is turned out in a small paddock. She has a couple of places eaten down to the dirt and is even digging in the dirt to get the roots of some plants she seems to really like.
Now, what do you think is the correct answer.

Answer 8

Hate to disagree with you but I think its "c". Horses can really graze a pasture down. Also if the pasture has enough space and grass you CAN graze them together. Just make sure your horses are used to cows and wont try and get out or something. Oh and depending on your area you may not want to put them in the same pasture, round where I live we have plants that both will eat but one is allergic to like potatoes.

Answer 9

All of them aren't what you'd describe as accurate,cows and horses don't compete for the same pastures (unless severe drought and exceptions don't prove rules).I have kept my horses in with cattle for many years.Or have tried to run horses through after the cattle have grazed it down.cattle dont have top teeth in the front making it a little hard for them to compete with horses for the same pasture.

Answer 10

c)... horses "nip" the grass with their incisors very close to the root (have you ever seen horses graze on like, 1/8" tall grass? I have!) where cattle don't have the upper incisors, so they have to grab longer stalks and rip it out.

b) is crap altogether, and I don't see how "crushed" pastures would be an issue unless horses and cattle were stocked so densely that the cattle are laying on all the available grazing land!