Making silage on a small scale from lawn clippings

Yes. Well, more published research than ag extensions for the effects of feeding it.

Here is the first that came up this morning searching: "haylage" for chickens

It is a Swedish study comparing pellets vs 15% of the pellets replaced by haylage vs 15% of the pellets replaced by corn silage. All studied on two types of meaties: fast growing and slow growing (rangers). Corn silage was comparable to pellets in feed intake, body weight, organ size and condition, and health parameters (sticky dropping, foot pad health, and such). Haylage was comparable in health parameters and organ size and condition but had lower feed intake and body weight by a little less than ten percent.

This "... Limiting protein intake for organic broilers in the finishing stages can be an acceptable feeding strategy if the broilers have access to vegetation with a high nutritional value. Reducing protein levels for slow-growing breeds to 15% resulted in a lower FCE but a lower cost of production. Key to this is range management and alternative forages, such as baled haylages,"

Here is another comparison of types of silage as "foraging materials" where laying hens ate silage as about 30-50% of their diet. I think as free choice but they didn't say so directly. Minor effects on digestibility were seen. One type (pea-barley) had lower egg production (208 eggs vs 219 eggs). All types resulted in "improved animal welfare" which seems to mean less pecking of each other and improved quality of plumage."

There is more evidence for corn silage but I have a lawn. I don't have a corn field.

I haven't looked into testing my results. If I decide to feed it, as more than a treat, then I probably will at least look into testing it.
 
Don't add anything to the silage. Grass clippings only.
Why nothing but the grass clippings? I wouldn't be surprised if you are right, but do you know why?
... Fresh cutting will have about enough moisture.
Good to know.
Something with a lot of alfalfa or clover works way better for chickens. I'm doing the same thing with straight alfalfa.
We've got a lot of clover in the "mowed but not lawn" part of our lot. I'll put that in the next barrel. That part isn't usually bagged though.

You are making haylage with your alfalfa? On what scale? My family put some haylage up in one the upright silos sometimes. I'm finding some things are applicable and some are not so much.
You can also drop buckets of fresh clippings in the freezer for winter time.
I'm pleased my city raised husband has gotten as far as being willing to have one small stand-alone freezer.
 
One more source of feeding haylage (grass silage) to chickens. This a college textbook published in 1952 and used in classes at Michigan State in the 1950s.

I put pictures showing the colleges the authors were from and the page that talks about the importance of green feed and about grass silage as one of several sources of that green feed.

The next page says the usual recommendation is 4-6 pounds of grass silage per day per 100 hens. It also notes this produces deeper-colored yolks.
 

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I guess my question would be to what end? A main staple of their diet, a supplement for when thing start dying off in winter, or just the occasional treat? I'd probably agree with Mary that if you're doing this as a treat that's a lot of time and effort.

Yes. Well, more published research than ag extensions for the effects of feeding it.

Here is the first that came up this morning searching: "haylage" for chickens

It is a Swedish study comparing pellets vs 15% of the pellets replaced by haylage vs 15% of the pellets replaced by corn silage. All studied on two types of meaties: fast growing and slow growing (rangers). Corn silage was comparable to pellets in feed intake, body weight, organ size and condition, and health parameters (sticky dropping, foot pad health, and such). Haylage was comparable in health parameters and organ size and condition but had lower feed intake and body weight by a little less than ten percent.

"In conclusion, feeding diets with 15 percent inclusion of grass silage or haylage decreased growth performance-"

Healthwise, it sounds like they'd be fine, but if you're concerned about growth performance then you absolutely don't want to make this a main part of their diet. The savings you see will be negligible and you'll be harvesting smaller birds.

One more source of feeding haylage (grass silage) to chickens. This a college textbook published in 1952 and used in classes at Michigan State in the 1950s.

I put pictures showing the colleges the authors were from and the page that talks about the importance of green feed and about grass silage as one of several sources of that green feed.

The next page says the usual recommendation is 4-6 pounds of grass silage per day per 100 hens. It also notes this produces deeper-colored yolks.

Nice find. I'm interested what they define "green feed" as, and what the rest of the grass silage section says, but I'd also caution reading a 70-year-old college textbook and taking everything as fact/relevant. Poultry raising has come a long way in the time since.

If you have a bare run, or one that gets pretty rough in the winter, then using grass silage is a good way for some supplemental greens. Sounds like it would be mostly useful for distracting chickens from pecking each other though. Beyond that it really does seem like this is a lot of effort for what you're getting.
 
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The pictures are the whole sections on green feeds and vitamins.

Sorry that pages 196 comes before page195. I click in right order to add them then I don't know what I do that switches them sometimes.
 

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I don't know what scale I will feed it; treat level to start with and likely just treat level. If making it and feeding it both go well then I'll be more motivated to learn enough about nutrition to feed more of it. I'm pretty firmly on the side of not unbalancing commercial feed.

The short term goals are to learn how to do it, see how willingly they will eat it, and do something with the grass that is better than dumping it in the woods. I put some as mulch in the garden and some in the compost pile and as much as I can in with the chickens (too much and I don't like how damp it makes the bedding for a few days) but I can't use it all in those ways. A mulching mower is also not going to happen - not my choice. I think the grass will get partly broken down and so compost faster, if nothing else.

Longer term goal is as a step in the direction of figuring out growing my own feed: This project. In case I want to someday. The options for storing the feeds influence what I can usefully grow.

There is also a certain amount of nostalgia involved and value in doing things myself - two of the main reasons I have the chickens anyway. It would be a LOT easier and cheaper to buy fresh eggs at one of the stands at the end of a driveway that are all over around here. Or a garden - it would be a LOT easier and cheaper to buy at one of the farm stands down the street. Or evaporating maple syrup, pressing cider, baking bread...

Yes, I agree that a lot has been learned in the last seventy years. Such older info should not be taken without thought and perspective. One thing that stood out was the reason green feed was so important then - they didn't have vitamin powders to add to feeds. We don't need to feed it as they did.

How much effort it takes is one of the things I want to find out. If I can get it to work, then I can adjust how it is done. Possibly: make a chute for adding the grass go the barrel, use a press like the universities use to fill their "mini silos" for their research projects or like some backyard cider mills use, or just set cement blocks for steps beside the barrel.
 
"In conclusion, feeding diets with 15 percent inclusion of grass silage or haylage decreased growth performance-"
Yes. This is interesting. The researchees of that study thought it was because the chickens didn't like the taste of the haylage or maybe the texture. Since they fed it TMR (total mixed ration), if the chickens ate less of the haylage, they also ate less of everything else also. And they measured how much was eaten - it was about 15% less than the corn silage or pellets.

They might be right, but does all haylage taste the same? The Swedish study didn't say what kind of grass they used or anything about how the haylage was made - age of the grass when it was cut and so on. Grasses definitely have a lot of different tastes.

Regardless, it certainly is a reason to go into it slowly and keep looking for more information.
 

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