Time To De-Worm Your Horses and Worm Your Pastures

Earth worms, night crawlers, and composting worms are among the best companion animals for your horses. These worms work hard without strict supervision or micromanagement. Do not fall into the trap of treating a worm bin like a neo-natal intensive care unit. Though social media teaches other wise, worms get along just fine without humans wringing their hands over what the perfect bedding is for a worm bin.

Get a large container that will drain--fill it with manure that is not recently contaminated with ivermectin. Either dig your own or order worms--(I am very happy with the worms that I get from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm) Keep adding manure. Don't worry about constant turning like one would do with a regular compost program. In a vermiculture system the worms do the turning and churning.

The more different kinds of manure that you put in the bin the better--except that there is no reason to use dog manure or any other meat eater's manure.

Humans can pick up parasites from dog manure.

During the months that your worms are working for you, learn about compost teas. I use them some but find that simply injecting the vermicompost in shallow holes spaced across a pasture works great to spread the microbes into the soil provided that the soil is moist.

Parasitic worms cost us tremendous amounts of money annually, both in treating the worms and in the amount of extra hay that the horses must eat to feed themselves and their parasite loads. During the years that I raised only a handful of foals and nearly every horse in the herd was adult to middle aged, we had very little problem with parasites. Now our herd has aged and we are raising a lot of foals.

The result is a radical increase in parasites. Foals and old horses are worm factories. As one's pasture reaches full capacity of dung beetles, microbes and earth worms one will see a reduction in parasites.

Such a regimen, coupled with a complete refusal to use modern chemical fertilizers or other poisons on the soil, and a strict planting program that keeps winter annual grasses  growing will improve the health of your soil and your horses.