Feeding barley straw?

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oldhat

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Hi there, just a query really due to lack of good hay - doea anyone out there feed their horses barley straw? I am surrounded by barley fields and usually the straw is lovely, dry and clean. My two cannot be fed haylage which is all that is available this year from our farmer, so other than buying expensive hay, what about straw? Are they likely to get coughs from this? I did hear of at least one livery yard where my sister kept her horse and last year they fed the straw. Horses ate it but were not happy. Any ideas?
 
Hi, I fed barley straw to my cob last winter, 1/4 to 3/4 hay becos running short of hay.
I think they recommend oat straw, but none available locally. Have got some barley in again this year to eke out hay. Have heard that barley might cause colic, but dont really know, sorry !
 
Suggets you do a search on here - you will come up with a range of views on the pros and possible dangers.

Many years ago before mixed feeds, everyone used to feed straw to bulk (mainly oat I think) and every yard would have a straw chopper on it. I guess that chopping the straw would lessen the chances of impaction, which I think it one of the main dangers.

For what is worth my old horse was on barley straw bedding for years and used to eat masses of it and never came to any harm.
 
I have feed it for years and never had any problems with a vartiety of horse and ponies. Infact because there is so little grass mine have been getting a bale a day plus a basic feed balancer. Even my TB who has the choice of hat and straw will sometimes eat the straw first.
Most chaff is made mostly of straw unless its redigrass, most of it is not oat straw.
In the old days barley straw after threashing may still have the ears in it,with modern combines this is very unlikely.
 
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