Evaluating hay quality

[TheMan419]

So after several years my usual hay supplier is unable to supply the hay I need. So we are now dealing with new suppliers.

I am trying to figure out a more scientific way to evaluate hay. I know for small squares if there is too much moisture you risk fire and if there is too little you may lose nutritional value. So it would seem a moisture meter is needed. Any recommendations on one that will not cost and arm and a leg?

Also other than physically looking at the hay are there any other simple objective tests that can be done to help insure getting a quality product?

 

[joeu235]

You can send a sample to your state ag college and get a full breakdown for not much money.

I assume this is for horses?

 

[TheMan419]

You can send a sample to your state ag college and get a full breakdown for not much money.

I assume this is for horses?

Yes small squares for horses. May have to send it away but was thinking there has to be more science than it looks good. Was hopeful something more than just a moisture probe could be taken out to the suppliers site before purchase.

 

[joeu235]

If it was baled with too much moisture, it will have black sooty looking mold and smell off. If it was baled with too little moisture, it will be all stems with no leaves. I'm not sure what a moisture meter will tell you unless you are checking close in time to right out of the baler.

We sell a lot of horse hay. I can look other people's hay and see seed heads from weeds or long and thick stems from Johnsongrass. Both of which are less than premium. I don't know what good hay looks like up in Indiana, but if you have seen good hay before, than you know what it looks like.

But its really the horse owner that is picky about hay, not the horse. I'm by no means a horse expert. But besides silver leaf night shade which causes horses to abort, spear grass which gets stuck in their mouth, and Johnsongrass which under extreme circumstances creates a poison, I don't think it matters that much. An old timer down the road buys my dad's 3 year old cow hay all the time and feeds it to his 10 - 15 horses. I don't think they have ever ate "horse hay"

 

[Jerry/MT]

The best way to evaluate hay is to send it to a lab and have it tested. If you are buying a lot of hay, sometimes a seller will have it tested and quote a price based on the test results. Testing is the only sure fire way to determine hay nutritional value. I don't believe you lose nutritional value for dry hay as long as it is cut at the right time and isn't bleached out. We hay in 15% relative humidity and round bales won't hold together very well if the moisture level is below ~10%. I have to bale early in the morning or in the evening.

Baring a test, opening a bale and looking at the color (nice and green, no mold, and very limited dust) and smelling it ( grass hays should smell like dry grass). Moisture meters start at around $200 you'll need one that has a self calibration feature I use a Delmhorst) , and they only tell you the moisture at a point so you have to make several measurements for each bale.

 

[RPW]

I agree with Jerry. Most horses don't care. it's us owners that feel that we need to get the best of everything to have a happy healthy horse. I bale my own hay and this year's is pathetic. I have just learned how to eliminate spear grass. Although the AG center says that spear grass or down here it's referred to as Texas winter grass is a digestible grass for horses. I don't like it and will do what I can to elliminate it. Bottom line is my horses don't care. Just make sure they have food all the time (the big piglets).

 

[TheMan419]

Hay quality certainly makes a difference. We had some stuff that was baled way dry or was bleached out. Horses ate it, but it provided little nutritional value.

Interestingly right now hay around here is scarce. We have had so much rain it has been hard for the farmers to have enough time to cut it, let it dry and bale before the next round of rain. That process takes 3-4 days up here.

So we are seeing stuff of questionable status here.

I have been around horses 20 years or so, the wife even longer. So from a "it looks like good hay" perspective I am ok at it, she is more of a visual person so she is better at it.

I am more scientific/data driven than she is so trying to see if there is an easy way to tell for sure.

Last hay guy we dealt with put a FB ad up in market place and had all 600 bales he had available sold out in an hour or so. Very honest about it. All us buyers showed up at the same time and he held to the price he posted AND knew who contacted him first so asked them what they wanted and went down the line in order.

Thanks all for your input!

 

[Texasmark]

Not being sarcastic, feed it. If the finicky horses eat it and get fat, go for it. I go to a lot of trouble in the pursuit of quality hay. It's not a walk in the park to make it. Seems never do I do the same thing twice due to different circumstances. One year I have one offering and another another. I have the same questions asked. Not a simple answer for a STO (small time operator). A conglomerate farm magnet may have all the fancy stuff but you pay for it in the bale.

Remember, your animals eat the hay, you don't. You just buy it for them. Let them decide. I have customers that go into eyeball tantrums if there is even a thought of a blade of Johnson grass in a bale. Go to their pasture where their "darlings" are grazing and you see all kinds of weeds and all with "their" Johnson grass. When i first bought this place the daughter had a horse for many years. Every year, hay and oats was the nutrition and the hay was from next door.......Johnson Grass with a few weeds. Never had the vet on the premises and had no stock trailer (to haul the thing to the vet).

 

[TheMan419]

Not being sarcastic, feed it. If the finicky horses eat it and get fat, go for it. I go to a lot of trouble in the pursuit of quality hay. It's not a walk in the park to make it. Seems never do I do the same thing twice due to different circumstances. One year I have one offering and another another. I have the same questions asked. Not a simple answer for a STO (small time operator). A conglomerate farm magnet may have all the fancy stuff but you pay for it in the bale.

Remember, your animals eat the hay, you don't. You just buy it for them. Let them decide. I have customers that go into eyeball tantrums if there is even a thought of a blade of Johnson grass in a bale. Go to their pasture where their "darlings" are grazing and you see all kinds of weeds and all with "their" Johnson grass. When i first bought this place the daughter had a horse for many years. Every year, hay and oats was the nutrition and the hay was from next door.......Johnson Grass with a few weeds. Never had the vet on the premises and had no stock trailer (to haul the thing to the vet).

That is all find and good. However we were in need of hay.... bought 50 bales from someone. It was awful. Yes the horses would eat it just fine, but they lost A LOT of weight on it. So it was like feeding crappy fast food all the time. Yes your kids will eat it, but its not nutritionally sound.

Our problem is we went from having our own two horses to now boarding other horses for a total of 8. Our friend who hays her own 20 or so acres cannot supply our needs now. She has her own horses too that are supplied out of those acres.

So trying to evaluate new suppliers.

 

[Texasmark]

That is all find and good. However we were in need of hay.... bought 50 bales from someone. It was awful. Yes the horses would eat it just fine, but they lost A LOT of weight on it. So it was like feeding crappy fast food all the time. Yes your kids will eat it, but its not nutritionally sound.

Our problem is we went from having our own two horses to now boarding other horses for a total of 8. Our friend who hays her own 20 or so acres cannot supply our needs now. She has her own horses too that are supplied out of those acres.

So trying to evaluate new suppliers.

I can understand your dilemma especially with boarding horses for urbanites. Wink! Lots of hay is prairie hay and is baled mature, year after year with never a thought for NPK additives. Doing that the seller attempts to make a profit and baling that time of year mold and mildew aren't a problem like it is when you try to bale the succulent spring shoots. You are aware I'm sure that there are chemicals applied to hay to make it greener and prettier for the "eyes of the beholder".