Anyone else horses fussy with this years hay?

TeamChaser

TeamChaser

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As title really!


Both mine not really loving the hay I'm feeding, driving me mad in fact! Had them on haylage last year and they were typically having between 18 - 22 pounds per night. Hay looks and smells fine to me but the ISH had only eaten around 6-8 pounds last night and TB around 8-10 pounds - given they are both in a fair amount of work, I don't think this is enough


Have upped hard feed to keep weight on (they have Calm & Condition, Speedibeet, and Alfa) but thinking will have to go back to haylage which is a bit of a pain as will have to buy in myself (YO provides hay)

Anyone else experiencing similar? Could this be due to distinct lack of that big yellow thing in the sky all "summer"??
 
Not got to having any 2012 hay - have enough 2011 hay to see me through till around March at present & another traunch held at dairy farm 'just in case' as it is very palatable for mine :)
Hope you manage to sort it - mind you, the grass has been growing in most of my fields so perhaps yours are getting a good fix during the time they are out? :confused:
 
Sounds like you had a bumper crop from 2011!!


Don't think it can be grass - our grazing is poor and they stayed in yesterday as it threw it down all day :( For some reason they just don't seem to be eating it and can't give them any more feed really

What a pain! If it's not one thing to worry about, it's another huh?! Wouldn't mind but the haylage isn't cheap!
 
Yes mine! Exactly the same problem, I am feeding this year's hay, have tried from 2 different farmers and they are nosing it around, really disinterested, going from pile to pile seeing if there is anything better etc. Hay looks and smells lovely, can't understand it, can't afford to feed haylage (unless I can find local farmer that sells it) as the packaged stuff is so expensive so am trying to source some other local hay to see if they are any more enthusiastic about that. We have very little grass too so it's not as if they aren't hungry:(

Oh and I had a couple of bales of hay left over from last year, actually may even be the year before, think its about 18 months old and they absolutely love that ... go figure!
 
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mine are on this years hayledge and suddenly find the big fella will not eat it! hes usually the greediest horse i ever had bit worrying :(

the shtland has suddenly started eating it wheras before he hasnt eaten hayledge for over 5 year just grass and fast fibre but seems to be loving it right now!? :confused:

the arab still eats it as normal.....strange creatures. maybe its the mad weather
 
Seems it's not just my fussy buggers then!


It's a bit of a nightmare isn't it? Can only assume it's the wet summer and lack of any real sunshine has affected the quality of this years cut. We're just about to open bales from a different field so going to try that and if they still won't eat it, will have to go back to haylage supplier from last winter.
 
My horse doesn't really eat his hay, I've put it in nets, on the ground etc and he donesnt seem to bothered - only when its raining and he doesn't want to get wet and go out - then he'll stand in the shelter. None of them are really that fused, seems like its going to waste this year!
 
same problem , looks nice but wonder if it was made a bit to soon with the weather beings so bad here in derbyshire !
 
Neither of mine are barely touching their hay :( Not so bad for me as they are both good doers and are on plenty of grazing at night, they mostly sleep during the day!

I do find wetting it slightly helps though.
 
Yep same here, driving me nuts :( I moved yards in Sept but i'm getting my hay from the place i was stabled at before as he makes it all himself and i've only ever had the odd bale that he wouldnt eat in the 18 months i was there. When i moved i took 10 bales which would have been last years hat which he ate fine. Got another 10 which i ended up taking 8 back as he just wouldnt eat them, of the 8 i got back im going to have to take back 4 whole ones plus 2 open one (he is really good and will take the open ones back and use them for his cows).
I dont think he has any of last years hay left but i think its more to do with the type of grass that the hays made from, the weather we had might have made one type grow more than another hence why it looks nice but the horses dont like it. I have no idea really but i cant go on with mine not really eating at night, some nights he wont touch anything and others he will just nibble at.
I want to get it sorted soon before the grass really goes and he is getting stressy as he is used to ad lib hay :(
Glad im not the only one as i really thought there was something wrong with mine as he has never been this fussy.
 
Like you Vam - glad it's not just mine. I kinda thought it must be the hay as they're both eating very little but virus etc had crossed my mind



It's a worry when they're having to come in at 4ish as it's getting dark. Really don't like the thought of them barely eating overnight - it's a long time. Neither have ever been particularly fussy so they must really dislike it :( YO's own horses are also eating very little but they don't seem particularly concerned - have just taken to giving them a lot less! YO's response was - they'll eat it if they're hungry .... but they don't. TB eats his straw bed and ISH just stands there looking fed up! 6 lbs of hay over a 14 hour period for a 16.1hh ISH in full work cannot be enough!!

At the moment, they have got a decent amount of grass in the day but if it gets much wetter, will struggle to have them out all day so will have to get sorted soon
 
Our 2012 hay looks and smells green and sweet, but my horses are definately being a bit fussy about it.

They are using their haynets to rub their heads on and then cataputing it in the air in disgust at the moment like spoilt chidren!.

And to think of all those starving donkeys in Ethiopia......!

I think it could be that they just aren't hungry yet.
 
TeamChaser said:
Like you Vam - glad it's not just mine. I kinda thought it must be the hay as they're both eating very little but virus etc had crossed my mind



It's a worry when they're having to come in at 4ish as it's getting dark. Really don't like the thought of them barely eating overnight - it's a long time. Neither have ever been particularly fussy so they must really dislike it :( YO's own horses are also eating very little but they don't seem particularly concerned - have just taken to giving them a lot less! YO's response was - they'll eat it if they're hungry .... but they don't. TB eats his straw bed and ISH just stands there looking fed up! 6 lbs of hay over a 14 hour period for a 16.1hh ISH in full work cannot be enough!!

At the moment, they have got a decent amount of grass in the day but if it gets much wetter, will struggle to have them out all day so will have to get sorted soon
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Sounds just like mine, im worried he isnt eating enough at night and he seems to be getting grumpier. He is picking at it but this is the horse that could munch his way through 3 big sections a night and not look fat on it.
I hate this whole 'if they are hungry they will eat it' while i agree to a point when you go up in the morning and the horse hasnt touched it at all you and know they prob wont the next night, after the second night do you still leave it? I'd rather not, getting another batch of hay is probally cheaper that treating colic or ulcers.
The grass is still good at the moment but it wont last and even on lots of good grass he would still eat all his hay, as long as its hay he likes :(
Looks like im going to spend some time climing around a hay barn trying to find hay that doesnt look anything like the hay he currently got *sigh*
 
We feed haylage over winter and they are eating that ok, but the farmer who cut it for us said its a bad year for hay as it was so warm and wet weather-wise that the grass kept growing and frowing as the weather was too wet to cut for hay. This meant the bottom of the grass died before most farmers could cut due to the ground had being wet/waterlogged and a lot of farmers found it wasnt very nice so maybe thats it?

Ours have hay in the field, this years cut and its been ok, theyve eaten it. But
 
Yes, mine . . . had to buy some haylage to mix in to encourage him to eat it . . . he's eating it now but he did put up quite a protest to start with.

P
 
We grow our own meadow hay and it was cut in July. Looked fine but had a lot of "bottom" in it. Started feeding it this week, mixed in with some of last year's hay. The old mare was not impressed - some bales are worse than others and am now having to select the bales as she won't touch the bottomy stuff at all - just chucks it in the air and leaves it. No option but to sort the bales and only feed the bales that look OK. BTW, we've been growing and feeding the hay for well over 10 years...this year's is only good in parts!! :-(

PS We're in East Anglia
 
Thanks for all your responses guys - really interesting and explains to me what the likely problem is. British summer has a lot to answer for! One of my boys has also had sore feet due to soles getting thin from the constant wet ground - poor thing :(

At least I know I'm not alone - has put my mind at ease a bit! Not that I'm glad you're suffering the same .... but you know what I mean! :o


Surely summer 2013 can't be as bad??!
 
My two are fussy every year.
Last year the yard hay was terrible and they wouldn't touch it. I managed to source my own hay which they did eat but for ease, I ended up feeding them both haylage.
This year the yard hay looks and smells lovely. They started eating it but now are being fussy about it. My TB has now gone on haylage - can't afford to let her drop weight. I am persevering with my ISH... although I was always led to believe that horses aren't fussy and if they won't eat something, there will be something wrong with it?


PolarSkye said:
Yes, mine . . . had to buy some haylage to mix in to encourage him to eat it . . . he's eating it now but he did put up quite a protest to start with.
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I tried mixing with haylage last year. They both carefully picked all the haylage out and left the hay. Think my two have got a sense of humour...
 
i have had the same problem for the past couple of years , some hay they won't touch for love nor money , i have left it in their stables thinking if they are hungry they will eat it but they don't . what i have to do now is "taste" the bale as mad as it sounds i chew a little of the hay and if it tastes sweet i know they will eat it , the stuff they wern't eating ,although it looked and smelt wonderful was bitter to chew . i don't know the reason for this but alot of hay has come out "bitter "the past couple of years
 
wiglet said:
... although I was always led to believe that horses aren't fussy and if they won't eat something, there will be something wrong with it? ...
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This is exactly what worries me wiglet - they would know much better than I if there is something wrong with it. Don't want to be inadevtantly feeding something actually bad for them :(

Opened bale from different field this morning for their night time nets so will see what they think when they come in! Fingers crossed!
 
Are you entirely sure that the hay is really 2012 hay? Due to the drought ,a lot of 2011 hay which looked absolutely wonderfull was rejected by many horses. It was due to higher than usual nitrate levels in the hay.The grass could not use the nitrogen because of a lack of water. There are a few farmers about who are stuck with hay like this. i would doubt that 2012 hay could be unpalatable for this reason.
 
Mike007 said:
Are you entirely sure that the hay is really 2012 hay? Due to the drought ,a lot of 2011 hay which looked absolutely wonderfull was rejected by many horses. It was due to higher than usual nitrate levels in the hay.The grass could not use the nitrogen because of a lack of water. There are a few farmers about who are stuck with hay like this. i would doubt that 2012 hay could be unpalatable for this reason.
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So true about the 2011 hay.
I got a 1st cut delivered in, last year - and got farmer to pick the whole lot up again - its was just not palatable to the Fuzzies at all! His beef stock had it.
Managed to get his 2nd cut eventually, which was great - tho was on tenterhooks as he wasn't sure he'd get a 2nd cut & was going to silage it.
 
Mike007 said:
Are you entirely sure that the hay is really 2012 hay? Due to the drought ,a lot of 2011 hay which looked absolutely wonderfull was rejected by many horses. It was due to higher than usual nitrate levels in the hay.The grass could not use the nitrogen because of a lack of water. There are a few farmers about who are stuck with hay like this. i would doubt that 2012 hay could be unpalatable for this reason.
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You could well be right Mike. Yesterday opened bale which was "from another field" apparently and they're now scoffing it down! :)


Hopefully problem solved
 
I know exactly what hay (from which year!) I'm feeding, because I grew it...this year's hay ain't so good, although there are some bales better than others - will have to "cherry pick" those bales for the dear old gal. What the hell, she's nearly 27 and deserves to have the best of a bad batch.... ;-)
 
Have just stumbled across this as was gonna post the same thing. Have been getting our hay for over 6 weeks now from a farmer up the road from us who cuts all his own. Have had no problems with it up until the weekend where they seemed to be leaving a lot of it. Even Fabio who rarely turns his nose up at anything foo based!!! Thought might be just a dodgy bale they didn't like (and had also caught one of our dalmatians about to pee up the bale as i was making up nets, little swine! So thought perhaps didn't catch him in time!) - but been through a couple of the bales that were delivered on Friday and they're still leaving a lot of it. Had a thought at lunch time when i went home and seen this mornings left still mostly full in the shelter, that had an open bale from the week before in the stable block. So went and grabbed a couple of sections and threw over the fence for them and they're both chomping away at that. Perhaps the new batch was from a slightly different field? But, think we're gonna go on haylage as there's no grass in our winter paddock so can't have them not eating. Annoying though as the hay does work out a lot cheaper!
 
mine arent fussy. We had our fields cut in simmer but the rain got to it before it was baled so theres an acre's worth on my muck heap and they've been munching on it when the field was waterlogged.
 
This years haylage was super. Hay not so good. But a couple of things to remember. Most horses prefer haylage to hay so if there is plenty of grazing still, whilst they may eat haylage for sake of it (think kids and sweeties) they may turn noses up at hay until grass gives up.
Also when comparing weights of net, remember a lot of the weight in haylage is moisture, so the amount of actual forage in a lighter net of hay is actually nearer to the same as a heavier net of moist haylage than you would think.
 
Very very interesting!

We have been off hay and on haylage for about six weeks now. The first two bales of haylage were nice, the next two were a bit rough and the farmer took them back when we mentioned it. This latest bale is more like wrapped hay, beautiful, soft, green. sweet smelling, full of good grasses etc, and they've not been eating it well. I thought they had gone mad!

Funnily enough, they eat it all at night, but when they're out on the hardcore turnout area they only pick a bit, eating more if it is tipped out of the nets onto the floor. Luckily they are both on the heavy side, so it doesn't really matter if they're only picking rather than wolfing it down like usual!
 
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