Silage, it works!

[RonP]

Last winter season my area received an inordinate amount of small snow and ice storms.

My birds refused to step outside on the snow and ice. They remained voluntary "cooped up" for weeks on end, as the cold temperatures hampered the melting process.

This past growing season, I decided to try my luck with producing silage, with the thought of covering the snow with this edible treat.

I won't go into details as to how I made it, as all my research was derived from this site, but what a pleasant surprise.

The picture below shows the silage on top of 18" of snow in their run!

This silage was from an April cutting 10 months ago...

and yes, that is a friend's gorgeous front lawn turf grass pesticide free.



The birds seem to enjoy it.

 

[LBKS]

Do you know about how long the grass pieces are in general? I know when I've looked into this there was concern about crop impaction due to length of grass cuts.

Looks beautiful, nicely done!

 

[RonP]

Do you know about how long the grass pieces are in general? I know when I've looked into this there was concern about crop impaction due to length of grass cuts.

Looks beautiful, nicely done!

By design, the lawn was cut using a mulching blade.

The lengths seem no longer than an inch or two.

My issue now is that it was so easy, I made way too much... Not sure why, but I thought it would shrink...

Next year I will start using it before the first snowfall...

 

[aart]

I just throw some scratch out onto the snow, that gets most of them used to walking on the snow.....
....use some straw or hay out if it gets icy.


Do you have a thread about how you did this silage thing?
Am curious.

 

[RonP]

Start your research here.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/516459/making-your-winter-feed-now-silage

I had my master gardener friends bag their lawn for me when the grass looked about right last spring.

Now I'm looking for some goats in need...

 

[OlympicChick]

All of the articles and most of the people that seem to make silage are about large amounts (compared to what I would be doing, anyway). I have a very small area with grass, and I was wondering if anyone just bags up their grass clippings into Ziplocs and makes "mini" silage this way?

 

[snow5164]

No wouldn’t it just rot ?nothing smells worse then moldy grass...I wouldn’t mess with that ,mold in grasses can be toxic .

Read a few articles , it kind of interesting... like fermenting grass ....I sprouts grains for the winter months

I wouldn’t bother for a small flock , I place tree stumps or branches they can stand on and we use straw but shavings work just as good ,

 

[aart]

Hmmm, haven't seen @RonP around in a while....hope he's OK.