[jaffab]

Afternoon all,

About to sign on the dotted line for a mini Solis tractor with Winton 1.25m HD Flail Mower, and looking for some suggestions.

Read elsewhere, that with careful (get rid of the air) storage, cut grass can be collected, stored and turned into silage for the winter.     We were looking to buy some form of mower to keep the grass and weeds down, but then it occurs to me.. how to collect the glass?

So some questions:
1) Is the storage of grass really going to turn into useful silage?
2) How long will it keep for?
3) What am I looking for in terms of picking up the cut grass (needs to go on a standard 3 point hitch)
4) Is it better just to just to get a flail mower with built in grass collector?
5) As always - either flail with collector or separate collector has to a) be cheap as chips (please dont recommend big bulky £££££ ones) and b) also has to last forever.     

Thanks all

[SallyintNorth]

If you want to make hay, haylage or silage I think you need to use a disc mower, which leaves the stems intact. A flail will churn them up, producing something more akin to mulch. 

Home-made silage in bags or buried in the ground and covered used to be made that way, yes, but we don't tend to hear success stories of people doing it these days...

Silage which did not have all the air excluded quickly enough and completely enough will be toxic..  No use for feeding and very hard to dispose of.