Would you give this to your horses (hay)?

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moodiestmare

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Just wondering really!

A lady has just taken on some fields adjacent to us. We have been there over 2 years and in that time the fields have never been grazed. I couldn't tell you how long the grass has been growing but I would guess 3+years.

Anyway, the lady has just had it all turned in to hay! Its the most awful looking hay I have ever seen. Really brown. She has turned her whole field into hay.

Now, is it just me that wouldn't do this because I know my horses are fussy and wouldn't eat it. Plus it has been growing for several years.

What does everyone think?
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We have a new livery opposite us and they cut all their fields and they are full off ragwort.I hope he isnt using it for the liveries.
 
Well, I have to admit that because I own a hay farm I am a real hay buff these days. I won't feed any of my horses rubbish, but then I never did, I'm just a bit more precocious about it all nowadays.

I don't, however, really understand what you are saying about her grass. Grass grows, seeds and then dies if not utilised. The following year the new shoots grow from the dispersed seeds, thus producing new grass. Yes there may be stalks of the old dead grass, but this should be superceded by the percentage of new growth.

The biggest problem with untended hay fields is that because the grass dies off, the yield of good hay grass will degenerate over time, thus allowing space for weeds to grow, and often take over!

We grow hay for part of our living therefore I am very prissy over which hay I use and sell. Providing this hay is not weed infested, has good new growth, is cut and baled in dry conditions, then really there shouldn't be a noticable difference between it and late first-cut hay (taken in July/early August I mean). The nutritional value may be compromised of course, but as far as feeding it as a bulk fibre provider then if it has been harvested correctly then it should be fine. If, as you say, it is brown, then it sounds like it has been rained on. Being rained on once is not the end of the world and will still normally leave you with greenish hay, being rained on constantly - well the best place for it is on the bonfire I'm afraid.
 
So long as it's been cut dry I don't think there would be a problem feeding it to say native ponies or good doers, will maybe need a soak if it's gone dusty and give suplimentary feeding for nutrients/ vits. One of the reason's these types get laminitus more and more is becasue they're supposed to live on cr@p grass and be really poor going into spring... we rug em, stable em, mollycoddle them and feed them too well to keep their condition on in winter, then spend the whole summer trying to keep thier weight down!
 
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