Growing grass for hay

[Slugs11]

Hi Michael,

Appreciate the comments, advice and pictures.

We have 9 rai where we grow Napier and Mulato grass, which is more then enough feed for our cattle during the wet season. We plan to fence some of it in, and then turn the cattle out to graze on it. The 7 rai which was mentioned in my first posting, we have just acquired this land. So it is spare, and hence why asking about grass growing for hay.

Its only a hobby farm, where it will keep me active, when I finally retire from the oilfield, and we are not looking to make money from it. If it breaks even then would be happy, if not its not the end of the world. As people will know if you have been brought up in the countryside, then seeing animals grazing out on the fields is pleasing to the eye and nice to see. At present our cattle have a 1/2 rai to wander around in, don't like seeing them penned up all day.

Still would like to grow some hay, understand its not easy, and as been mentioned by Kickstart, equipment being the biggest problem. Will most likely grow some Napier grass, and a little more Mulato, and the rest will just seed with grass and see what happens.

I believe you are based in Ubon ???

Thanks, and regards.

[kickstart]

Speedo 1968

Looking at green fodder in Thailand ,using a 40 foot second container one would cost about 30 000 Baht you could ,build a shed to do the job for less. .like the guy in India made a shed out of plastic sheeting and bamboo for shelving ,for not a lot.

No one on the video said where the got they conrn to do the job from ,the guys in the USA and Oz ,probably grew wheat and barley themselves , the small farms .like we have in Thailand ,most do not have enough land to grow corn( maize ) ,that would mean buying it in ,but most corn buyers buy in corn during the growing season ,then sell it almost straight away ,so for a good few months a year no corn to buy ,unless you know someone and can travel a long way.

So as I see it you have to buy your corn in during the growing season , and store it, that means storage space ,also most corn is harvested at 25-30 % moisture ,it needs drying down to 15% for safe storage ,probably buying in the maize on the cobs ,then get the mobile thrasher in to thrash out the corn .when it has dried out ,that would push up costs to .

According to the video you need 1 kg of corn ,to make 10 kg of green fodder ,I would say for an average small farm you would need 5 ton? of corn/ year ,then store it and keep it safe ,from rats and dry .

That last link you gave makes interesting reading ,regarding DM ( dry Matter ) ,reading how he analyses it all ,makes other feeds a lot better proportions .

For me the jury is out , but I will read some other papers on the subject .

[Issangeorge]

This might be a little off topic, but my wife had 11 rai, that at the moment is doing nothing. During the dry season it is very dry, and very hard to dig very solid, during the rainy season it can become almost like a quick sand, and quite wet, but not really standing water on it. In this area labour is both scarce and expensive. We have grown cassava on it, but with the expense of labour it was a break even proposition at most. I hate seeing the land just growing weeds. Is there any seed we could just throw on it, that would grow into some sort of grass that would help suck up some of the water and firm up the land a bit, that would enable our cows to graze on it in the wet season, preferably something that would be dormant in the dry season and grow again in the wet season?

[Mobaan]

May I lease extent this topic a little:

Anything that was said and posted is interesting and appreciated.

If we were talking water buffaloes. ,instaed of c ows ,would that c hange anything ?

Amthinking about keeping some of those animals ,more f or fun and for the eye than anything else .

[kickstart]

This might be a little off topic, but my wife had 11 rai, that at the moment is doing nothing. During the dry season it is very dry, and very hard to dig very solid, during the rainy season it can become almost like a quick sand, and quite wet, but not really standing water on it. In this area labour is both scarce and expensive. We have grown cassava on it, but with the expense of labour it was a break even proposition at most. I hate seeing the land just growing weeds. Is there any seed we could just throw on it, that would grow into some sort of grass that would help suck up some of the water and firm up the land a bit, that would enable our cows to graze on it in the wet season, preferably something that would be dormant in the dry season and grow again in the wet season?

I think you best bet would be หญ้าชน , Yar -Con ,or Para Grass ,it loves water and easy to grow ,and diffulcult to kill,but it can not be grown from seed ,use stems cut from a clump and plant them you would rice /cassava ,OK not an easy job ,and 11 rie is a big area ,you would need a lot of stems ,some hired labour would be your best bet.

Yar-Con ,is known to Thai farmers ,I would say that you probably have some on your land .

To my knowage the only grass seed you could use would be Paspalum Atratum,or Ya Atratum ,look on TV search.

The only problem with Ya Atratum it can get unpalatable for cattle if it gets to old .

[Issangeorge]

Thanks for the reply. What kind of prep does yar-con need?

[kickstart]

After all this rain I would say just a run over with a 7 disc plough would do ,no need to go to deep ,as I said a very resilient grass ,we have an old small orchard that is full with Yar-Con ,I am trying to get rid of it ,our aim is to plant some Nappier grass.

[Speedo1968]

Speedo 1968

Looking at green fodder in Thailand ,using a 40 foot second container one would cost about 30 000 Baht you could ,build a shed to do the job for less. .like the guy in India made a shed out of plastic sheeting and bamboo for shelving ,for not a lot.

No one on the video said where the got they conrn to do the job from ,the guys in the USA and Oz ,probably grew wheat and barley themselves , the small farms .like we have in Thailand ,most do not have enough land to grow corn( maize ) ,that would mean buying it in ,but most corn buyers buy in corn during the growing season ,then sell it almost straight away ,so for a good few months a year no corn to buy ,unless you know someone and can travel a long way.

So as I see it you have to buy your corn in during the growing season , and store it, that means storage space ,also most corn is harvested at 25-30 % moisture ,it needs drying down to 15% for safe storage ,probably buying in the maize on the cobs ,then get the mobile thrasher in to thrash out the corn .when it has dried out ,that would push up costs to .

According to the video you need 1 kg of corn ,to make 10 kg of green fodder ,I would say for an average small farm you would need 5 ton? of corn/ year ,then store it and keep it safe ,from rats and dry .

That last link you gave makes interesting reading ,regarding DM ( dry Matter ) ,reading how he analyses it all ,makes other feeds a lot better proportions .

For me the jury is out , but I will read some other papers on the subject .

Thanks "kickstart" for taking time to follow up.

You can also use soy bean for sprouting.