Grass and Hay for Animals

Grass and Hay for Animals

This page contains information about grass and hay along with tips, instructions and useful techniques to help you start your own farm and living independently away from cities. Below are information about growing grass and making hay. If that's what you're loooking for then this is the place for you. Below you will find the most important aspects related to grass and hay, just enough to get you started, if you have any question you can visit our forum and ask our expert farmers.


Growing Grass

Grass (when I use the word grass I mean grass and clover) will give you far more yield if you graze it really hard all at one time, and then rest it completely, rather than if you keep nibbling at it all the time.

Heap: applications of farmyard manure do nothing but good. Tits manure rots down and disappears very quickly: actually earthworms drag it down into the soil. But if it is cow manure don't graze the land with cows for a while no animal likes grazing near its own droppings.
Keep some permanent pasture if you can possibly afford more land.

Probably the most profitable use of a small piece of land would be to farm it on a rotation that included one year in four of a one year ley. The famous Norfolk Four Course Rotation (wheat roots barley one year ley) is an example of this.

If you want to put down permanent pasture you could have something like this:

  • 14 Ibs of perennial rye grass
  • 8 lbs of cocksfoot
  • 4 lbs of timothy
  • 1 Ib of rough stalked meadow grass
  • 4 Ibs of late flowering red clover
  • 1 Ib of wild white clover
  • Total
  • 32 Ibs of per acre

To establish your pasture, broadcast the seed on a very good firm seedbed either in the spring alone, in the spring under a nurse crop (barley or oats or spring wheat) or in late summer. If own graze it lightly later in the first summer. If sown in the late summer graze it lightly in the late spring. Don't overgraze it the first summer.

Making Hay

growing grass and making hay

The earlier you cut the hay the more nutritious it will be, but the smaller the tonnage of it. It’s better cut in July after the sheep shearing. Good weather is absolutely all important. If it stays fine you may get all your hay under cover in a few days and it will be perfect. Cutting can be done by scythe, horse mower or powered mower. A man is supposed to be able to cut an acre a day with a scythe.

If you start the winter with at least a ton of hay per head of large stock (cows and horses) and a few tons for any sheep you may have, you can feel fairly secure. A very good yield is two tons per acre: you may get less.

If you liked this page, you might also be interested in this page about Raising Cows.

This page is just one of many pages dedicated to sustainable living through organic farming and living wisely. Grass and hay will enable you become one step closer to food independance. This is beneficial to your health, peace of mind and lifestyle, great for nature, and reduces your carbon footprint. You can really do it yourself, grow your own food, raise your own animals, from simple means. You can go back to nature and sustainability one step at a time. Today grass and hay, tomorrow something else. That's why we have many articles that you can find on the left side of this page to choose from. Each time try to add something to your farm. Sustainable living is your ticket to true freedom. Enjoy the rest of our pages.
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