Hay, help please

ticobay831

ticobay831

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Is there anywhere i can send samples of hay and hayledge to where i can find out exactly what grasses are in them.
My horse had an allergy to the hay i fed him earlier on in the year, i changed him to hayledge about six weeks ago and the allergy cleared up, i have now had to change my hayledge suplier and he has reacted to that now.
so theres somthing in the second lot of hayledge and the hay that dosnt agree with him and i need to find out what it is.
Its difficult identifing the grasses just by me looking i need somone who knows there stuff, so to speak.
Any ideas
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Debs x
 
D&H will do a protein/etc analysis if you send them a sample. I think you have to carefully pick from 5 random patches in your field and can't remember how it works with hay or haylage. There is a small charge but I'm not sure if their service includes an analysis of the actual grasses found. If not (a) they may be able to tell you where you can get this done or (b) MAFF (or whatever they are called now) probably have a service. Your local NFU may be able to advise.
 
MAFF - now DEFRA, but you probably want ADAS (it was privatised research part). However I am one of three - weeds/grasses people on the arable side and I am not sure that we would be able to identify the grasses in a batch of hay. The identifying features on grasses are most easily the seed heads (often not present in hay) and then the ligules and oricales (where the leaf blade meets the leaf sheath). This is often degraded in a a dried sample, making identification difficult. Can you visit the field that the hay / hayage crop was taken from as the grasses will be easier to identify fresh. Either that or speak to your hay merchant, as a lot of these farmers are knowledgeable about what they are growing, and they may have sown a specific grass mix to crop for hay. In which case they should know the majority of what is in the hay.
 
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