Leucern Hay

[ladyaga]

Does anyone feed this type of hay, sorry if I spelt it wrong, please can you tell me what the benefits are if any

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Another name for lucerne is alfalfa. I think you would struggle to find it in the form of hay in the UK. It is most usually sold as bagged chaff.

 

[ladyaga]

Thank you for your reply, we are in the uk and I have just bought some round bales of it, and the brood mares love it.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

That is interesting. I know that in some countries it is the main type of hay which is available. I would be wary of feeding it as the main forage, as I have known several mares which are very sensitive to alfalfa/lucerne and behave very badly /become jumpy and nervous on it. However, I hope it works well for you.

 

[wkiwi]

You might find this article from Kentucky Equine Research interesting
https://ker.com/equinews/lucerne-hay-in-equine-diets1/
It is higher in protein and calcium than ordinary hay, but this might be an advantage for broodmares if you need the protein and calcium higher to balance their diets.

 

[Goldenstar]

A fantastic forage for horses in work and excellent acid buffer .
As long as your brood mare is not a fatty I think she will do very well on it where did you find it ?

 

[popsdosh]

I would be guarded about feeding to much lucerne to broodmares as it contains naturally occurring oestrogen's and can cause infertility in large amounts. Not as high as red clover but still a risk.

 

[ladyaga]

They are not fat, been in a long wet winter here in yorkshire, I have 6 infoal mares on it, all carm still after reading the above mail,

 

[Cortez]

I would be guarded about feeding to much lucerne to broodmares as it contains naturally occurring oestrogen's and can cause infertility in large amounts. Not as high as red clover but still a risk.

That's odd: I used to feed alfalfa exclusively to all my brood stock when I was in the USA with excellent results.

 

[Indy]

We make Lucerne hay - my horses seem to do well off it.