poiuytrewq
Well-Known Member
Thoughts please? They have also given me a brief explanation but I’d love people in the knows opinions.
Hay analysis results
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poiuytrewq
Well-Known Member
Horses are all fed a general vitamin and mineral supplement alongside but receive little hard feed.
poiuytrewq
Well-Known Member
Interestingly after a little more reading the low ash content means low magnesium.
I had this analysis done because my horses behaviour had changed. I’d expected high DE or sugars.
I had this analysis done because my horses behaviour had changed. I’d expected high DE or sugars.
Fieldlife
Well-Known Member
Fairly low sugar, low DE, low protein hay. Not very exciting.
Didn’t know was a link between ash and magnesium levels?
Didn’t know was a link between ash and magnesium levels?
PurBee
Well-Known Member
Ash is total mineral content in the hay, you’d need a mineral analysis to determine the amount of minerals. Its likely mostly calcium and potassium, low phos. very low mag, high iron, low copper, negligible selenium. Most hays show these mineral levels imbalanced.
If you’re feeding minerals on top thats good.
If this is a new batch and horse behaviour altered, maybe due to it being low quality hay, high NDF, and just on the lowest value for ADF - it has a lot of indigestible fibre - which your last batch may not have had. So its like a horse eating straw which is very high NDF, cant digest most of it, horse microbiome has to ’work harder’ to extract the nutrition - by eating a larger volume.
If poops have changed consistency id wonder about getting /adding a higher quality hay, less stemmy. Especially if horse has dropped weight since being on this.
But if a fatty, and good doer, this hay is perfect, but due to low ash, consider giving a good dose, or upping dose compared to last batch of hay, of macro/micro minerals.
Most people want this kind of hay for ad-lib winter feeding.
If you’re feeding minerals on top thats good.
If this is a new batch and horse behaviour altered, maybe due to it being low quality hay, high NDF, and just on the lowest value for ADF - it has a lot of indigestible fibre - which your last batch may not have had. So its like a horse eating straw which is very high NDF, cant digest most of it, horse microbiome has to ’work harder’ to extract the nutrition - by eating a larger volume.
If poops have changed consistency id wonder about getting /adding a higher quality hay, less stemmy. Especially if horse has dropped weight since being on this.
But if a fatty, and good doer, this hay is perfect, but due to low ash, consider giving a good dose, or upping dose compared to last batch of hay, of macro/micro minerals.
Most people want this kind of hay for ad-lib winter feeding.
poiuytrewq
Well-Known Member
That was just something I came across Googling last night so may be wrong, what’s the bet I can’t find it again, I’ll try and find a link.
poiuytrewq
Well-Known Member
Thank you so much for this reply Purbee.
It’s our hay that we cut from a field that was planted to grass using a horse grazing seed two years ago and not grazed.
It looks and smells beautiful, it’s also completely dust free which to me is very important. I can actually feed it to a horse with a bad allergy dry with no problem.
My worries and reason I tested were my ridden horse suddenly becoming bit of an idiot to ride and the fact the vet when visiting a cushings pony commented that the hay looked incredibly good (ie, too good to be feeding them)
It doesn’t look like old meadow hay admittedly, more like seed/rye. However as above I know the origin and that it’s definitely not rye.
I’ve been using different hay until this was tested just incase but allergy horse is snotty even soaked and it makes me cough so it’s a relief that this stuff is seemingly pretty ok for what I want.
Ad-lib for a fat retired, 2 fat ponies and a slightly wild horse.
The extra mineral analysis was extra but I may out if interest do that aswell just to be sure.
Is there a supplement you’d personally recommend?
They currently get my local feed places own supplement and the ridden is on Blue Chip.
PurBee
Well-Known Member
It sounds ideal for your herd.
If the other hay is dustier causing you to even cough, that amount of mould can cause gastric distress and some , like my gelding, get quite sharp to handle, with even mild gut mycotoxicosis. Maybe the effect in him is from the old hay rather than new? Hard to tell if feeding both types together though.
Or maybe the coinciding with cooler temps, grass growing changes, has caused a grass shift, like potassium spiking - which happens after lots of rain, which causes sharpness in grazing animals. This is because potassium temporarily outbalances and becomes a lot higher than the calcium and magnesium. The uk has had a fair bit of rain recently, and after such a long dry summer period it wouldnt surprise me if the grazing has been a bit wonky nutritionally due to the extremes in weather.
If you can, its really worth getting the mineral profile tested in your hay. Especially if it's from your own land and what youre likely to feed all year long.
It gives you a general idea of the mineral levels being uptaken from your hay field soil, to the forage. Then you can make up any shortfall with supplements.
You can also add specific minerals to your hay field soil if your forage test shows very imbalanced results. Then you have control to be able to create a mineral balanced hay.
The majority of hay samples are low in magnesium/zinc/copper (due to high iron)/selenium - some are either very high manganese or very low - so test is useful for manganese.
Selenium and manganese important to note as these are meant to be given in very low doses, but are essential micro minerals so deficiency is no good either.
Theres some soils here in ireland with dangerously high selenium and manganese not to be used for forages. Not common thankfully, but its useful for all land owners to get soil and forage test of mineral levels at least once to know what their land ‘average’ is, and work from that result, either by balancing the soil or the feed animals with additional minerals to balance intake.
Without such a test we fly in the dark somewhat the exact minerals they need to balance the hay. Yet, the average hay result commonly shows that magnesium, copper and zinc tend to be a lot lower than ideal, so giving a supplement with them in, at least, is a good base to work with.
Getting calcium, phosphorus and magnesium results are really useful as they keep bones strong, (aswell as loads of other biological essential uses) so we can avoid old age arthritic/skeletal issues if we try to keep those 3 minerals in the ideal ratios.
Its great youve got these results from your own land for your crew. Sounds like an ideal hay for them.
As an aside, i added a calcium, magnesium and micro mineral fertiliser pellet to 1 field as an experiment. Its made from marine sources, not synthetic agri-minerals. I spread it fairly thin and mean due to cost (1 tonne- €180) on 3 acres. The horses grazed that area that year, and my god their coats were amazing! Their hooves best theyve ever been. Barefoot, no white line issues, abscesses, and they were running on the stone tracks so soles became tougher.
My black mare the blackest i’d seen her.
I was surprised at the results and concluded the fresh uptake of the grass of the fresh organic minerals not usual to this soil, really did them good. The results also lasted through this year 1 year later, and i didnt re-fertilise.
From this experiment im in the process of figuring out that i’d save money and time from giving various mineral additions to the diet, if i can fertilise the fields adequately. As the fresh intake of the minerals is key, i think.
We feed dried, lab-made mineral mixes to balance their diet, yet fresh bio-available organic minerals from grass is the ‘superfood’ of minerals in my opinion.
I wouldnt have realised this without the field trial. They had been grazing this land for years prior so i became used to the usual seasonal hoof health changes, and compensating for them with bought minerals.
This year theyve had just additional mag and copper/zinc/salt as salt blocks as these are still lower in my soil and were low in the pellet. I’ve saved hundreds not buying in mixed minerals this year. So, i think fertilising the fields, ends up being cheaper and a far superior source of fresh minerals, than adding it to their diet.
Im telling you this as you have your own land and might find this approach useful.
poiuytrewq
Well-Known Member
I request a love reply!
Thank you ever so much! I’m not feeding both mixed but I stopped with the tested batch until test results came back as I was convinced it was high in sugar.
I will go back to that as I have endless supplies but yes when I have more here will get the full analysis done, do you mind if I run that past you as and when? ?
Thank you ever so much! I’m not feeding both mixed but I stopped with the tested batch until test results came back as I was convinced it was high in sugar.
I will go back to that as I have endless supplies but yes when I have more here will get the full analysis done, do you mind if I run that past you as and when? ?
PurBee
Well-Known Member
At least youve confirmed the sugar levels are good for your lot. ? I’d love endless supplies of that!
Maybe your ridden one was adjusting to it - all hays are different, so will be interesting to see if he settles on it - there’s nothing to suggest it would be triggering for a horse.
Heavy worked horses would need more protein/sugars to maintain weight, but for the easy weight holders, this is ideal.
feel free to get in touch when the mineral analysis has been done ?
Maybe your ridden one was adjusting to it - all hays are different, so will be interesting to see if he settles on it - there’s nothing to suggest it would be triggering for a horse.
Heavy worked horses would need more protein/sugars to maintain weight, but for the easy weight holders, this is ideal.
feel free to get in touch when the mineral analysis has been done ?
poiuytrewq
Well-Known Member
It’s not actually from my land. It’s an area of grazing my OH was asked to mow to tidy up and so asked if we could bale it so I can’t really improve it but equally probably won’t be offered it next year and don’t graze it.
poiuytrewq
Well-Known Member
It may well be absolutely nothing to do with his change of behaviour, it was just a thought as the timing coincided