Farm properties that are not enrolled in the Present Use Value program can have property taxes that are much higher in comparison to other farms. Typically, horse farms have been harder to enroll, because the qualifying criteria of $1,000 of gross income per year must come from something produced on the farm, which doesn’t include boarding or training fees. Grazing fees, however, have been included for several years now. If you have 10 acres of pasture that you manage for grazing, you can sell that forage to another horse or livestock owner. In the animal industry, we call this “custom grazing”.

For those of you that may already have a boarder on your farm, consider breaking down your monthly invoices to separate stabling and facility fees from grazing fees to help meet the gross income requirement. Assuming a horse consumes about 2% of their bodyweight per day in forage and is able to meet all of its forage requirements on pasture during a typical grazing season (March through November), you can easily meet the yearly income requirement with one horse. To calculate, start by valuing the pasture consumed at what it would cost as a hay crop. So, if fescue hay costs about $9 per 50 lb. bale, then we can say it equates to $0.18 per pound of forage dry matter. In the previously mentioned scenario, where the horse consumes 100% of its forage requirement on pasture from late March through November, we’ll calculate daily forage consumed at 2% of a 1200 lb. horse to be 24 lbs., and then multiply by the number of days the horse was on pasture.

Example:

24 lbs. x $0.18 = $4.32 x 250 days = $1,080 income from grazing fees for
one horse.

Another example might include months where only a part of their forage requirements is met by the pasture. In this scenario, a horse meets 100% of their needs on pasture April through October, but only 50% in the months of March and November. The calculation would be as follows:

Example:

a. 24lbs. x 0.18 = $4.32 x 210 days = $907.20
b. 24lbs. x 50%= 12 lbs. x 0.18 x 60 days = $129.60
c. Total grazing fees for year: $907.20 + $129.60 = $1036.80 for that one horse

You’ll need to show three years of income to qualify for the program.