Making your own chaff

[holeymoley]

Okay so I appreciate I may have gone completely off my rocker. However. I have just had a hay analysis done on my lovely meadow hay which has came back with probably the best results I could’ve asked for. So. I feed simple systems chaffs which are basically just chopped Timothy grass/alfalfa. Could I effectively make chaff out of my hay? My guy is ems laminitic so he has basic feeds with added vitamins etc I don’t need the chaff to have any added oils etc

 

[scrat]

You want one of these http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/Ip6tPg0kTH-wrFzK-uWpSw
Brings back memories of helping at local riding school long before bagged chaff. We would all take a turn chopping hay into chaff and filling up a huge tin bath type container. I'm sure theres a more modern version of the chaff cutter?

 

[planete]

I remember using a chaff cutter. Back breaking job, perhaps they make electric ones nowadays?

 

[rabatsa]

I used to use a tractor driven chaff cutter when younger. The chaff we made was half hay and half straw.

 

[blitznbobs]

If you do make sure you get a really good filtering mask as it’s a great way to damage your lungs...

 

[Gloi]

That takes me back. We all had to take turns on the manual chaff cutter at the riding school fifty years back. A lethal machine. It's a wonder we didn't lose our fingers. Sure there would be h&s objections to 12year olds using one these days.

 

[Esmae]

We turned a garden shredder into a very effective chaff cutter. You do need some kind of mask though as it kicks up quite a bit of dust and seed etc. Saved us a fortune in bagged chaff.

 

[rextherobber]

We turned a garden shredder into a very effective chaff cutter. You do need some kind of mask though as it kicks up quite a bit of dust and seed etc. Saved us a fortune in bagged chaff.

Do you mind saying what make and model you use? I was wondering about this, but thought it would clog up..

 

[Lois Lame]

Making your own chaff sounds great.

A long time ago I learned of someone with a chaff cutter locally who I took some bales of hay to. It was the best chaff I ever had. Lovely and coarse. I saw the machine and I remember it as being huge. It was electric I think, or maybe it ran on fuel. But the chaff smelled fresh and lovely.

(Some years ago I bought a sack of lucerne chaff that smelled like fumes. I took it back to the feed merchants.)

 

[_Annie_]

We turned a garden shredder into a very effective chaff cutter. You do need some kind of mask though as it kicks up quite a bit of dust and seed etc. Saved us a fortune in bagged chaff.

I'd also love to know the make & model, please!!

 

[dorsetladette]

I'd also love to know the make & model, please!!

Me too!

 

[Esmae]

It was a cheap Bosch from B&Q. Don't know the model off hand but probably any cheap one would do. I seem to think that we had to make the gap smaller where it actually cuts or it didn't manage to cut the hay at all. Hubby sorted it. I'm no engineer. Any practical type of bloke that is good with engines could probably fix one up. Definitely worth the effort. Also we attached it to a workmate to get it higher off the ground to allow us to have a big sack underneath to catch the chaff.