Tell me all about hay

[ktj1891]

As title says- what types of hay are there? What's the best to feed? Which has most diversity? What is the most calorific, most protein, most fibre? Which is more digestible?

How old should hay be before you use it etc, I want to know everything!

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

There is mouldy and dusty hay. Never feed it.

Hay is cut grass which had dried in the field and turned a few times. If it gets rained on after it has been turned it is usually not good enough for horses.

There is Timothy / Meadow Fescue ie two varieties of grass grown together, Timothy has seeds heads about an inch long, MF is a bit more like grass.
There is old pasture or meadow hay, a bit finer and more variable.
There is ryegrass hay, this is often grown for hay-making , and in some cases for horses [racehorses].
Sometimes there is some red clover in the hay, it looks a bit dark and dry, and the hay may be a bit richer [it is related to alfalfa]

Hay comes in small bales or big bales, which are a lot cheaper, not so easy to handle

Hay is cut after 22nd July [give or take] as first cut hay
A late cut is sometimes taken, late cut will be fibrous and less digestible.

Farmers often use big bales and wrap them nowadays , some call these wrapped hay, others call it haylage, but to my mind haylage is a product cut a bit earlier and is a bit less mature.

Hay is usually fed after October, it may need a few months to mature, but you can use it earlier, with care.

As to analysis, generally feed what is required to maintain condition.
If horse is laminitic or COPD it can be soaked to remove sugars and dust/spores. There will nearly always be a bit of dust and a few spores.
Generally it should smell pleasant and look a bit green.

 

[Dry Rot]

Hay is cut grass which had dried in the field and turned a few times. If it gets rained on after it has been turned it is usually not good enough for horses.

If that was true, we wouldn't feed much hay up here in Scotland!

But otherwise a pretty good summation of a subject that really needs a book which is probably why no one else has posted.

If turned hay gets rained on, keep turning it up as soon as it dries a bit. Strangely, we rather like hay to be rained on up here as it seems to help the drying process when (if) the sun does come out again. Sometimes we even cut when rain is forecast in the knowledge that it won't come to harm if it is not turned, like cut flowers in a vase! I've made good hay from grass that has lain so long like this that the new grass has grown through it. But once turned, it must be kept off the ground or it will start to rot. Hay making is more art than science, with a lot of luck. It's a lot easier now the weather forecast are getting more reliable and machinery is so efficient. My six rotor turner doe a job in minutes that we used to spend all day doing by hand with a two pronged fork!

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

If that was true, we wouldn't feed much hay up here in Scotland!

But otherwise a pretty good summation of a subject that really needs a book which is probably why no one else has posted.

If turned hay gets rained on, keep turning it up as soon as it dries a bit. Strangely, we rather like hay to be rained on up here as it seems to help the drying process when (if) the sun does come out again. Sometimes we even cut when rain is forecast in the knowledge that it won't come to harm if it is not turned, like cut flowers in a vase! I've made good hay from grass that has lain so long like this that the new grass has grown through it. But once turned, it must be kept off the ground or it will start to rot. Hay making is more art than science, with a lot of luck. It's a lot easier now the weather forecast are getting more reliable and machinery is so efficient. My six rotor turner doe a job in minutes that we used to spend all day doing by hand with a two pronged fork!

How old are you, was driving a Davis Brown 850 at age 16 and only ever did one tiny orchard by hand , scythe and all.
http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/sapcote/gallery,267079.html

 

[Dry Rot]

How old are you, was driving a Davis Brown 850 at age 16 and only ever did one tiny orchard by hand , scythe and all.
http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/sapcote/gallery,267079.html

74 and i've just removed my head from the inside of a MF390 to stop for tea! Electrical problems, don't you just love 'em!

One of my first "jobs" was building a cart load of oat sheaves like the picture on your link! We had just loaded the last sheaf from the last row (over loaded, of course!) when the whole lot slid off. My uncle said the equivalent of "Sod it! It'll still be there in the morning!" and we went home. That must have been shortly after WWII. (In truth, he placed most of the sheaves with his fork but I felt like I was building the load!). He hired in a tractor (grey Fergie) to pull the binder as it was too hard on the horses.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

74 and i've just removed my head from the inside of a MF390 to stop for tea! Electrical problems, don't you just love 'em!

One of my first "jobs" was building a cart load of oat sheaves like the picture on your link! We had just loaded the last sheaf from the last row (over loaded, of course!) when the whole lot slid off. My uncle said the equivalent of "Sod it! It'll still be there in the morning!" and we went home. That must have been shortly after WWII. (In truth, he placed most of the sheaves with his fork but I felt like I was building the load!). He hired in a tractor (grey Fergie) to pull the binder as it was too hard on the horses.

He was being kind, after that first disaster, you learned how to take the sheaves and hit them hard in to each other [knees and arms involved] so they don't fall off. They have to go in a pattern, as do hay bales..............
I can 't see the stooks clearly, I just assumed that it was hay from the title, and it was a weird English method. weep..........
I think I recall two incidents
1} My carefully, but poorly loaded hay bales fell off the cart when we went uphill.
2] after insisting that I wanted to "stook barley", the next morning, all "my stooks" fell on the ground.
In those days girls made scones, boys did the work

 

[heebiejeebies]

If that was true, we wouldn't feed much hay up here in Scotland!

Was just about to say that! Our horses up here would surely waste away to nothing if we didn't feed rained on hay, seeing as we don't seem to have any grass for half the year either

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

That is why farmers make haylage, but of course,.................. grass is not particularly good for ponies!......................

 

[Dry Rot]

He was being kind, after that first disaster, you learned how to take the sheaves and hit them hard in to each other [knees and arms involved] so they don't fall off. They have to go in a pattern, as do hay bales..............
I can 't see the stooks clearly, I just assumed that it was hay from the title, and it was a weird English method. weep..........
I think I recall two incidents
1} My carefully, but poorly loaded hay bales fell off the cart when we went uphill.
2] after insisting that I wanted to "stook barley", the next morning, all "my stooks" fell on the ground.
In those days girls made scones, boys did the work

Yes, those are stooks in the picture. Probably oats. Once in stooks, it could be left reasonably safely. I've seen stooks with snow on them near Dufftown, Banffshire, still out I think in December.. Also sheaves hung up on wire fences to dry!

Our load slid off (with me on top!) because there was about quarter of a load left to bring in and my uncle thought he could get that too on the already over loaded wagon!

I also remember the hay being gathered up with sweeps, a sort of super sized buck rack pulled by a horse. We kids got to ride on the load (no H&S in those days!) once it had got to a decent size. This would be lifted onto a wagon, hauled home and made into a stack which was THATCHED! (A sheet was looked on as something rather modern and decadent!).

Wedges of hay were cut off the stack with a hay knife and carried on a fork into the loft to be put down a hole in the stable ceiling straight into the horses' or cows' hay racks.

No haylage before the invention of plastic film, of course. But silage was made in a pit and covered. I've also seen tripodded hay in Ireland which makes by far the best hay, but it is a lot of work.