Rye grass Hay or Meadow hay - which is better?

[Serephin]

Having always had to use the hay our yard supplied, I am bit ignorant to hay really and now we have to source our own.

I have a choice so far of Rye Grass hay or Meadow Hay - which is better? My boy is a good doer cob type and does well on just hay over winter.

The Rye grass is more coarse but a good belly filler apparently. I am assuming the meadow hay would be more calorific but also more nutritious?

Any help from the wise people on HHO? The meadow hay is also slightly more expensive at £4.25 a bale. Rye is £4 a bale.

Which to choose? Thanks in advance!

 

[Ibblebibble]

rye hay is imho too rich for most horses, i wouldn't feed it to mine, i would go for a nice meadow hay over rye every time.

 

[Nocturnal]

Meadow hay, for sure. I cannot for the life of me understand why some people seem to think it's a good idea to feed horses on a single species of grass. Would we be healthy if we ate only rice, and nothing else? Of course not, and it's no different with horses.

 

[Spyda]

Meadow hay is better suited to the horse's nutritional needs.

 

[coss]

Meadow hay.

 

[Cortez]

Depends on the hay, but I'd go for meadow hay everytime if the quality was good (meadow hay just means hay taken off a meadow, which should mean that the meadow has a mixture of grasses. Seed hay means hay taken off a sown pasture, so the grass has been selected, be that ryegrass, fescue or whatever. Most swards are sown with ryegrass nowadays, with cattle in mind, not horses).

 

[Serephin]

Right, meadow hay it is! I knew i could count on you guys! Thanks

I am going to go and have a look to ascertain quality.

 

[Goldenstar]

Which ever was less dusty I would prefer meadow but would not feed dusty meadow over less dusty rye.
You really need to analysis to know the nutrional values my friend sold meadow hay last year to a serious competitor and they had it analysised it was higher in protein and lower in fibre than the competitors rocket fuel hay !