Why is all the hay so nasty at the moment???

Porkie

Porkie

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I usually get my hay from my YO who has regular deliveries. Recently all her hay has been pretty nasty, dusty, bitty and smells disgusting and all the horses don't seem to like it! I have therefore been getting my own from local places (my poor hay filled car!!
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) but now everywhere I go seems to have nasty manky hay!!
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My boy is 28 and suffers from a cough. I steam and soak it but a) it doesn't make it taste any nicer and he doesn't like it and b) no amount of steaming takes all the dust out!!

Are we destined for a whole winter of nasty hay and hungry horses ???
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I have the same problem and have struggled over the years to get decent stuff at all. I had my own field cut this year by a contractor and on first pass it seemed ok, but it is not...dusty and not sweet smelling at all! I have had hay from other suppliers and had the same problem and my lad is getting pretty fed up of it and also has copd...so I am looking at alternatives and the possibility of moving onto high fibre haylage instead as I am fed up every year of the hassle involved in sourcing decent stuff.
 
same here and also some of the small haylage bales. just bought a bale from local feed store that was 4.00 but really nice quality. as i only have one pony of 11hhs thats ok .thrown a few haylage bales away as were just mouldy when opened.
 
You can thank the good ol British weather
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Ours was cut really, really late and alot is pretty crap.
 
Well, our hay is lovely this year - we got a load of bales delivered by the farmer straight off the field and it is light, smells sweet and the horses seem to love it!

Maybe we had a good haymaking year up north!
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You have the weather to thank. The grass loses it quality and sweet smell when it is cut late and also if it gets rained on after its cut. We managed to make some good stuff in june, but the rest was made late and varies in quality.

The price tends to go up in a bad haymaking year.
 
Yes, as everyone has said, it was the lovely english weather that has been the problem with the hay this year and for the past couple really.
Hoping for a better year next year, get some cut/baled and under cover in June instead of late September!!!!
 
I would do a decent search and see if you can buy some good stuff from somewhere. The mould and spores in bad hay is VERY bad for horses health, even if soaked. If you cant find any consider horsehage. I know its more expensive but it will be cheaper in the long run. A winter of crap hay can ruin your horses breathing for the rest of its life not to mention the risk of colic. Never worth feeding crap hay IMO
 
ours is lovely, we insisted they cut it at the very first bit of nice weather after last years fiasco trying to get it cut and as we dont need to have masses. So it was cut in a really nice week we had in june and is lovely, much better than last years.
 
Hmm I had been thinking that the horses and cows didn't seem so keen on the new hay as the old (from the same field)but I thought it might just be there was a flush of grass so they weren't that hungry...the new hay looks OK....
 
I,ve got some late cut hay that's not so good that I am soaking before feeding. I drain the net well before I hang it up and mix a little bit of haylage with it and my gelding seems to be eating up at the moment. I also have some really nice stuff which I got locally and am saving that to feed when it gets colder and or frosty as I don't have to soak it.
 
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