Making own chaff with garden shredder - any experience?

[equa39]

I'm thinking of making my own chaff if possible and saw on one of these forums someone was already doing it by using a garden shredder, any experience of what type? does it need to be a specific type? Can haylage be shredded like this? etc? I'm sick of chaff being full of unwanted extras and anything remotely ok is so expensive. All help is welcome, thanks

 

[catkin]

How much are you feeding? If it's a small amount like the handful I give my small pony then clip it with scissors fresh for each feed. If you hold a clump in your fist you soon get the hang of cutting it. I have used a very dry haylage as well as hay using this method.

 

[JillA]

I did - scrounged an unwanted shredder. Didn't really work that well - the chop was quite long, and soft hay and haylage kept clogging and getting wrapped round the spindle. I sent more time unclogging it than actually cutting, might have needed sharper blades but they are designed for woody stuff.
I reckon there is a gap in the market for a mini chaff cutter, hand or electric which doesn't take up the space the old ones did - any engineers out there?

 

[supsup]

I think at this point I'd ask myself: why feed chaff at all, if all it is is chopped up hay? Just feed more hay!
I sort of understand the rise of chaff on the market to add fibre or slow down horses fed something like straight oats, and as an invention (marketing!) to sell bagged feed to owners of leisure horses that don't really need concentrates.
Beyond that, I don't really see a point in feeding chaff. I'd just stick with a plain grass/alfalfa pellet or speedibeet if you need a carrier for supplements, or go with a pelleted balancer neat.

 

[JillA]

There can be lots of reasons for feeding good quality chop, from slowing down a horse who bolts his food, to those for whom beet pulp is for whatever reason not suitable to those, like mine, who are dentally challenged and need a hay replacer diet and so on.

 

[Cortez]

I think at this point I'd ask myself: why feed chaff at all, if all it is is chopped up hay? Just feed more hay!
I sort of understand the rise of chaff on the market to add fibre or slow down horses fed something like straight oats, and as an invention (marketing!) to sell bagged feed to owners of leisure horses that don't really need concentrates.
Beyond that, I don't really see a point in feeding chaff. I'd just stick with a plain grass/alfalfa pellet or speedibeet if you need a carrier for supplements, or go with a pelleted balancer neat.

Very well put ^^^. Chaff was originally put in nosebags for working harness horses that needed to be fed "on the job", it was also used to slow down horses which bolted large grain feeds (also from the days when horses actually needed a lot of concentrate feed, because they worked incredibly hard). Nowadays chaff is sold as a bucket feed, perhaps because owners like to feel they are giving something "special" to their little darlings

 

[scrat]

Would this be any good for you, just chopped hay and straw, nothing else http://justfeeds.co.uk/products/just-chop/. Might be less hassle than DIY chaff.