How Many Horses Can Your Pasture Hold?
Knowing the production potential and limitations of the soil under your farm is key to reducing feeding costs when managing horses and being a good land steward. | Photo: Thinkstock
As many of us know, horse ownership is like eating potato chips; you can’t have just one! The definition of too many horses depends on who you are asking and what parameters you are considering.

Before trying to decide if your checkbook can stand to take on one more horse, ask yourself, “Is my land capable?”

More specifically, can the land you have support the horses you own in an economical and environmentally friendly way? There are tools to answer this question, one of which is the National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) program.

National Cooperative Soil Survey

The NCSS program began in 1896 as an attempt to survey and map soils in the United States. The program started small, surveying only 2.8 million acres in Maryland, Connecticut, Utah, and New Mexico. Today, soil survey data is available online for the entire country as the Web Soil Survey (WSS) and is maintained by the USDA-NRCS (United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service). The NCSS has a wealth of information and uses, both in and out of agriculture

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.