Grass seed in hay/haylage...

[kellybee]

My hay is Timothy is full of seed heads so I've been picking them out of my hay when I'm bored and have a whole bin full now for the poached areas in my fields (The whole field is poached to be honest but I'll scatter on the worst bits!). I've also been collecting the loose seeds off the floor in the barn too.

I wonder though

1) Is it worth shaking bags of seed heads to loosen the individual seeds or should I just throw them around the field once it's harrowed, and

2) is the seed from Haylage worth collecting or will they be dead?

 

[EPRider]

Haylage seeds will not grow. For the hay seeds how much time do you want to spend messing around. They would be best rubbed off the seed heads but it is not essential.

 

[HaffiesRock]

I was thinking about hay seeds the other day.

I have a relatively small paddock as my pony is a very good doer and wont wear a muzzle. I have a lot of mole hills down one side and I rake them out to flatten them. Whilst poo picking yesterday it was very windy and the hay was blowing everywhere. Will the seeds from it partially reseed some of the soil from the mole hills?

Long shot I know but maybe?

 

[JillA]

Haylage seeds will not grow.

My haylage seeds grow. I don't know where you got that from but every year I empty out the wrap onto the poached areas and parts of the yard and it grows well.
You want to scatter seeds when the soil is moist and warm enough for them to germinate, otherwise the birds will eat most of them while they are sitting awaiting the right conditions.

 

[Polos Mum]

I use the sweepings from the bottom of my hay bars and they grow nicely on poached areas - I stamp them in to keep birds off at least a bit of them - not wild birds as my chickens eat most before wild birds get any chance!

 

[WelshD]

I've been feeding hay on various poached areas of my field in the hope that seeds will germinate!

 

[Jobi-Wan Kenobi]

I just scatter the hay seeds. Some take, some don't. Either way, it's worth trying

 

[kellybee]

I was thinking about hay seeds the other day.

I have a relatively small paddock as my pony is a very good doer and wont wear a muzzle. I have a lot of mole hills down one side and I rake them out to flatten them. Whilst poo picking yesterday it was very windy and the hay was blowing everywhere. Will the seeds from it partially reseed some of the soil from the mole hills?

Long shot I know but maybe?

Hay seed def works, I've always got a green muck heap come May. Last yr we used what we swept off the stable floors under the haynets and scattered it around the gateways. We just harrowed it, scattered and trod it in. Two weeks later, ickle green things poking up out of the mud everywhere!!

Haylage seeds will not grow. For the hay seeds how much time do you want to spend messing around. They would be best rubbed off the seed heads but it is not essential.

My hay is FULL of seed, and I basically pick the longer seed heads while I'm waiting for the horses to finish their dinners and I sweep up the loose seeds from under their haynets and in the hay barns every day - I've been doing this all winter and literally have a feed bin full, although half of that is probably crumbled hay stems, lol.

I tend to grab a handful of seed heads and rub them between my hands to loosen the seeds and will scatter when the fields are harrowed (before they're rolled) next week.

The reason I asled about haylage is because I'm a part time groom and the lady I work for uses haylage. There's always LOADS of haylage seed in the stable and yesterday I was sweeping the seed up, wondering if it would be worth adding it to my seed bin!