This is the overgrown Bermuda I cut around my house a few days ago, we’ve had no rain so it’s been drying. Should I turn it over and let it dry, maybe pile under a tarp later? My donkeys eat Bermuda hay and this seems like a tidy pile to waste. There’s more than this everywhere.
I rake up areas I mow all the time. Just make sure you throw out any parts that clump. I feed it right away or spread it out open somewhere in the barn to feed later. I wouldn’t put a tarp over it, that will just heat it up.
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Good, I’ve raked it up and wheelbarrowed it under the pole barn so I guess this will be part of dinner tonight. 
I always thought grass clippings weren’t good for horses?
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Grass clippings aren’t generally good for horses. Since they are usually very small, the risk for choke is higher. They tend to take big bites and not chew it well enough. There is the risk of fuel, oil or other fluids from the mower/tractor that cut it, but I’ve never had an issue with that.
Since this is much longer stemmed than normal grass clippings, I’d be inclined to believe it’s safer.
Grass clippings from a lawn mower that are chopped up fine and green and start to ferment quickly are dangerous. The stuff in this photo looks like hay, looks like it was cut like hay, the grass stem is in one piece, not mulched. And it looks like it’s effectively dried as hay. So if it has dried down, smells sweet, it’s just going to be hay.
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I was worried because I have heard bad things about horses eating fresh mowed grass, but this looks a lot like the hay I buy them. I do use a zero turn but I tend to let it grow too long so maybe that’s why it’s in big pieces? It just piles up against the house and dries so I figured with the exceptionally dry weather we’ve been having maybe I’ll just collect it.
If it was cut with a mower then I wouldn’t feed it.
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Curious. Why? Contamination?
I have also heard that lawn clippings are a higher risk for choking because the grass tends to be finer than hay. It’s like getting a celery string caught in your throat. Your horses may eat it without problems, but I’d ask if it’s worth the risk? If this is all you have available to feed them, then go ahead and feed it and hope for the best. But if you’re considering it from the perspective of not wanting to waste potentially good fuel, I suggest putting it in your compost heap and letting it contribute nutrients there - lower risk.
You need to tedd it - spread in rows, turn rows to expose the bottom layer.
When it’s dried completely you can “bale” by piling it in stacks.
My horses follow the guy who cuts my lawns as he mows around the pasture fencelines.
The amount of fresh clippings they eat hasn’t caused a problem.
I’m curious too?
Cutting with a lawn mower or brush hog isn’t as efficient as cutting with an actual hay mower, but it’s basically the same thing.
What definitely isn’t good for horses is the 4" lawn that was mowed to 2 3/4" and bagged. That finely chopped grass will ferment quickly. But this looks like hay. I’d scoop it up and feed it, why not?
If this was dried properly I do not see any reason not to feed it.
I’m laughing at the risk of contamination comments - do you realize how many grease zerks are on a hay cutter? Let alone the baler.
If it’s not too small, I’d totally feed that.
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For everyone wondering why:
Many more articles if you Google.
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This is not the same as someone bagging their lawn that gets mowed every four days and tossing that bag of clippings to the horses. Not even close.
It feels like some people have never seen what a grass hay field looks like before and during cutting/baling.
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Yes but we’re not talking about “lawn clippings.” That’s basically what we’ve all said. We all know that you shouldn’t give your horse a steaming pile of inch-long grass clippings.
The “cut grass” in question looks to be about 6-8" long. That’s not “lawn clippings.” And it’s being dried, just like hay. Not piled up and composting.
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Someone asked about lawn clippings so I answered about them. I personally can’t tell from a photo what is constituted as lawn clippings to a person or not, so I would err on the side of caution. OP said it was cut with a mower and that space looks like lawn clippings to me but to each their own. Op can do whatever they want. Information was requested which I supplied. No need to argue about it.
Did you read the articles? Length of grass isn’t the main factor.
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Fwiw, (just giving more info not evident in pic), I don’t really have a”lawn” my house is basically in the middle of a field. The Bermuda was placed as sod when I built the house but I do not maintain it as a lawn.
I do appreciate provided info on both sides, that’s what I was looking for to judge what I’m looking at. I did have concerns that for some reason mowing is associated with bad outcomes and I think I can see that it’s the short, fresh lawn like stuff that is the real problem.
Having said that, the donkeys were not as enthused with the home grown stuff yesterday. I’ll see again tonight but they kind of looked at me like “are you serious?”
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When you mow hay it creates rows. Tedding scatters it around in a layer so it can cure. A tedder has horizontal disks with metal forks sticking out. They spin around. When it is dried enough it is raked into rows and then can be baled: squares or round. You need 3 sunny dry days to get the job done. We haven’t had any haying weather yet this year, In Maine we have horse hay and cow hay. The latter can be baled after it’s cut because the cows can digest it as is; damp and dusty. It is usually covered in plastic these days.
I learned a lot about hay and haying the first few years I had my horse. If you don’t get the equipment cheap it often costs more per bale than buying it. The BO had a 40 acre hayfield that she cut twice annually - first and second cuts. I’ve stacked plenty of fresh bales. The most memorable day was when I had to drive the BO’s 8 y.o. daughter around the hayfield in the Gator. BO’s father dropped his phone off the tractor while baling. We never found it. It showed up in the fall when it fell out of a round bale the mares were working on. It was not repairable, of course.
Fresh cut grass clippings should not be fed. There is a risk of choke or colic. Yours looks like it is long enough and dry enough. You could stack it with a pitchfork like they did before balers were invented.
Years ago a local farm owner bought cheap round bales. Her horses all contracted botulism, about 6 died and the other 22 or so had to be put down. Speculation is that she bought cow hay. The town caught her before she buried all of them in a mass grave, which would have contaminated the watertable where there is no city water, just wells.
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