Feeding Straw

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somethingillremember

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Hi , Ive had a look through previous posts but there seems to be confusion re feeding straw. Im struggling to find good hay , the last lot was very dusty and full of rubbish but the straw I can get and have is lovely. I dont know what it is, barley etc but the horses eat it esp when I put a fresh load in but my question is ... is any straw fine to feed , can they have just straw , does it need to be soaked ( mine hate soaked hay) ? I have 2 TBs and an elderly QH. Thank you
 
IMO yes you can feed straw (we feed all ours on straw and Hay mixas they are piglets and prone to gettiing overly fat on hay). Introduce it slowly although they may strop about it at first.
 
Mine are not fat so im a little concerned about previous posts saying about keeping weight off their chunky beasties as I cannot let mine loose anymore weight ( they have lost weight due to fields turned to mud rather than grass and this awful hay ). I always fed haylage but unable to get it where I am.
 
Good quality Barley or oat straw would be best but bear in mind there is practically no nutritional value in straw so they will need hard feed. It could also be hard to find as there was very little made this year due to the crap harvest! Hay or haylage would be better
 
straw is great to keep greedy horses carrying extra weight busy, it is as others have said low in any nutritional value.

it ideally needs introducing over time as suddenly using lots of it can cause compacted colic. i have used it to bind mine up when they have been on lots/too rich grass.

i used to soak it for the kids pony as she was huge but i dont like them not eatin for extended periods, this will reduce the nutritional value even further though

a few people have had trouble round this way with horses not eating this years hay-some of the hay is awful.
 
I can get small bales of hay , very very good hay , but boy do you pay for it ! And I just cannot afford it this winter . Ive cut down/out on lots of things for me to ensure my horses have the best I can possibly can give them. They have had straw beds now for a couple of weeks so they eat the best of the awful hay and sometimes then nibble thru their beds . When I first put the straw down they did pig out on it abit but not now. So I thought I'd get what I can afford in hay and the rest of their "hay" will have to be straw ?
 
feeding poor quality hay is false economy, it has low nutritional value so they would need to eat more to get enough nutrition to gain weight. it is also very costly if your horse ends up with dust allergy, COPD or the like.

the first pony the kids had, had been fed poor quality hay and now has to be managed to prevent breathing difficulties, she is on loan as i would never sell her due to this problem.

she cannot ever be stabled on any bedding cos the dust in a stable enviroment causes a cough, she is on very restricted grazing (welsh a, never had lami but dont want it either), if it is weather is dry and the ground dusty she will cough without supplements, she has an open sided shelter with a 5 bar gate that is used as a stable, she has shredded rubber matting as bedding (very expensive), she now wears a nose net and is on breath easy (a supplement)constantly. she has had 2 occasions in the last 18months when a vet has had to come and give emergency treatment due to breathing difficulties and she has had a months worth of ventipulmin (£60) each time on top of other costs.

she is still wored as if its managed she is fine but managing it is costly.

i wish people had been more careful with what they fed her in the past because all of this is caused by dust damage to her lungs.

can you not look for better grazing for the winter or part loan (to help costs)-obviously i dont know you whole situation and its really hard for so many of us at the mo, if you really have to feed poor quality hay you need to soak it cos although it lowers the nutritional content even more it is less likely to damage the lungs
 
Oat straw is the best, barley can have whiskers that can irritate the throat and oat is more palatable than wheat straw.

Oat straw is slightly higher energy than soaked hay but a lot less than unsoaked hay.

It is however low in vits and v low protein, which is partly why a lot of chaffs use alfalfa cos that is a good balancer for the straws nutritionally (altho not ideal in some opinions for lami horses).

Because of the low minerals and protein straw should only be fed up to 50% of forage, with the rest soaked hay.

When I can get it, I feed my lami prone pony on oat straw as we cant always soak hay for long periods of our long very cold winters (Cairngorms!) so it helps to keep the fat at bay, and she really enjoys it.

NB dont feed straw to anything with tendency to colic, choke, bad teeth or any other health compromise related to digestion or feeding - just to healthy good doers - and limit amounts to ponies who will bolt food.
 
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