How old? A hay Q

[druid]

How old should hay be before feeding to horses?? I know there's a "cure" time..but can't for teh life of remember what it is

 

[JM7]

i dont feed "fresh off the field" until it's been in the barn for 6 weeks.....

 

[druid]

Thank you! Getting fed up of 7'x3'x2' bales...want my little square ones back!!

 

[Irishcobs]

Depends on the horse. A horse that can get colicky, I would wait till its 3 months. But anything after 3 weeks, the norm is 6-8 months.

 

[flyingfeet]

Christmas is the traditional point to start feeding new hay.

However obviously if you have run out you may have to start feeding before then.

 

[Irishcobs]

Weeks I meant 6-8 weeks, sorry.

 

[allijudd]

[ QUOTE ]
Depends on the horse. A horse that can get colicky, I would wait till its 3 months. But anything after 3 weeks, the norm is 6-8 months.

[/ QUOTE ]

me too...the earlier the hay is the richer its going to be......so just feed less......

but if your hay has been like ours...it was in the feild for a good 4 days turned twice and is very dry it would probably be ok now........


i did check with our vet aswell and said the same thing.....

 

[Bossanova]

Ours are fed new stuff pretty much straight away, so long as it isnt green and has no heat, we've never had any probs

 

[seabiscuit]

My boys are so fussy- they simply wont touch hay under a year old.....

At pony club camp they never let us bring in hay that was under a year old. I think it was considered to be too rich for horses to eat....but reading this post it seems like eating fresh hay is commonplace practise?

 

[MotoGP']

all the farmers i know generally wait at three months before feeding new hay, can be dropped to eight weeks if short.....certainly no sooner.

our yards hay has now been stood six weeks and getting very low on last years hay but will hang or feed alternative before resorting to new hay

 

[Tia]

Providing hay is perfectly dry when baled it is perfectly safe to feed immediately. Contrary to popular belief, hay does not have a curing period - it is either grass or it is hay.

Hay does start to lose it's nutritional value the minute it is cut and baled therefore the longer you leave it, the less nutritional it will be. It all depends what you are aiming for by feeding though and you need to be aware of the differences in the nutritional content.

If you are not looking for anything other than bulk, then it doesn't matter when you feed the hay providing it has been stored carefully, but if like my customers, you are looking for the hay to be part of a highly nutritional feeding system, then you would want fresh hay to provide this.

 

[druid]

Well - it all comes analysed so I know the nutritional content and has been in the barns for 9 weeks now and I won't need it for another 2 weeks so we'll be safe using it from these posts.

Thanks guys