Canadian Hay?

PorkChop

PorkChop

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Hi, as title suggests, has anyone had any experience using canadian hay? I was considering feeding hay instead of haylage this year, and was wondering if the canadian hay would be a best of both worlds alternative? I have read a few articles on the effects of feeding haylage to the horses stomach, ie, high acid, and to be honest the only reason I have fed haylage was due to lack of good quality hay.

Any opinions much appreciated :)
 
Overall,I think there is going to be plenty of hay of exellent quality without needing to import Canadian hay. Firstly If anyone hasnt managed to make all their hay by now ,without rain,they should give up farming.Secondly Haymaking for once will not run into the corn harvest so the maximum acrage available will have been cut. And thirdly ,more realistic prices have encouraged farmers to make more hay,and consider greater fertiliser use. Tonnage per acre may be a little down but the UK hay crop should be more than adequate.
 
I have heard for years about people raving on about how good Canadian hay was.
When I lived in Canada, I did the hunt horses, remembering what I had been always told about the fabulous "Canadian hay"
So I expected to be faced with wonderful stuff,but it was nothing any different from what I had seen in England, whilst I lived there every yard I ever encountered I had a sneaky look at their hay, IMO I never saw anything any better than in the UK.
I fully agree with Mike007 we have had perfect weather for hay making this year so no excuses for rubbish hay.
 
Steeleydan said:
I fully agree with Mike007 we have had perfect weather for hay making this year so no excuses for rubbish hay.
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Oi! :mad: ;)

Nothing wrong with my hay:p Mind, we don't mind selling it to you guys if you want because we make a bomb out of it:D The Americans buy tons of the stuff, easier to ship across the border than an ocean.

Quite right though, it is no different from hay anywhere else, grass is grass at the end of the day. ;)
 
We have made hay this year and it is truly brilliant (the words of an 85 yo local farmer!) - he said we could charge £4.50/bale!

However, it is for our use and if we have any to spare around February, we will sell it. The point is, we have only 140 bales and, although it's great, we have made a lot fewer bales this year than in previous years. I think it might be the same for all (small and large) hay farmers this season. I think it would be a good idea, if you can afford to buy in bulk NOW, then do so!

I guess if you have to buy Canadian hay - then you have to!
 
The thing with Canadian Hay is you feed a third of what you would feed with british hay, so a bale lasts much longer.

I used Canadian Hay for the first time the winter just passed and although expensive outlay, it worked out far cheaper that buying british. I bought by the tonne and the bales are very tightly packed, so storage is much easier.

In addition, the quality is far superior. My horses looked far better on it than they ever have on british hay or haylage. It is dust free and much easier for them to digest. My 21 yr who has always struggled to eat fibre due to her teeth, hoovered it up and actually held her weight. My TB lived on this with just her normal topspec and 1 scoop of alf a oil (this is about 1/4 of what I have had to feed her in past winters, which haven't been as harsh). My hard feed bill must have shrunk by at least half this winter if not more.

All in all I am a convert, I know they british hay will be good this year due to the weather etc but I absolutely wouldn't change now from Canadian!
 
The horses digestive system needs a consistant steady supply of fibre.Perhaps I have misunderstood ,but I think one would be pushing ones luck reducing a horses Dry matter intake by two thirds. The bales are incredibly tightly packed ,(usualy wired)so I suspect that you arent realy cutting downt the weight you feed by much ,it just looks less.It is fantastic stuff though,and I am not surprised your old horse did well on it.:)
 
Yes, sorry I was not talking weight, but actual size - hence the comment about storage. One bale would last 3-4 days with 2 horses rather than the 1 1/2 days you might get with a british hay.
 
Although there has been a lot of really good quality hay been made this year, unless we get rain and fert on the ground to get ithe grass growing for the second cut we may be seeing a shortage of said good quality hay.

We've only got half of what we normally get in due to the rain shortage in May.
 
I think there will be a real, serious hay shortage. We normally get 1000 bales, this year we got 350! Lovely stuff but now none for sale, all the local famers and contractors are reporting the same.
 
I'm not sure hay growers in Canada have been having the best time, either. Ontario has had a lot of rain and some people are struggling to find a window to cut, although it's been better recently.

I have to ask, what exactly is "Canadian hay"? I understand hay from Canada ;) but there are lots of different types and many hay growers have special mixes - mostly grass, high alfalfa, alfalfa mix etc - for different buyers. There can also be a real difference between first and second cut, which I understand isn't so much the case here. If you buy from a Canadian hay supplier, how do you know what you're getting?
 
Been a bit clever this year(I think) and bought my hay reels already,enough to see us through,and a cattle round bale feeder to stop waste.:D
 
Mike007 said:
Overall,I think there is going to be plenty of hay of exellent quality without needing to import Canadian hay. Firstly If anyone hasnt managed to make all their hay by now ,without rain,they should give up farming.
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Kind of depends where you are. We've had shocking rain in Scotland for the last week and the farms haven't started getting their hay off the fields yet.
 
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