Field Equipment
Horse Pasture And Grazing

From: Horse Care | Pasture And Grazing

See also: Poisonous Plants, Field Care, Yearly Pasture Care and Fences

Field Equipment
Having the right equipment will help you to keep your fields up together with ease.

Harrow
A harrow is piece of agricultural equipment used for cultivating the top surface of the soil. Harrows were originally pulled by horses but now are more commonly used behind a tractor. There are three types of harrow which are the tine, disc and chain.

Types Of Harrow
- Disc harrows are used after the field has been ploughed to help level out and break up the uneven soil surface.
- Chain harrows are used for leveling off the top soil in preparation to and sometimes after seeding.
- Spiked harrow is used for deeper aeration of the soil and to level the surface.
History
- Harrows were originally used throughout the Middle Ages and were pulled by horses.
Uses
- Harrows are used to break up and level off the surface of the top soil which is particularly useful for fields that have been particularly churned up by the horses over the winter.
- To prepare the soil structure ready for re-seeding.
- To pull up dead grasses and weeds.
- To aerate the soil and help to stimulate new grass growth to take place.
- Spread droppings around the field, helping to reduce the worm count.
- To spread fertilizer around the field.
- Harrows can also be used for leveling some riding school menage surfaces and gallops.

Roller
A roller is a piece of agricultural equipment that is used to compress the soil and level off any uneven surfaces or lumps of earth from around the field.

History
- Originally rollers were pulled by horses before the use of the tractor took over.
Types
- Smooth Surface Roller is used for flattening the soil. Smooth surface rollers can leave a raised bank when turning around a corner.
- Textured Roller has ridges along its surface and will more easily break up any large clumps of soil as well as flatten the ground.
- One Piece Roller is simply one complete unit that is pulled behind a tow bar.
- Segmented Roller has several mini rollers working independently from each other allowing the roller to turn corners with greater ease and without causing a raised bank to occur when turning.
Uses
- Smooth out the top surface of soil.
- By rolling the field directly after re seeding will help to compress the soil and therefore in-bed the seed into the ground and help prevent the seeds from being lost, for example blown away.
- Breaking up any clumps of soil left after harrowing.

Broadcast Seeder (also known as a Broadcast Spreader) This is a piece of agricultural equipment that assists in evenly distributing seed and fertilizer around the field.

Made Of
- Small manual hopper's are often made of plastic.
- Large hoppers are usually made of steel.
Types
There are three main types of broadcast seeder, which vary in size from small, medium and large and also vary in the way they can distribute the seed.
- The smallest seeder you can push by hand and is useful for doing one or two small fields, they are either operated by hand or have a small motor.
- The next size up can be pulled by a small all terrain vehicle. The Seeder often has spinning discs which throw the seed out of the hopper and away from the machine.
- The largest seeder is pulled by a tractor and has a pendulum spreading mechanism which throws the seed or fertilizer out of the hopper over a much greater area.
Uses
- For efficient spreading of seed around the field.
- For efficient spreading of fertilizer around the field.

Tractor
This is the name given for a farm vehicle that has large heavily treaded tyres and that can tow agricultural equipment. The word tractor means to pull and was taken from the traction engine.

History
- When steam engines were put on wheels they then became known as portable engines, these portable engines had to be used in pairs and were not initially self propelled and so had to be pulled by horses to get them into position. The two engines were used opposite each in the field, each engine had a fly wheel and belt on the side of the engine which were used to pull machinery, such as a plough, across a field in between the two engines.

The portable engine was then further developed and became known as the traction engine by the late 1800's, when during 1892 in Iowa, John Froelich built a gasoline powered tractor which was further developed by the Twin City Traction Engine Company in 1911.
By 1902 the three wheeled Ivel Tractor became successful in great Briton followed by the Saunderson Tractor and Implement Co's four wheeled version in 1908. It was Henry Ford who mass produced the gasoline powered tractor in both America and Great Briton from 1917 onwards.

Speed
- Anything from one to twenty five miles per hour.
Safety
- All tractors are now fitted with roll over protection structure and seat belts, to help prevent injury and death from occurring if the tractor overturns.
Types
- Modern tractors can be either two wheel drive or four wheel drive and can use their engines to power equipment that is being towed.
- Engineering tractors are fitted with engineering equipment such as loaders and buckets.
- Compact utility tractors are a smaller version of the large agricultural tractors and used for small scale farming and gardens.
- Garden tractors are even smaller than the compact utility tractors and have even less power.
Uses
- Towing farm machinery such as the broadcast seeder, harrow, trailer and roller.

Basic Tools
Basic tools are essential for day to day repairs and management.

Hammer and nails are very useful tools for repairing any wooden post and rail fences.
Skip and fork, for manual tidying up of droppings around the field.
Wheelbarrow can be used for manual collection of droppings and weeds.

Field Shelters
A field shelter will provide the horse with shelter during a number of weather conditions. During the summer months the shelter can be used as a comfort against the flies, heat and direct sunlight.

Paddock Vacuum
This is used to pick up horse droppings from around your field. The vacuum is pulled behind a tractor or small vehicle for large vacuums or pulled by hand for smaller units. The paddock vacuum works by having a suction tube which picks up the droppings from around the field.

Field Equipment Horse Pasture And Grazing

Field Equipment
Horse Pasture And Grazing