Feeding Beef Cattle only on lawn grass clippings

[dun]

Different climate for sure. Still grasshoppers don't thrive in a moist green environment. [can't reproduce] or even live. :nod: neither can ants. Not at all. Grubs? a little N will discourage most all of that kind of stuff. :nod:

I could be wrong now... :???: ...but I don't think so.... :cowboy:

I wouldn;t wish it on anybody, but go spend some time in the areas around LA. It's a whole different world.
BTW, he hasn;t been back online since last saturday.

 

[cross_7]

around here a lot of people use msma herbicide on the bermuda lawns for crab grass, ryegrass or any wild grass thats not bermuda, so the arsenic would be a concern.

 

[novatech]

More than likely one would not see any effects from a buildup of herbicides in lawn clippings. This would simply be passed on to the consumer to deal with. :cry2:
The more immediate reaction is the toxic plants that are generally ground up along with the clippings. Oleander leaves are one and yew is another. Many other garden plants are thrown in the batch along with toxic weeds that are generally sorted out by cattle when grazing. Many trees have leaves that are toxic that would get mixed in. Commercial lawn people do not sort what goes into the clippings. At one time I used commercial lawn clipping in compost. You would find it amazing at the stuff you find in it. For all I know they could dump an entire bucket of outdated poison in the bag along with ground up aluminum, plastic, and who knows what else. It is hard enough to break even without taking risks like this.

 

[mnmtranching]

I'm just glad to be way upnort, where we don't got nothing, nowhere the will harm our cows. :cowboy:

 

[agstr]

Hey there--many residential lawns are seeded with endophyte susceptible fescue. :???:

 

[BrandX]

so did anybody give this a shot yet? city rancher? how did it go?

 

[cjmc]

My whole point in doing this would be to do something different and get free feed. Otherwise I can just buy my steaks and hamburger at the market and save the hassles.

First point- if your whole point in this is to make money. I would suggest really looking at the numbers before doing it. Using your numbers you spend $900 on 3 head and sell them for 4,500 for a total profit of 3,600. Keeping them a year you are looking at a little less than $10/day profit. Are you willing to go through all that work of shoveling s*** and going to get clippings ever day for $10?

Now if you are doing it because you think you would really enjoy doing it and money isn't the most important thing. Then its a different story. My first suggestion would be to flip your mindset, by using the grass clippings to supplement to cheapen up your input costs, but not as the main food source. There is just too many problems with that as most people have already mentioned. Find someplace you can get small square bales of hay (which typically range form 60-120 lbs each.) This will give you a consistent and reliable food source (find some alfalfa too) then whenever you can get fresh clippings feed less hay. Final suggestion,consider using some corn. It doesn't need to be a lot, but a little corn could go a long way in your situation.

 

[TexasBred]

Original post is 8 years old