Grass Cuttings for horses ...What is your take on it ?....

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

Discuss

 

[stencilface]

Well we have just had sections of our field cut with a power scythe, mainly in the areas dominated by nettles and thistles. There is some cut grass, in long hay like sections and I'm not worried at all. They are also enjoying eating the withered thistles

Think its only mulched up mown wet grass that is really a problem.

 

[ISHmad]

Grass cut with a lawnmower can cause colic. What else is there to discuss?

 

[Orangehorse]

NO!!!! My elderly neighbour recalled, as a young married farmer's wife, giving the farm horses grass cuttings, thinking she was being nice to them and they all ended up with colic, so that wasn't a very good start to married life.

Seriously, I know some people give them very fresh and scattered thinly on the ground, but once they have been in heap they very, very quickly heat up and then it causes problems.

 

[jodie :)]

whats wrong with getting them cut the grass themselves in a field? UNLESS you don't have access to a field, then i'd say use grass cuttings

 

[jessamess]

NO NO NOOOO!!!

Well thats what I have always been taught/told... I was told it gave colic too!!!

never ever

 

[stencilface]

I think there needs to be a distinction between cuttings and mown.

Mown = bad

Cuttings - can be ok

 

[happyhack]

I've always been taught never to give grass cuttings because of the colic risk?

 

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

Grass mowings it is then ......ie freshly cut grass mowings .

Discuss

 

[Double_choc_lab]

I think the problem with cuttings arises when they are left in a heap ie in a pile or in the mower as then start to "ferment". This is what causes the colic. I've always been told a definite No No.

 

[Chestnuttymare]

My mare has to be stabled at night due to field mates needing to be in, so on a daily basis I cut grass, all different types and put it in a haynet at night for her. I have done it for the past 3 years. It is cut with a knife not a lawn mower. Mulched grass from a mower has oil in it and also starts to ferment really quickly and will cause colic.

 

[flowerlady]

My mare has to be stabled at night due to field mates needing to be in, so on a daily basis I cut grass, all different types and put it in a haynet at night for her. I have done it for the past 3 years. It is cut with a knife not a lawn mower. Mulched grass from a mower has oil in it and also starts to ferment really quickly and will cause colic.

I think you have been very lucky

 

[Doncella]

No! it's something to do with the breakdown of the molecular structure of the grass as it is diced and sliced by modern mowers that causes colic and worse.
I had a real go at my nieghbours' lazy ba?"$%d gardener for throwin the grass clippings into my field.
He only stopped when I threw them all over her drive.

 

[TGM]

I'd never give horses grass cut with a lawnmower because as said above it gets thrashed by the blades and ferments very quickly. I do occasionally give long grass cut with scissors to my horses when they are stabled though.

 

[Rowreach]

I would not recommend feeding lawn mower grass cuttings to any equine You know what I think CMT, it's all ready for you

 

[Chestnuttymare]

I think you have been very lucky

In what way have i been lucky? it is cut with a knife, not a mower, no oil and not mulched up so doesn't ferment. In fact even the stuff she doesn't eat and gets put on the dung heap doesn't ferment, ermm it just looks like hay.

 

[china]

if you cut the grass and immediatly give it to the horse it should be fine, i literaly mean cut it and chuck it over the fence to them, but if you leave it then give it to them i can cause colic! it heats up and starts to ferment!!

 

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

Okies .....
Who would like to tackle my Yard owner ?
Last night I went to put madam out and I ask her if the field that she was meaning for me to use was ......lets call it field A ...to which she replied "yes" ....So I then asked her what did she want me to do with the grass cuttings/mowings etc and she looked at me puzzled and asked me why . To which I replied ermmm because they are bad for horses ....can cause colic, can lead to grass sickness, ferments pretty quickly etc etc .

Her reply was ... " Oh but I've always fed them " ......Well not to my horse I would hope not . :crazy:

I was shocked to say the least .

I removed 3 full barrowfuls of grass mowings out of the field .

I am the only one now left on the yard and I ask myself why I still stay there, Field management is terrible, sand arena is terrible and hacking is virtually impossible .



Would you feed this to your horse ?

 

[Rowreach]

No. What are your options?

 

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

if you cut the grass and immediatly give it to the horse it should be fine, i literaly mean cut it and chuck it over the fence to them, but if you leave it then give it to them i can cause colic! it heats up and starts to ferment!!

Should be fine ?

And what about choke ?

 

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

No. What are your options?

I have none

I have been there since the yard started up which is nearly 8 years .

She is a nice lady and we get on well, but she can be ignorant at times (not to be confused with nasty)

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Discuss

Don't!

 

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

Don't!

And did you read the rest of the thread ?

 

[Donkeymad]

Long grass that they need to chew thoroughly is fine, as it gets covered in saliva before it is swallowed. Short grass cuttings as from a lawn mower are swallowed rather than chewed, and this can cause the problem.

 

[Paint it Lucky]

My old yard owner had some fields of very long (hay type) grass that he toppedthen left the toppings on the fields, then expected us to turn the horses out in them. I wouldn't as was worried about colic. Does this sort of grass cuttings have the same effect as lawnmower ones?

 

[Storminateacup]

I cut the very long seeded grasses outside my fields with a big pair of scissors and stuff it in a haylege net for my older horse when he is in his starvation paddock for a few hours (approx 5 hours per day at times). He loves it but its not as much grass as he would eat if he were allowed to, so its a luxury, but rationed.
That helps keep him slim enough for health, and happy too. It doesn't get time to start fermenting so I reckon it pretty harmless. There is short grass in the paddock too.
Wouldn't feed grass cuttings from a mower, as firstly there could be oil on it and secondly, because the grass is bruised and damaged by the blades it ferments faster, so could lead to colic in some horses - though my old fellow seems able to eat anything from wilted nettles and thistles to purple prickly thistleheads
Oh thank goodness for an irish bog trotter!

 

[Brandy]

I think the point about grass cuttings is this - if it is mown grass, as in relatively short, and green, from a lawn type area and emptied out of a mower (as in the pics provided) in a heap then is it wet and piled up andwill ferment and give a horse colic. They will gobble it down in a big wet fermenting mass and all will not be well.

If the grass is long, and picked by hand or scissors or knife, and given to the horse to eat it will not be wet and short and mulchy and will not be gobbled in a big lump (it is long and coarser and drier and therefore needs chewing) and therefore will not be a problem.

The poster who cuts with a knife and puts in haynet is fine.

 

[pastie2]

Grass that is topped by a tractor and topper is fine and horses can be left in a field to graze. Lawn mowed grass will ferment in their guts causing colic. Cattle can eat it as they have a completely differant digestive system.

 

[Mike007]

Grass that is topped by a tractor and topper is fine and horses can be left in a field to graze. Lawn mowed grass will ferment in their guts causing colic. Cattle can eat it as they have a completely differant digestive system.

Spot on Pastie 2(except possibly some spelling,but who am I to criticise)

 

[JanetGeorge]

Grass that is topped by a tractor and topper is fine and horses can be left in a field to graze.

A guarded yes, but if the grass is very long, a topper dumps it in rows and these can heat up (and go mouldy underneath) very quickly! (This is why grass cut for hay and haylage is turned regularly to dry it out quicker before it heats up and becomes mouldy.)