Second, the herbicide has a planting restriction of 10 months for grasses. However, there are several different varieties of foxtail, and some seed heads remain upright. Cereal hays should be light green in color; a yellow, straw-like color would indicate that the hay was harvested too late and will be of lower nutritional value. This hay can be shipped anywhere in the UK as compressed 20kg bales. These are what gives foxtail its illustrative name. Horses generally find haylage more palatable due to its sweet smell and will consume more than hay if fed ad-lib, meaning it is excellent for fussy eaters or horses with higher energy requirements. Warm-season grasses include Bermuda grass (referred to as coastal), bromegrass, and most recently teff. The term mixed hay can be an ambiguous one, which makes clarification essential. During certain times of year, hay may be the only forage available to horses and therefore the selection of well-preserved hay harvested at the appropriate stage of maturity is critical. Fescue has gained much attention over the last couple decades for its sometimes detrimental effects on pregnant mares when it is infected with an endophyte fungus. As hay, it would be harvested in the spring and summer so palatability might not be an issue for certain horses. Typically timothy grass has a finer texture than other grasses. Oat hay is the most common cereal hay fed in the United States, and if harvested at the right time, it is quite palatable to horses. 1st & 2nd Rye – The perfect match for horses in hard work or competition. “Yellow, brown, or otherwise faded hay indicates that it was made at a mature stage, laid in the field longer to dry, or possibly rained on after being cut in the field, all of which would indicate lost nutrients through leaching by the sun or rain,” said Crandell. Feeding meadow rolls at the moment and the horses are doing a little too well on it.Theres a lot of clover in it.I swap and change between oaten and meadow depending on which is the better quality. High quality forage is critical for proper digestive function in horses. As a nutritionist with Kentucky Equine Research (KER), she understands the importance of good-quality hay. Get notified when we have news, courses, or events of interest to you. Lucerne and grass hay are packed in small bales and the unit of feeding is a biscuit (flake). If you can pull or dig up the plant, take a look at the crown, where the shoots meet the roots. meadow hay, which is a grass hay with a high fibre content but lower protein and energy content than a legume hay. Other weeds may pop up in the bare areas, and bare ground is at higher risk for soil erosion. It is not unusual to run into bales that have both green and brown plant material, according to Crandell. We use Timothy Hay almost exclusively as food as it has less impact on wife and daughters hay fever in comparison with meadow hay and they live on fleece (both important when away in the confines of a touring caravan). Legumes add nitrogen to the soil, so growing legumes with grasses can cut down on fertilizer needs and growing costs. Timothy Hay – Extremely clean, nutrient packed hay. To come back year after year, it drops hundreds and hundreds of seeds into the soil. Mixing grasses with a legume has two notable benefits. It is also effective on other summer annual grasses like crabgrass and some broadleaf weeds. Alfalfa hay, sometimes called lucerne hay, is the most popular legume hay fed to horses in the U.S., while timothy and orchard are popular grass hay choices. I almost always try to smell the hay to see if it is fresh, stale, or moldy. “I also look at stem coarseness, as this tells me the stage of maturity of the plants when they were harvested. You may want to use a magnifying glass or lens. All bags used are 100% Recyclable under code 4. Photo: Ohio State University. Color is not the end-all, be-all in determining hay quality, but it can be a clue to how it was made. Now that you can tell the difference between timothy and foxtail, what can you do about the foxtail in your pasture or hayfield? A practical advantage occurs as well: when grasses and legumes are grown together it is more difficult for horses to pick out the tasty portions, as they could if fed a flake of legume and a flake of grass. Right image: Green foxtail seed head. In order to know the true NSC value of your hay you will have to test it, but understanding the factors that affect NSC levels will help you pick hay that is more likely to meet your horse… Timothy Grass Hay is a premium feed used for thoroughbred horses, pleasure riding horses, and ranch horses. It is not recommended to feed foxtail with seed heads to horses. With alfalfa, Crandell recommends a thorough scan of multiple bales for blister beetles. One reason horse owners often avoid clover is its propensity for mold. Meadow hay. Well made lucerne hay is generally of better quality, nutrative value and palatability (for horses) than well made meadow hay. Forage (hay/pasture) makes up 60-100% of the diet for horses, depending on their function and activity. Meadow hay usually has the advantages of being cheaper and more widely available than Timothy hay. Timothy grass hay is commonly fed to horses, as well as cattle. On the east coast of the United States, I would say a mix of grasses in a hay is more common than any pure single-species hay like you find on the opposite coast,” remarked Crandell. It provides some variety, although this is not necessarily an advantage, as rabbits often pick out the bits they like, usually the more calorific bits, and leave the rest. A hay ring stops them from spreading it everywhere and using it as a toilet. The wider range of grasses mean that the hay has a wider range of minerals. For horses that are stalled, or for horses that do not have abundant pasture, stored forage in the form of hay is the primary source of forage. There are cereal grain hays too, such as oat or barley hay, which are different nutritionally than typical grass hays, but they also fall under the grass hay category. The opposite is often true with legumes, and these hays sometimes have an abundance of stems and few leaves. Specifically, the orchardgrass/red clover mix is especially useful for picky eaters. The leaves of a foxtail plant may have some hairs as well. Horse owners have found that Timothy hay promotes a shiny coat, good digestion, bowel regularity, and a healthy weight. i generally feed both meadow and timothy hay (2nd cut). She then estimates plant maturity. The true test of hay quality rests with the horses, though, and if they offer up their approval by consuming it readily, selection was a success. It can be quite expensive, depending on whether it has to be shipped long distances. “Many orchardgrass hays are sold as timothy because the average horse owner does not know the difference in the seed heads. © Copyright 2020 Kentucky Equine Research. Like most horse owners, Kathleen Crandell, Ph.D., has opened hundreds of bales of hay during her lifetime of owning and caring for horses. Although the most popular legume used among horse owners is alfalfa, other legumes such as red or crimson clover, lespedeza, birdsfoot trefoil, and peanut hay are often fed, and these provide horses with high-quality nutrients. If the infestation is widespread and there isn't much desirable grass left in the pasture, you may want to plow everything under and reestablish the field. Timothy Hay and Native Mountain Meadow High Altitude Grass Hay Mix Our high altitude grown grass hay is a high-quality mix of premium Horizon variety Timothy hay with some Meadow Foxtail hay and native meadow, high altitude grasses and clovers, which is an excellent blend for pleasure, ranch and rodeo horses and especially for prize race horses. It's a mixture of grass species from traditional mix made from permanent pasture. Almost all hay has some dust, but if a large cloud erupts, it’s probably best to pass but imperatively so if you have a horse with a respiratory ailment aggravated by dust. This usually means that the leaves came off during baling or when the hay was lying in the field. Red clover is the most common clover hay because it grows taller than white clover and thus provides more yield per acre. Getting clover to dry quickly in the field is challenging for growers, and premature baling of damp hay is the primary reason clover hay is sometimes moldy. Fescue has gained much attention over the last couple decades for its sometimes detrimental effects on pregnant mares when it is infected with an endophyte fungus. Since it’s less nutrient-dense than legume hay, horses have to eat more grass hay to fill their bellies, which makes grass hay a good tool for keeping a stall-bound horse from getting bored. Introduction of a legume also improves the quality by increasing energy, protein, and calcium. First, it is relatively expensive and needs to be sprayed twice for maximum effectiveness. Photo: Ohio State University. While most horse owners are mindful of the hay they offer their horses, Crandell is perhaps more vigilant than most. Left image: Timothy: Tall membrane (ligule) at collar. It is known for being rich in nutrients and high forage quality. Foxtail does not have corms. A good quality cereal hay is harvested when the grain is immature (soft dough stage) and the leaves and stems are still green, and therefore higher in digestible nutrients. Our Bagged Meadow Hay is an all round Hay for horses and ponies in low to medium work. The most popular choices for grasses to be utilized as horse hay are Timothy Grass and Orchard Grass making them the big two forage grasses. This hay has adequate protein levels and is particularly suitable for horses, ponies and donkeys prone to laminitis. Crimson clover is another tall-growing type but tends to be higher in indigestible fiber than red clover. All Rights Reserved. They eat alot of this. Photo: North Carolina State University. There are a few features you can check. Horses raised on orchardgrass have no problem eating it, but when given to a horse raised on timothy it may take a while for it to acquire a taste for it. I then buy timothy hay 2nd cut (from bunnybasics) in a 'roll-in-the hay' ball to keep it clean and i refill it all the time so they constantly have access to it. Certain horse owners associate clover with excessive salivation. Palatability is usually not an issue, however, as horses are inclined to love the taste of clover and eat it well. Whilst haylage is more expensive to buy than hay it can be better value, as less concentrate food needs to be fed because of its higher energy level. In a severe infestation, eradicating the foxtail may be difficult and can take several years. Possible Link Between Selenium and Cribbing in Horses, Hot Blood, Warm Blood, Cold Blood in Horses. An overall brownish tinge could mean the hay was baled too wet and went through a caramelizing stage. Pure legumes are rarely roundbaled, but if faced with tightly wound round bales that cannot be opened, an instrument designed to remove core samples from the inside of hay bales, called a hay probe, can be used. With hay prices in California being $25 a bale (YIKES!) Left image: Timothy seed head. You don't need to feed out quite as much lucerne as you do meadow. It is recommended that horses with metabolic syndrome consume hay with NSC levels of around 10% to 12%. If the leaves are brown, the hay is likely to have less nutritional value, as leaves deliver the most nutrients. Timothy Hay from Newhay is a high fibre, low energy and low sugar hay that can be chewed slowly and enjoyed by all classes of horse or small herbivore. There are three important things to remember with this method: There is one pre-emergent herbicide approved for pasture use in Pennsylvania called Prowl H2O that you apply in the spring, before the foxtail seedlings emerge, that will prevent them from growing. Crandell next evaluates the color of the hay. Timothy is a beloved favorite of horses and their owners for its palatability and the great hay it produces. 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