Pasture perfect: Maintaining a horse farm.

Sometimes a good idea can come out of nowhere. For Scott Hartmann, owner of Scott’s Lawn Care (SLC) in Maple Plain, Minn., an idea for a new maintenance service came where he wasn’t expecting it — on a horse farm.

Hartmann recalls that 10 years ago, his company was taking care of the turf areas on a few horse farms, and the farm owners would casually ask if the crews could handle the pastures. “From there, we started to look into it,” he says, “and we started to get more and more people who wanted it done, but they’re concerned about their horses and the products we’re using.”

SLC has 22 employees and provides 40 percent maintenance services, 40 percent snow removal and 20 percent lawn care. Half of its clients are residential and half are commercial. The company revenue is approximately $2.5 million. SLC provides horse pasture management for 20 clients, the majority of whom added on the service to their contracts after they had signed lawn care and maintenance agreements for other areas of their properties.

The company charges about $260 per acre for weed control and fertilizing, more for organic/natural fertilizer, and $180 per acre for maintenance. Its horse farm clients range from one acre to 40 acres. With the immense size of some of these sites, SLC uses Ventrac articulating tractors and their mowing and aerator attachments.

“We have other equipment, but the Ventrac is a lot easier on the soil, and a lot easier to get in and out of things,” Hartmann says. The company also uses Z-Spray spreader-sprayers and slit seeders from several different manufacturers. Story by Abby Hart / www.landscapemanagement.net

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