day old grass, nutrition value?

[Secuono]

I was wondering how much the nutrition drops off each day. Mixed grasses pulled and then left in a large bucket for a day, fluffed several times a day, no sun and kept inside.
How much less is the nutrition the next day, every day up to a week?
Clover and other such plants, other than grass strands, get floppy by the next day.
Pulling everyday ain't gonna happen. In very bad rain, freezing rain and those nasty humid 115 index heat days.
So I'd like to know if I would end up having to feed more after a week, would it be a great drop in value or just a gentle slope until it is actual hay?

 

[MaggieJ]

I've never seen any information on this, but I would think it would be a slow slide. My major concern would be with the greens wilting or going mouldy. All the books warn against wilted greens but with no explanation of what makes it bad. Mould, however, could easily happen in a bucket, even if the greens are fluffed regularly... especially in hot, humid weather. I gather daily from spring until fall, so this has not been an issue for me. Very occasionally I will substitute vegetables or fruit for gathered greens, but mostly I try to work around the weather. I really think having a supply of properly dried greens might be preferable to feeding partially dried ones.

 

[Brody]

I have a bundle of fresh hay drying every week - that way if I ust can't collect for some reason I have an option that is still pretty fresh - but I wait to feed it until it is absolutely dry ...my choice is still fresh and unwilted or dried nothing in between

 

[akane]

Depends greatly on how much it's dried and the quality of the job. We did a bunch of hay testing in horse nutrition classes. Hay dried just enough without being sunbleached or salted and kept in the dark with good air flow will not have a noticeable loss until 4month when the fat soluable vitamins like E and A start to breakdown. The fiber itself will not break down until a year or year and a half if kept in that condition. Now if it is being sunbleached either before being collected or during storage with too much light you can immediately count off about half the useful nutrition and fat soluable vitamins will be gone in around a month with fiber breaking down within 4-6months.

Grasses can be kept fresh in the fridge for a week easy instead of drying if you have the space and can collect frequently. It provides a lot of nutrition like vit c and b vits which are mostly destroyed in the drying process. I use to devote the top shelf of the fridge to grocery bags full of grass and forage when I was rescuing guinea pigs. I'd pick forages as I had time over the weekend, and then just dump a bag in each cage every day supplemented with some hay in between and stronger herbs as treats.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

Youcan heat dry your forages in the oven-- that will destroy mold. mildew and other pathogens-- and help keep nutritin levles up--
wilted plants tend to start breaking down very quickly-- I keep my unused fresh greens in the fridge-- and never more than 24 hours

http://www.lucernefarms.com/

Now, this is pretty much an advertisement, but I have used this for my rabbits-- they love it-- the video explains the drying process and some of the way nutritional value is lost in dried forages-- It may be an interesting source of informatin for some people-- be awar, the video itself is about 20 minutes long...

 

[akane]

Grass and tough forages should not wilt in the fridge for a long time. Lettuce keeps for days before wilting and it's one of the first things to wilt. More fibrous plants with less sugar will easily last a week if kept cool. I haven't seen signs of wilting or any loss of integrity that would mean a loss of nutrition for nearly 2 weeks.