- Oct 15, 2012
- 156
- 4
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I was wondering if anybody has some suggestions for preserving forage from the pasture over the winter, whether I should feed it as "hay", rehydrate and make a mash, or invest in a pellet grinder. Our pasture will, hopefully, consist of orchardgrass, perennial ryegrass, timothy grass, dandelion, purlsane, and maybe some other chicke-friendly herbs and weeds. We plan on mowing this down regularly and baling up the clippings. We were going to do silage, but that just seems like a huge pain in the rear end. In addition to this we plan on providing fodder, sunflower seeds, and other fresh things through the winter that we can grow in the green house, as well as farming mealworms and earthworms and tossing any mice we catch in the house to them as well.
But my biggest concern is the pasture clippings. I want this to help supplement and reduce our feed costs, or ideally replace them entirely, for our chickens and rabbits, and hopefully a couple goats or sheep. Since all BUT the chickens can readily and happily eat hay, that is how we're going to save it. For the chickens, would it be possible to kind of rehydrate this hay and run it through a food mill to just feed as a pulp or mash? Or should we invest in a pellet mill? Is there such a thing as a hand crank pellet mill? We want to avoid gas-powered and electrical farm equipment wherever possible, so with this in mind, what do you think would be the best way to provide our pasture hay to the chickens?
But my biggest concern is the pasture clippings. I want this to help supplement and reduce our feed costs, or ideally replace them entirely, for our chickens and rabbits, and hopefully a couple goats or sheep. Since all BUT the chickens can readily and happily eat hay, that is how we're going to save it. For the chickens, would it be possible to kind of rehydrate this hay and run it through a food mill to just feed as a pulp or mash? Or should we invest in a pellet mill? Is there such a thing as a hand crank pellet mill? We want to avoid gas-powered and electrical farm equipment wherever possible, so with this in mind, what do you think would be the best way to provide our pasture hay to the chickens?
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