The great hay panic.

[FairyLights]

I wish people would stop panicking. there is plenty of time yet. As for "gone over" "past its best" unless you have racehorses then it isnt and hasn't. I have some 50 years experience of horse ownership and haymaking. We have our hay analysed. Mixed meadow grasses old pasture Midlands area. The nutritional content when it is 1 year old is as high as a competition mix ie 13 mj. And theres plenty of vit and min content so no need to supplement.
I really do wish people would get hard facts before they start worrying.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I wish people would stop panicking. there is plenty of time yet. As for "gone over" "past its best" unless you have racehorses then it isnt and hasn't. I have some 50 years experience of horse ownership and haymaking. We have our hay analysed. Mixed meadow grasses old pasture Midlands area. The nutritional content when it is 1 year old is as high as a competition mix ie 13 mj. And theres plenty of vit and min content so no need to supplement.
I really do wish people would get hard facts before they start worrying.

I learned long ago like Joseph song

Always plan for the years ahead thus I always have one hay year extra. So in a bad year I have enough for the yard to run.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsHRXjffb_4

Our hay is always used after 6 m- 1 year horses are fine nutritionally

 

[JLD]

I rip my suppliers arm off for his 1-2 year old hay ! It is stored beautifully, smells gorgeous, isn't dusty and I soak for 12 hours anyway. It means I can feed much larger volumes of good quality lower nutritional value hay to my laminitis prone greedy native without him gaining weight. Farmer pleased I want it, I get it cheaper, pony gets to eat more forage over a longer period- win win really !

 

[Sandstone1]

There's loads of hay around here and a lot of farmers have a lot of hay left from last year too so don't know what the panic is.

 

[Under-the-radar]

I learned long ago like Joseph song

Always plan for the years ahead thus I always have one hay year extra. So in a bad year I have enough for the yard to run.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsHRXjffb_4

Our hay is always used after 6 m- 1 year horses are fine nutritionally

In theory, we do this too. However, lots of people don't have facilities to do this.

Due to the location of our barn, we would chew up our main winter field if we wanted to get a tractor in once the ground is wet. So we have just cut our own hay and purchased some in to fill our barn up to the rafters. Unfortunately, due to the different types of grasses, the purchased hay went in first, and it then turned out we had rather a lot of bales from our own field! So now my poor youngster has been relegated out of a stable as we have best part of 100 bales stacked in there!

We always aim to wait at least 6 months before hay is used - I had always understood that this was the best way to feed hay anyway?

 

[JillA]

I wish people would stop panicking. there is plenty of time yet. As for "gone over" "past its best" unless you have racehorses then it isnt and hasn't. I have some 50 years experience of horse ownership and haymaking. We have our hay analysed. Mixed meadow grasses old pasture Midlands area. The nutritional content when it is 1 year old is as high as a competition mix ie 13 mj. And theres plenty of vit and min content so no need to supplement.
I really do wish people would get hard facts before they start worrying.

Mine has gone over and is past it best because 1. the seed has dropped out of it and 2. the recent heavy rain has flattened a lot of it, so it is lying on the ground and won't be as clean as it was two weeks ago. Yes I will get okay hay if I wait long enough (one year it was late August, that is the latest I have experienced in getting on for 40 years) but it will be little more than fibre and mean I have to ensure they get the protein etc they need from short feeds. I'm not panicking, there is nothing to be gained, but I am checking and double checking the 5 day weather reports, the temptation is to go for an iffy one and a better window comes along later.

 

[FairyLights]

JillA have you had it analized for energy protein and vit/min content? we dont make ours til it has dropped seed. its better for horses then generally.

 

[Clodagh]

We normally do ours late July but the weather was so good the contractors did it earlier this year, so while it was still 'in head', I must say it smells nicer but that may just be that there wasn't a lot of it and the conditions for drying were optimal. We got nearly half what we got last year and will probalby have to fertilise the fields now, we have never done so before. (But a crop of hay has come off them every year since the year dot).

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

No panicking here (were you referring to my poll FL?)
If so, that was idle question more based on who has had the weather/time too get it done

 

[fatpiggy]

We normally do ours late July but the weather was so good the contractors did it earlier this year, so while it was still 'in head', I must say it smells nicer but that may just be that there wasn't a lot of it and the conditions for drying were optimal. We got nearly half what we got last year and will probalby have to fertilise the fields now, we have never done so before. (But a crop of hay has come off them every year since the year dot).

Blimey, round my way it is usually cut at the end of June and a second cut done around August. In a really good year you might even see a small third cut.

 

[RunToEarth]

I wish people would stop panicking. there is plenty of time yet. As for "gone over" "past its best" unless you have racehorses then it isnt and hasn't. I have some 50 years experience of horse ownership and haymaking. We have our hay analysed. Mixed meadow grasses old pasture Midlands area. The nutritional content when it is 1 year old is as high as a competition mix ie 13 mj. And theres plenty of vit and min content so no need to supplement.
I really do wish people would get hard facts before they start worrying.

Perhaps the worry is not particularly for the quality of the hay, or actually anything to do with the hay. I'm not stupid, I understand the concept of making hay and I am not concerned if it has been dropped and left for a while at all.

My OH is an arable farmer - if I don't get hay in, in June, it doesn't come in. Because quite soon it will be time to desiccate Rape, then the Spring Barley is ready and then we get into straw before the main wheat crop is ready. A lot of people rely on contractors and local farmers to do their hay, and most of them know that when harvest kicks off, they're too busy.

 

[Orangehorse]

Perhaps the worry is not particularly for the quality of the hay, or actually anything to do with the hay. I'm not stupid, I understand the concept of making hay and I am not concerned if it has been dropped and left for a while at all.

My OH is an arable farmer - if I don't get hay in, in June, it doesn't come in. Because quite soon it will be time to desiccate Rape, then the Spring Barley is ready and then we get into straw before the main wheat crop is ready. A lot of people rely on contractors and local farmers to do their hay, and most of them know that when harvest kicks off, they're too busy.

That is very true. We do our hay just after the silage (although we always say we won't next year as it is a lot of work all together and leaves everyone exhausted). My OH likes to cut the hay around the longest day, 21st June, if the weather forcast is anywhere near promising. He often cuts it when there is rain too, so it is cut and gets rained on for a few days, with the theory that if it is raining this week, then it will probably be dry next week ................... It usually works.

 

[RunToEarth]

That is very true. We do our hay just after the silage (although we always say we won't next year as it is a lot of work all together and leaves everyone exhausted). My OH likes to cut the hay around the longest day, 21st June, if the weather forcast is anywhere near promising. He often cuts it when there is rain too, so it is cut and gets rained on for a few days, with the theory that if it is raining this week, then it will probably be dry next week ................... It usually works.

I think we used to panic more when we did haylage as it's harder to get right. But again - come two weeks time I would be high and dry until sept at the earliest.

 

[mirage]

Ours is being baled today. A lot of people have done one lot already and are going to get two cuts in this year. I understood that the not feeding new hay thing was based on years ago when hay wasn't tested for moisture content before baling,so not relevant now?

 

[Leo Walker]

I honestly didn't even know there was a hay panic?! Its only July, and conditions here, in Bucks have been pretty good for cutting hay. I assumed that most people had done the first cut and would be aiming for a second, and it would be a good year for hay?!

 

[Slightlyconfused]

I honestly didn't even know there was a hay panic?! Its only July, and conditions here, in Bucks have been pretty good for cutting hay. I assumed that most people had done the first cut and would be aiming for a second, and it would be a good year for hay?!

This. Our yard has just done their first cut. They still have a lot left over from last year too.

 

[JillA]

I honestly didn't even know there was a hay panic?! Its only July, and conditions here, in Bucks have been pretty good for cutting hay. I assumed that most people had done the first cut and would be aiming for a second, and it would be a good year for hay?!

That might be true of the southern part of the country. Here we haven't had a forecast clear 4 or 5 days without rain since mid June. There have been one or two but they weren't forecast and when you miss them you are wondering whether you will ever get another - even now there seems to be no prospect of a decent high pressure taking over for a while. We seem to be at a weather crossroads. I rang my contractor about three weeks ago and said it was ready when we got the weather and we haven't had a decent spell since. My crop is starting to look like straw now.

 

[hairycob]

There have been people panicking on social media over hay every single year I have had horses.

 

[YorksG]

I think some people who sell hay cause panic, or try to, every year, so that they can be sure of selling their own, often at inflated prices. The same people tell us that the grass isn't growing 'cos it's too dry and then that it won't be cut and baled because it's too wet, then next year they want us to buy last years hay, because guess what, there will be a shortage then as well Any body remember the Thelwell cartoon with two farmers leaning on a gate of a field full of stacked hay, with one saying to the other "It'll be the worst year I've known if this lot catches fire" ?

 

[Tiddlypom]

I'm not-quite-panicking, but am definitely getting a bit twitchy!

Weather has been pretty indifferent here for the last few weeks. People have cut and made hay but its been rained on.

My neighbour (or rather his extended family) makes ours, and we keep half each. Trying to synchronise their availabilty along with a good weather forecast is stressful.

The yield looks much better this year, though. It was sprayed in May mainly for buttercups, clover and plantains, and the grass has really picked up without all that competition for water and nutrients. Just need to get it made and in the barn .

 

[Milkmaid]

The nutritional content when it is 1 year old is as high as a competition mix ie 13 mj. And theres plenty of vit and min content so no need to supplement.
I really do wish people would get hard facts before they start worrying.

Really?!? That would be the equivalent of racehorse hay and some, lol!
The DE energy of decent meadow hay should be around 8-10 MJ/kg and certainly not anywhere near 13MJ/kg especially after storage for a year and probably (hopefully!) unlikely.
For most horses, the lower the DE/kg the better and then most can have adlib which is much healthier ☺

 

[JillA]

As I understand it both vitamin and protein content deteriorate markedly once the seeds have dropped, especially as the seed is where the protein is and vitamins are known not to last (hence the "use by" date on feeds). Where do you get those "hard facts" from? I once posted that I liked the late August made hay we had a few years ago and a well know nutritionist replied and said she would be really concerned about lack of protein and its effect on soft tissue, immune system etc.

 

[shadowboy]

They have made so much round by us they are practically giving it away

 

[happyclappy]

Oodles of it, haylage too. No need to panic, in fact, lots of last

years left still.
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