lawn clippings silage is great stuff
I've done a fair amount of research on pesticides, composting and ensiling (silage). When I was in college I conducted pesticide metabolism research to answer the questions about all the pesticides and fertilizers applied to lawns and from what I know and have learned lately, feeding lawn silage to cows is a great idea. Beats taking it to the dump. I attended a Wyoming cattle meeting last month when this subject came up. The cattle people were excited for the prospect of alternative feeds as long as it is cheaper than some of their current rations. The Wyoming University did a feeding study in 2012 or 2013 and I understand the cattle did very well. Material came from a lawn care company with a 5 step program.
Confront is the herbicide that doesn't break down in compost piles. Composting is what we do when we heap up the lawn clippings and allow them to rot. It take air circulation to compost green matter. Think about it, we start with a few tons of clippings and they rot away to just a few hundred pounds of usable material, so any pesticide in condensed 10 fold. But to make silage, there needs to be Zero air or the environment must be anaerobic. I know a cattle feeder from New Jersey that has made silage from yard clippings in 55 gallon airtight plastic barrels.
When pesticides are applied to turf grass, the plant tissue begins to breakdown the herbicide. Soil pH higher than 7.0 don't break down the chemicals until you get to a pH of 9.0. These pesticides also react with air and sunlight and begin to degrade. When alfalfa has be is sealed into a those long tube plastic silage bags we all see along the sides of the road, the environment is anaerobic. As the material ensiles, the pH drops below 5.0 and we all know that pesticides don't survive in a low pH or in an environment were lactic acid is present. I believe lawn silage to be safe and usable.
I would not feed that stuff,and here is why. People with suburban lawns dump such an excess of chemicals on them that there is bound to be residue,and a lot of it.
I heard on the radio or read that the problem is so bad that composted grass clippings will kill garden plants. Some municipalities will no longer accept yard clippings at their composting sites for that reason. There was one particular herbicide mentioned [not familiar with the name] that has particularly long lived residue problems.
If those chemicals will kill your garden, even after composting,please keep them out of my cows!
