Home made hay

[Catt of the Garage]

Hello all!

This summer's project has been to plant an outdoor play area for the pigs, and it's well underway, with tunnels, a house, hills and valleys, a path etc. We seeded it with grass some time ago but it's taking longer than we thought to get it ready for pig use, so we keep having to trim back the grass, which has been up to about 8 inches at times!

We've been giving some of the trimmings direct to the pigs, but there's a lot of it, nice long grass cut by hand, and I hate to throw it away. I read an article about making your own hay, so I had a go, and it was surprisingly easy to do.

My question is, nutritionally, how good is my home made hay compared to shop bought Timothy hay? How much of the pigs' diet can be made up of this? The grass in question is the following mix:

20% dwarf perennial ryegrass
25% SC red fescue
20% SLC red fescue
15% hard fescue
5% wood or rough meadow grass
5% browntop bent

I'm aware there's some concern over fungus toxicity with fescue, but having looked into it, I'm not concerned - the fungus in question is the endophytic (symbiotic) fungus inside the seeds themselves, and apparently it doesn't stand up well to storage - if you don't store your seed properly (cool, dry place) it'll be gone within a year. We've had this seed lying around in a hot garage for about two years, so I think the fungus is long gone!

(Here's where I read that - http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/cro ... dophyt.htm )

Interested to hear anyone thoughts on home made hay. Could save a lot of money if it's good to use.

[Lynx]

The main issue I think you'd have is the quantity and I think the fact that many are perennials and really have to be established before they grown enough to be hay.

[Catt of the Garage]

Do you mean from the point of view of hay quality, or grass health? I have to trim the grass just now anyway, to encourage it to form turf, so it isn't harming it - but is the hay less good if it's not fully established?

[Kimera]

Hay is simply dried grass. If it is clean and without harmful plants, it is good, if not better than most store bought hays. Your grass mix is perfectly good, it doesn't actually have to include timothy.

[Lynx]

As with lawns, when you cut too short, you stunt and weaken the grass. I don't know the optimal management of grass hays to produce a good plant that can be harvested 2 to 3 times a year but I think it is not as simple as planting grasses and frequent (and perhaps too vigorous) cutting.

My guess is if you do some research on establishing a grass hay field, you will learn much.

[Catt of the Garage]

I will go and look into it, thanks.

[Rome_Italy]

my piggies never had timothy hay, but I buy different hays. Once I also produced some hay (cutting the grass from wild lawns) and it was perfect and well appreciated; therefore go on with your idea and of course study and learn more and more so that you hay will be better than the most expensive one (which is never guaranteed...). My piggies' diet is based on grass I pick up and they have a great health.
Be only careful to the storage, the hay can produce fire...

[Clint The Cuy]

There really is no way to know if the endophytic fungus is present without looking at the seed (or plant) under a microscope to determine if the endophyte is present in between the cells of the seed. If there is no enodphyte present it just means that your grass may not thrive and it's 60% of your seed mix. Not to mention the ryegrass which also contains an enodphytic fungus that causes ryegrass staggers or "grass tetany" in horses and other livestock. Ryegrass has a lower incidence of endophyte infestation, but the same problem of resiliency in the plant remains. Endophyte free = ecological failure. Not to mention the fact that when you seed, your pasture/yard/area has a very high probability of being infected with an endophytic fungus by surrounding grasses that are hardier.

I did my senior seminar in college on endophyte toxicity in the pregnant mare and pasture management is a highly discussed topic in the large animal world. And I'm just a crop/weed nerd.

[Lynx]

Very interesting!

[bpatters]

Stick with us, Clint the Cuy! We need your expertise!

[Clint The Cuy]

Guinea Lynx and this forum have provided such a wealth of knowledge to myself and others over the years that I just want to contribute in some way just out of gratefulness. Do the same that others have done for me.