Draft animals and invasives

[Anonymous]

I haven’t posted on here in years, but I peek this site all the time. I used to log with horses, and I’m starting back up as part of my forestry work with a ecological restoration company here in SW Wisconsin. We have a team of Suffolks, and I’m working them into woods shape. These kinds of companies have traditionally worked at oak savannah, oak woodland and prairie restoration. In these parts that often means prescribed burning, and lots of invasive species management.

Its the invasive species issue that I want to ask about. I’ve got a couple timber sales to start this month, both of which are heavily infested with buckthorn and garlic mustard, along with invasive bush honeysuckle to a lesser extent (so far). From my work dealing with garlic mustard, I know that deer are a vector for moving seed around and starting new infestations. The tiny GM seeds get in their hooves or embedding in their coat and then moved down the trail. Seems my team of horses might do the same. I know its not practical for me to worry about moving seed around within that particular site, but our company is premised on restoring native plant communities, and we can’t be part of the problem, moving garlic mustard back to the home place, or to other work sites.

Has anybody tried to deal with this? I suppose you could trim the legs short, so that you could try to better brush their legs and feet at the end of the day. I’ve thought about spraying or wetting their feet and lower legs. It all seems impractical, and a major hassle at best. Maybe ineffective at worst. But our BMP’s require logging equipment operators to spray off their machines before moving from job to job, and it seems like we should address this.

I know this seems crazy, but its an issue now. I wanna just scoff at it, but I can’t. Any ideas or sharing of past experience would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Luke

[dominiquer60]

Luke you bring up a great topic. Though I don’t log or work with a company of your type, the same problem can apply to a farming situation. I have one field that was hay for 15 years and beside some dock and chic weed, there are not much for weed seeds in that field. The other field that I work was corn for many years and has pigweed, gypsum weed, lambsquarter, foxtail, and velvet leaf. I am planning on washing/cleaning equipment when I am done in the “dirty” field, but foolishly I haven’t thought about the horses feet.

For me it should be easy enough with a garden hose, but out on a job site your task becomes more difficult. Shaving the long hair off the horses legs could be helpful, but flushing the feet would be a big plus. At another farm we had a 5 gallon insulated water cooler that we hooked a small sprayer pump up to and we put ice water in it to keep vegetables cool and moist at the farmers market. If you could rig something up like that it may be of aid in the warmer months of the year. Just a thought.

[near horse]

How about using those velcro leg protectors you see used with show horses? Probably could make something similar pretty easily. Throw on/off at the field’s edge and wash as needed.

Bun and bag the tail (?).

Great question. Restoration is a growing interest and I think drafts could have a role so it’s good to think about the details.

Luke – I’d like to hear more about the project as it goes forward so please keep us posted.

[Eli]

Is it possable to keep them on sight then you only have to clean them once. I was thinking a three sided building and some 20 foot gates.

[Baystatetom]

I do a ton of invasive plant work as part of my Consulting Forestry. Now a days it’s just a normal part of the job. If I don’t control the invasives, I can’t regenerate timber species. I do pressure wash the ATV regularly but never gave a thought to my steers. Not that I use them for invasive control but it maybe should be something to think about.
~Tom

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