The Cannon River in the background.
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Farm Equipment
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Pastures and Paddocks
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Wild and Restored
Land
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Peat Soil in the Lane out to Pasture
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Overview:
- Double Dream Farm is a 40 acre farm that consists of
wetlands and pasture land. The Cannon River also flows through
the property before heading into Northfield.
- 10 acres could be used for pastures but right now
only two acres are in use as such.
- Double Dream has 8 horses right now on the farm, but
they have room for 10 and could build on to their barn for more.
- The horses are Double Dream are mostly Arabs or
National Show Horses. They have two Friesian boarders at the
moment.
- The Arabs and NHSs are shown in hunt seat, english,
western, and halter.
Management Practices:
- Used bedding and manure
get spread on the wild lands every two days or as the manure spreader
gets filled.
- Pasture does not get
rotated, but horses are only out for a couple hours a day on it.
- All droppings get picked
up regularly.
- All water and any fluids
from the barn get drained into a septic system.
- An air filtration system
keeps the barn well ventilated for the horses.
- The horses are kept on a
daily wormer and feces are tested twice a year for worms to see if
paste wormer is needed.
- They have a mixture of
soils, but mostly they have a peat type soil that is soft and
fine. It seems to be a very productive soil that the vegetation
likes.
Bedding:
- Double Dream uses sawdust.
- They have also tried shredded card board, newspaper,
and pelated alternatives but haven't found anything that works as well
as sawdust.
- Had not heard of hemp bedding, either.
Open Water and Wetlands:
- Double Dream was named because they wanted both to
have horses and to restore some wild lands.
- Some of the land is in Reinvest Minnesota and they
have planted trees and other native species.
- They have put in a Wood Duck pond that is fed by an
artesian well and overflows into a little creek.
- Double Dream has tried to attract wildlife back to
this habitat and now they have wood ducks, egrets, hawks, eagles,
pheasants and deer.
- They have worked with Rice County as well as the DNR
to set up their farm and do their restorations.
- They have also made a very conscious choice to make
sure that the horses do not pollute or damage the water ways or wetland
areas.
Environmental Considerations:
- Double Dream does not think that there has to be any
environmental issues associated with horses if managed properly and
take daily care of the property and horses.
- Manure management was again sited as the biggest
management issue that horse farms face.
- Wetlands need special considerations as well.
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