Ryegrass Hay - I'm confused

[Wilbur_Force]

Please point me in the right direction!

Local farmer has brought up some meadow hay for our yard, but its super sweet smelling and I cant risk giving it to Will because he's prone to colics and is a good doer. He normally has a rough and ready meadow hay with not a fat lot in it.

The alternative is a coarser ryegrass and timothy mix. I can't normally give him seed hay as it goes straight through him but he reckons that this hay won't be as rich as the meadow hay!

I don't get it?! Can someone please enlighten me?! Thanks

 

[Miss L Toe]

Hay can be cut at various stages of maturity and this will have as much effect as the variety of hay used. Presumably you are looking for late cut stuff which is stalky [hi fibre] rather than top quality racehorse hay.
To be honest you just have to use your judgement and try it out. Maybe use a probiotic?
All hay should smell sweet and not be dusty or mouldy.
You could mix the forage, and even try some straw as long as he will not colic on it.
Soaking any forage will remove sugars but also minerals and vitamins.

 

[appylass]

As I understand it there are two sorts of ryegrass 'hay'. If the hay is made from young ryegrass it is quite high in energy and not so suitable for good doers. Round here the young ryegrass haylage is aimed at the racehorse market. On the other hand, if it has gone to seed and/or has been harvested for its seed then it becomes much lower energy value, in effect it is more similar to late cut hay or even straw. I had some late cut ryegrass hay once, it was very coarse looking and didn't upset any of the good doers, but they didn't like it much either so that probably helped! I've also had small bale ryegrass/timothy haylage which was aimed at the good doer market, again this was a very coarse looking haylage. I think I'd give it a try and see

 

[Wilbur_Force]

Thanks both. This makes perfect sense. I would never give William dusty or mouldy hay so that would never be an issue. He does well on the bagged blue hi fibre horsehage stuff, which completely amazed me so I'll try it and see! Thanks