# Can you feed grass clippings to a cow?



## Levonsa

I also posted this on the goat forum.

I know that you are not supposed to feed grass clippings to a horse, but can they be feed to goats or cows? We have close to an acre as yard and a yard sweeper would pay for itself quickly if we could safely feed the clippings to our nigerians or mini cattle. 

Thanks


----------



## KayJay

Sorry, I don't have an answer to your question, but I was curious to know, why aren't you supposed to feed grass clippings to horses? Do you mean only certain types of grass or am I missing something? My horses always got grass clippings, when there was enough grass to bother mowing....


----------



## postroad

I would say that if you left them to dry before you raked them up there whould be no problem in including them as a portion of the feed.

I think that cows might overeat on an unlimeted supply of fine green grass they did not have the restriction of having to work at grazing for themselves.


----------



## Cotton Picker

Levonsa said:


> I also posted this on the goat forum.
> 
> I know that you are not supposed to feed grass clippings to a horse, but can they be feed to goats or cows? We have close to an acre as yard and a yard sweeper would pay for itself quickly if we could safely feed the clippings to our nigerians or mini cattle.
> 
> Thanks


Hi Levonsa....

I would first ask if the cattle were on pasture with access to green forage.... If not, than an overabundance of green grass clippings could give them bloat....

If they are not on green forage than I would follow Postroad's council and feed them dry...

Any way you go you will want to avoid leaving the clippings in clumps or piles..... As this will produce molds and gasses that will not be too healthy for your stock....



> I have fed lawn clippings to the cows for years, and I learned this from my dad who did it since before I was born with no problems. As long as you are not using a bunch of pesticides on your lawn, it should be fine. If you are using chemicals on your lawn, I would look up the restrictions of those chemicals for livestock. As to the nutrient content of the clippings, it will depend on the nutrients in the soil. Do you fertilize your lawn well? Personally I fertilize my pasture but not my lawn. Doing that would just make me have to mow it more often. The lawn is in a vegetative state of growth so the fiber numbers (ADF) should be low.
> 
> http://www.cattlepages.com/faqs/question.aspx?id=956


----------



## Levonsa

Thanks for the replies. 

Kayjay, horses aren't supposed to have them because of some of the molds or bacteria that are produced since blades aren't left whole and able to dry as it does when cut for hay. I don't remember exactly where I read that, but it was sometime after we got our first mini horses in the mid 90's.


----------



## KayJay

Ah, I think I understand, you mean clippings that aren't fresh then?


----------



## Oakshire_Farm

Horse can also injest the clippings and colic! 

I have been feeding my cows the lawn clippings for years, they love it! When we have more clippings that they will eat, I put the clippings in to heavey duty garbage bags squeeze all the air out and make bags of sialage! They love that in the winter.


----------



## Ronney

Yes, cows love grass clippings but don't tip them over the fence in a great mound because this is where you can run into the same problems as with horses. If the cows don't finish the mound it starts to compost and the mould is not good for their guts at all. Spread them out in a thin line and if it's not cleaned up they can come back for seconds later on without there being any problems. Mine are quite happy to eat them 3 days later when they are all dried up and look unappetising but they think they're fine. The girl across the road feeds her mare clippings in the same way.

Cheers,
Ronnie


----------



## SpaceCadet12364

Our cows know the sound of the garden tractor and the yard sweeper starting up....they pay pretty close attention to you to, while mowing. Then, when you take it in the pasture to rake it out of the vacuum trailer, they will come up and sometimes even try to eat it straight off the bagger! 

Its like cow snackies time when we do the lawn. Usually we dump out a load into a couple three piles, and for the most part there isnt much of the pile left to get a chance for it to go moldy.


----------



## Levonsa

Thanks everyone. I think we will get one of the sweepers, and then use our spreader to spread the clippings in the pasture with the cows and/or goats. I hope to be getting a few Guinea Hogs soon too. I think that it will be worth the effort to get the clippings up for them. 

Thanks again.


----------



## SpaceCadet12364

Oh yeah, we do NOT treat the lawn with any chemicals......we use guinea fowl for bug control, they do pretty good on that especially regarding ticks. Dont think we have seen but maybe one or two ticks in over 4 years since we started free ranging those guineas.


----------



## Ernie

I think you'd be better served taking those grass clippings and making silage out of them.


----------



## Levonsa

Oakshire mentioned this too. Exactly what is silage and how would I go about making it? I want to stretch all that I have as far as it can go. I am willing to kearn something new. 

Thanks


----------



## Oakshire_Farm

Get your self some really strong heavey duty garbage bags! Pour your lawn clippings into them, squish all the remaining air out of the bags, seal them up so they are air tight. Place somewhere in the sun so they can ferment! After about a month feed them! 

Make sure that if there is any holes in the bag they are sealed! If the air gets at in it will just rot


----------



## Ernie

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache...52.pdf+making+silage&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

I found that link for you. I don't make silage due to having plenty of pasture but it's a great way to manage your nutrition if you have your cattle on dry lot.

A neighbor of mine swears by silage. He says it boosts his milk production even higher than alfalfa would. I haven't done any experimentation with it, but his two milkers sure seem healthy and there's plenty of cream in the milk.


----------



## sammyd

I've put up a lot of silage from hay fields but lawn clippings are a bit different.
They are not chopped as fine as what you would get with a forage chopper, this will affect how the stuff cures and if not packed really tight may cause more molding than normal.
Later in the year as the grass gets drier it will affect how well the stuff cures. Not enough moisture means not good curing.
That being said, making silage in a bag isn't extremely difficult.
We either rake up the clipping or use a lawn sweeper. Having a bagger on the mower would be nice.
We put the clippings in big *thick* trash bags, press, stomp, shake, jiggle, whatever it takes to get as much in there as possible then keep shoving till you get even more in.
Use a vacuum to suck all the air out of the bag. It might shrivel to half its size. Twist the end and use duct tape to tape it down and seal the end.
We put up a bunch once using 5 gallon buckets with lids. We packed the bags in the buckets and stopmed the stuff down then twisted taped and put the lid on. Smaller packages but a nice size for a couple of goats.
We have also done this with leftover sweet corn and even planted some field corn specifically for silage. Since the stems can be pokey we fill a plastic feed sack then put that in the trash bag and vacuum seal. We have used a small chipper shredder to do this but last year I bought a forage chopper base unit and feed the corn stalks through it. Also really handy for chopped straw for bedding.


----------



## ozark_jewels

Levonsa said:


> Kayjay, horses aren't supposed to have them because of some of the molds or bacteria that are produced since blades aren't left whole and able to dry as it does when cut for hay.


They should not be fed to goats for the exact same reasons. Believe it or not, goats are even touchier about molds than horses are. If you want to deal with listeriosis and/or polio and/or abortions, then feed anything moldy to your goats.
A little mold rarely ever hurts a cow past *maybe* giving her the scoots for a day or so........but goats are a totally different matter. Goats should not be fed silage for the same reason.


----------



## Shazza

We feed our grass clippings to our cows regualarily...they love it....but as someone said dont empty the catcher in a pile over the fence as you dont want the grass creating heat...so spread them out.


----------

