Lawn grass for hay techniques

[Vargas]

I'm newer to raising rabbits, and not wanting anything to do with pellets or non organic hay, I needed a cheap way to come up with some hay.

My lawn is mainly bermuda, with a bunch of weeds in it. Conventional lawn mowers cut grass too fine to easily rake for hay. I came by a reel mower. The ones that only spin when pushed. I let my lawn grow a little longer than normal, then mow it with the reel mower. I do not use a bag, I simply leave the cut grass on the lawn to dry for about a week depending on how hot it is. Since this is not as thick as one would allow alfalfa to grow, I don't need to move the grass around for drying. I leave it completely alone for a week, then rake it and store it. Free hay

I am probably going to plant fescue grass in a portion of my lawn so I have grass all year long. I like part of it as the bermuda and mixed weeds so the hay is varied.

I was wondering who else had techniques they use to convert lawn grass into hay? I and I'm sure others would love the input.

 

[Miss M]

I've done this with grass cut with a regular lawnmower. It was St. Augustine grass, with various friendly weeds.

I have a bag of forage seed that I got on serious clearance, and I'm going to spread it in my yard so I have lots of good stuff to mow.

It's my understanding that a regular lawnmower also tends to bruise the grass a lot, which can cause it to go bad quickly. So if you can get it to dry out quickly, that's good.

 

[AmysMacdog]

I used to make my own hay with a lawn mower too. It was a great savings at the feed store but the place we live now we don't have hardly any grass!
I always wanted to try one of those reel mowers. I'll bet its great for home grown hay!
I used to have a mower with a bagger on it, then I'd empty it in a sunny spot and spread it about an inch thick. Then I turned mine 3 times a day for 2 days until dry, then put it in feed bags and stored it. It was great. We had really great bunny berry fed fescue on that property. I never thought I'd miss mowing the grass but I do. LOL

 

[Marinea]

That's a great idea.

Oh, and welcome to RT, Vargas!

Would love to see pics of your setup.

 

[skysthelimit]

Welcome.

I have a reel mover, but I don't actually have any usable grass.

I planted a patch of alfalfa and clover, if it every takes hold I'll have a little to use for fresh food. That's next years project.

 

[JessiL]

I'm glad to hear you had success with a reel mower. We could also put up a nice grass/alfalfa/clover hay if we could just cut it correctly. I did a very small section with a hand scythe, but unfortunately its handles are loose and it's a real pain to use. My husband claims he'll fix it for me, but if he doesn't, I am seriously considering buying a nice Austrian-style scythe. In my experience, when you let the grass and legumes get long enough for haying, a hand implement is nearly as fast at cutting as a powered machine (we have had to borrow our neighbor's heavy-duty walk-behind mower for our pasture, and even then it requires several passes at slow speed). And it really is nice and meditative and all that to swing the scythe. Just as long as you aren't in a hurry and tackle only small sections at a time...

Our other potential option will be to pick up a sickle bar mower for our tractor (a '60's era Ford, we have 1.3 acres). That'll definitely do the job well, but it's not enough of a priority to buy the mower new. We can only afford picking something up at an estate sale or cheap off of Craigslist.

BTW, in places with cold winters, you can frost-sow your lawn with legumes like clover and alfalfa just by tossing the seed around on top of the snow during the winter (preferably shortly before a brief thaw). Frost-heave will help the seed get down into the ground so that your pasture is improved by the next growing season. I'd do it several times in case birds come by and eat too much of the seed. We can buy bulk alfalfa and legume seed at our local feed stores, so check there before ordering anything.

 

[Vargas]

I've done this with grass cut with a regular lawnmower. It was St. Augustine grass, with various friendly weeds.

I have a bag of forage seed that I got on serious clearance, and I'm going to spread it in my yard so I have lots of good stuff to mow.

It's my understanding that a regular lawnmower also tends to bruise the grass a lot, which can cause it to go bad quickly. So if you can get it to dry out quickly, that's good.

Did you have a bag on the regular lawn mower, or did you let it fall back on the grass?
The only problem I see with regular mower is how fine the grass gets cut. Not only because of raking, but hay waste is already a problem. I can imagine how much would end up on the floor when it is cut that fine. How was your experience with that?<br /><br />__________ Thu Nov 14, 2013 2:09 am __________<br /><br />

That's a great idea.

Oh, and welcome to RT, Vargas!

Would love to see pics of your setup.

Thank you!

I only have five rabbits at the moment, and still messing around with my set up, and how I'm going to grow out the fryers. May have a combination of a tractor and a large cage depending on my available grass. I have an old chicken coop that may be perfect as a large carge. Just need to add 6 or so inches of wire around the bottom so they don't dig out.

 

[Miss M]

Did you have a bag on the regular lawn mower, or did you let it fall back on the grass?
The only problem I see with regular mower is how fine the grass gets cut. Not only because of raking, but hay waste is already a problem. I can imagine how much would end up on the floor when it is cut that fine. How was your experience with that?

No, no bag on the mower. Just let the grass stay where it lay. I broke up and turned thicker areas after a couple of days.

Yes, it is fine, and I did have a fair amount of waste, but I can't remember how bad. You definitely can't do it if you have a mulching mower, as that chops it up way too much. You may be able to come up with a different way to feed it, to accommodate the shorter, finer hay.

 

[Vargas]

Yes, it is fine, and I did have a fair amount of waste, but I can't remember how bad. You definitely can't do it if you have a mulching mower, as that chops it up way too much. You may be able to come up with a different way to feed it, to accommodate the shorter, finer hay.

Mulching mowers is all I have. Thats why I started looking for the reel mower. Does the job well, only more work.

I think I came up with a great idea for hay waste. Going to make my idea soon, then will post pictures in the hay waste forum. Thanks for the info!

 

[Miss M]

Can't wait to see your idea!

If I'm not mistaken, it's the blade that's mulching, not the mower. I think you can put a non-mulching blade on?

 

[Vargas]

Can't wait to see your idea!

If I'm not mistaken, it's the blade that's mulching, not the mower. I think you can put a non-mulching blade on?

I did a quick search, you are correct. Mulching or non mulching depends upon the blade. For now I will stick with my reel mower, but as I plant more grass, I may resort to the gas mower. Thanks!

 

[Miss M]

You're welcome!

 

[markt1]

Thinking of using grass cuttings to feed my rabbits. In earlier years I cut my grass and ended up with narrow rows of 5" high cuttings which my wife hated due to their appearance. I came up with a trick to make the wife happy. After I cut the grass using a blade height of about 2-1/2", I spread the rows out into a uniform thin layer by rapidly driving over them with the lawnmower blade height raised up by 3/4". This creates a strong wind-stream over them that spreads them out very evenly so you can hardly tell at all that I just cut the grass. Now that I am looking at using the grass for rabbit hay, it occurred to me that my trick would allow the grass to quickly dry out for later collection by my towed grass collector (TSC sells them).

 

[Vargas]

Thinking of using grass cuttings to feed my rabbits. In earlier years I cut my grass and ended up with narrow rows of 5" high cuttings which my wife hated due to their appearance. I came up with a trick to make the wife happy. After I cut the grass using a blade height of about 2-1/2", I spread the rows out into a uniform thin layer by rapidly driving over them with the lawnmower blade height raised up by 3/4". This creates a strong wind-stream over them that spreads them out very evenly so you can hardly tell at all that I just cut the grass. Now that I am looking at using the grass for rabbit hay, it occurred to me that my trick would allow the grass to quickly dry out for later collection by my towed grass collector (TSC sells them).

That sounds like your idea would work great! Just remember, the smaller the pieces, the more likelyhood of hay waste from the cages.

 

[Schipperkesue]

I have a gas powered Husqvarna weed trimmer. It is super powerful and has a blade. I use it like a scythe. If the grass is really long you can cut it and lay it to dry on the uncut remainder. I usually leave half a foot. Then when the top side is dry you can flip it with a rake. I collect it and give it to the rabbits right away. I lay it on the top of their cages and they stretch up and pull it through.

One year I hayed a whole acre this way. I collected all the dry grass with my quad and trailer and stuffed it all into an unused cattle chute, which I covered. Haying with those small machines was very labor intensive. It took me three days. One to cut, one to turn and one very long day to collect and stuff. I calculated my hourly wage based on the price of hay that year. I made $5 an hour. Minimum wage was $9.95

 

[JohnMc]

I'm glad to hear you had success with a reel mower. We could also put up a nice grass/alfalfa/clover hay if we could just cut it correctly. I did a very small section with a hand scythe, but unfortunately its handles are loose and it's a real pain to use. My husband claims he'll fix it for me, but if he doesn't, I am seriously considering buying a nice Austrian-style scythe. In my experience, when you let the grass and legumes get long enough for haying, a hand implement is nearly as fast at cutting as a powered machine (we have had to borrow our neighbor's heavy-duty walk-behind mower for our pasture, and even then it requires several passes at slow speed). And it really is nice and meditative and all that to swing the scythe. Just as long as you aren't in a hurry and tackle only small sections at a time...

I have a Austrian scythe and use it to mow our 2 acres. I just do it in sections. To do it all is about 2-3 days work. But you need to be satisfied with a tall lawn. The scythe works best when the grass is about a foot tall and full of moisture. The nice thing is your grass gets laid out in neat rows ready for haying.