I would like to chop some soft orchard hay into smaller pieces as I believe my guy is beginning to have trouble chewing hay. I WISH I could get bagged chopped forage like a normal person, but the closest place to us is 250+ miles away!
I’d like to get a mulcher. Does anyone have one they can reccomend?
Leaf shredder
We have used a leaf shredder for the old horses. Nice if you only have one horse as it is a bit time consuming.
I have a Worx leaf shredder–basically a weed whipper in a bowl with a hole in the bottom that sits on a stand. It’s noisy, messy (I only use it outside for that reason). It’s electric, the line is not too terribly hard to change (you get faster with practice). It gets the job done, but yes, time consuming. Soaked hay cubes is an easier route if your horse will eat them.
I don’t mind time consuming- it would be for 2 horses. I board at a private farm, so I want to make it as easy as possible for whoever feeds. I’d probably try to chop a week’s worth at a time or so.
I got the Worx leaf shredder and it works well.
I will probably have to pre-measure and pack the chopped hay in the fall/winter so the barn owner just has to dump it in his through 2x a day.
I have another question: has anyone tried misting their DIY chopped hay with oil or something to keep the dust down? I see the commercial varieties usually have oil added for that reason.
Brilliant!
I’m going to look into something like that for my horse!!!
We put up our own hay and have so much that I use it for bedding, so when I needed chopped hay I tried several ways to chop it myself. It was very time consuming, and the horse that needed it needed a lot of it. Didn’t take me long to figure out that pelleted complete feed was a heckuva lot easier, and doesn’t cost a whole lot more than feeding hay. I don’t even need to soak it, which saves even more time in the winter when I’d really prefer not to have to deal with frozen slop in the feed buckets.
A small lawnmower, dedicated for just this purpose. ??? Don’t see why not…?
I use a little 5 horsepower push mower to mulch up any moldy hay; I do it on windy days, and then it just blows away! Best solution for getting rid of it that I’ve found.
Random question about the leaf shredders…anyone who uses them think they would work on paper?
I honestly don’t think it would work that great. Might be worth just getting a legit paper shredder.
There are choppers made specifically for small bales. Typically used in old style barns to chop straw for bedding. They take an entire small bale and shoot it out in about 2-3" pieces in just a few minutes.
The paper is actually already shredded into strips…which is why I can’t put it back into the shredder I have… We just need it in smaller pieces. Thanks for the feedback though!
THAT would be baller.
The leaf shredder works, but I have to go through the hay to make sure none of the line has broken off and made its way in there. It also produces alot of dust, but I suppose that comes with the territory.
There will be dust 
but you load the whole bale, then cut the strings and pull them out before you engage the knives. Here’s a link to one similar to the one we have at work: http://www.haroldsequipment.com/manufacturers/patz/bale-choppers/9427-small-bale-chopper
THAT would be baller.
The leaf shredder works, but I have to go through the hay to make sure none of the line has broken off and made its way in there. It also produces alot of dust, but I suppose that comes with the territory.
At one point I considered looking into renting one of the straw choppers that landscapers use to chop straw to cover newly seeded areas. They look like they easily chew through bales
You’re welcome! I’m glad someone else found it useful.
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