Hay mineral analysis

[SEL]

Does anyone have a full mineral analysis done on their hay - was it worth it?

I have a barn newly stacked with 12 large bales which should get me through to Autumn and I do the sugar analysis just to check its not rocket fuel (one has PSSM) but I've never done the mineral analysis because its expensive. I've just finished 2022 hay and this is 2023 hay. I can probably top up the barn with 2023 hay before he takes the first cut of this year.

Its all from the same local area but obviously the land he cuts covers a large acreage.

Worth it or too much variation in the hay for it to be meaningful?

 

[criso]

When you take the samples, if you take a bit from lots of bales, mix it up and take the sample to send from that, you'll get a reasonable assessment.

However my question would be what will you do with that info? Are you going to start balancing minerals to it. Do you have the knowledge to interpret and calculate the balancing or will you then have to pay for that service.

I've had it done at a few yards though on the grass not hay and paid for the full package however the results were broadly so similar that I haven't recently.

 

[SEL]

When you take the samples, if you take a bit from lots of bales, mix it up and take the sample to send from that, you'll get a reasonable assessment.

However my question would be what will you do with that info? Are you going to start balancing minerals to it. Do you have the knowledge to interpret and calculate the balancing or will you then have to pay for that service.

I've had it done at a few yards though on the grass not hay and paid for the full package however the results were broadly so similar that I haven't recently.

In theory I can do the balancing myself (drags out notes from Dr Kellons course from too many years ago) but I'm not sure whether anyone has actually found the mineral analysis worth it - did yours throw up anything useful?

 

[HopOnTrot]

From what I understand it has to be wet analysis to be helpful for looking at sugars. I can’t remember who has a post on it either an equine nutritionist or The Laminitis Site.

No idea about minerals etc though!

 

[PurBee]

As you have almost a years supply, and if your supplier is one you plan to stick with, it could be useful to know the average minerals from their acreage.
As criso said, if you take bits of hay from many bales and mix the lot together really thoroughly, you’ll get an average result of minerals.
Its possible one field varies from another, i have 1 acre wildly different from another acre even - but its valley land and unpredictable like that - whereas flatter vast agri areas tend to be similar topsoil types.

The results could show excess molybdenum or manganese, deficient zinc, high calcium -all useful to know when youre into trying to balance the minerals in their diet.
There’s some pockets of land uk and ireland with high selenium per kg topsoil - if the hay also has enough selenium you know you dont need to feed that. Testing the hay shows what the plants are capable of absorbing and utilising, and as that is whst is actually fed, it’s vastly more useful than soil tests. What’s in the soil and whats in the plants grown in that soil can be different mineral results - depending on PH and climate.

I’d only invest in a hay mineral test if i had a hay source i was on the whole happy with, and plan to stick with buying from them. The supplier would likely also find the results interesting.

 

[criso]

In theory I can do the balancing myself (drags out notes from Dr Kellons course from too many years ago) but I'm not sure whether anyone has actually found the mineral analysis worth it - did yours throw up anything useful?

I found it useful. All showed low mg, cu, zn and p; high fe, mn and incredibly high calcium though some variations. I had a horse where moving on to a bespoke balancer resulted in a big event line and improvements compared to feeding standard rates. This sort of reading is fairly typical for the UK but might be worth doing one to see if there is something atypical going on.

However I moved yards and the new analysis was almost identical - about a mile down the road, I then moved again even closer and didn't bother. I don't go really high with minerals but I don't add calcium, iron or manganese or feed balancers that contain them. I also don't feed phosphorous as i feed copra but without knowing we were low in phosphorous, I might have balanced for the copra being high.

I would also ask is hay the most important forage to test if your horses are grazing. I went for grass as that is consistent in the diet for mine. Hay is sometimes is on site in which case will be the same or if bought in not consistent enough for me to test.

 

[LEC]

Does anyone have a full mineral analysis done on their hay - was it worth it?

I have a barn newly stacked with 12 large bales which should get me through to Autumn and I do the sugar analysis just to check its not rocket fuel (one has PSSM) but I've never done the mineral analysis because its expensive. I've just finished 2022 hay and this is 2023 hay. I can probably top up the barn with 2023 hay before he takes the first cut of this year.

Its all from the same local area but obviously the land he cuts covers a large acreage.

Worth it or too much variation in the hay for it to be meaningful?

Yep, I did this year but didn’t gain much as all mine are supplemented with vits and mins anyway as I don’t feed the correct amounts of hard feed to make it a balanced feed. I found the protein levels much more useful.

 

[SEL]

Thanks everyone.

Until they move onto their winter paddock in Dec each year mine are on a track with strip grazing - good doers & one with PSSM - so they get hay all year round

I did a soil test when I bought the land 2.5 years ago and it showed low in selenium and copper which one of the neighbouring farmers confirmed. I have just had my littlest cob blood tested and her selenium was normal though - so that got me wondering if the hay was providing enough.

I've also had a bit of a niggle at the back of my tiny little brain about hoof quality. It's not something my farrier is worried about but I think the two mares have had harder horn in the past. Both are wearing their hooves down on tarmac more than they've done before.

I've bought from this farmer since I moved here and been happy with the quality and price so unless something drastic happens then I'll continue to use him.

Thinking it might be worth it even if it's just one off - although also thinking testing my grass would be interesting too

 

[Jambarissa]

I did it a couple of times through interest. Tested my hay in November and my horse in February for an unconnected reason . Hay was low in a few minerals and high in one or two but my horse was absolutely spot on despite only eating the hay.

It's worth doing out of interest if you're sticking with the same supplier, it could throw up some extreme values which might prompt you to test your horses. I think I future I'd do the horse first if I had a concern and only test hay if there's a deficiency there.

 

[criso]

The only thing with testing the horses is that they are good at compensating so the deficiencies won't necessarily show up until it's a real problem.

The other thing to mention is I did my analysis through forageplus but the lab was scientec. In the results graph is says low, average, high as well as the actual levels. This is just low/high in terms of average levels and nothing to do with equine requirements.