Rye grass hay ? pro's & cons of feeding please

amc

amc

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I've been offered some Rye grass hay at £3 a bale, very big bales too, it's dust free & smells lovely but as hay is going at £3.50 for fair to good & £4 for good hay I'm wondering if I'm missing something about this deal ? I fed it years ago when I hay TB's in "proper work" and found it fine then but now have a ID x TB who does a fair amount of work, ridden 5/6 days a week, hacking 4 times for 1-2 hours, schooling 30 mins on the other 2 days plus 30-45 mins hack, he's fine weight wise & is fed ad lib hay & haylage & a small breakfast & tea of short feed, I'll introduce new hay gradually but need to make a decision on buying 100 bales in the next week.......so any advice gratefully received, thanks Ann
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If it was well made, and you are satisfied with the quality I would buy it. I feed my Mare Ryegrass Haylage, and I hardly give her anything in the way of hard feed because it is so nutritional.

I was previously very happy with my meadowgrass hay but the quality suddenly took a nose dive and made her cough, so I had to make a change.

The pros are that it ought to be higher in protein and have a higher feed value than regular meadow hay. I can't really imagine any con's.
 
Cons of rye grass...

one of the main causes of laminitis. Rye grass is the species of grass that stores the highest amount of fructans, the cause of laminitis. It's sown in the UK for dairy cattle as those fructans help produce higher milk yields however it is unsuitable for horses as they cannot digest the fructans, which are converted to toxins in the hind gut resulting in lami.

Personally I wouldn't touch rye grass hay, however well made it is. Stick to mixed species meadow grasses. If you do buy the rye grass hay soak it for at least 12 hours before feeding to reduce the sugar content as much as you can.
 
If someone offered me that at £3 a bale, I'd rip their arm off frankly! Most hay around my way is predominantly ryegrass and even if bought direct from the farm, it is £4 a bale and isn't particularly brilliant quality.

My mare has been on pure ryegrass haylage (branded label) for years without any problems. She isn't the type to get fat and was always worked hard when she was ridden, so it never caused me worries.
 
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