Alfalfa

[shadesofbay3]

Hi all-

I am moving to a new barn shortly and will be supplementing alfalfa for my horse

I have the contact of someone who is a bit of a drive away and can buy (expensive) bales from, or I saw recently someone feeding Standlee alfalfa:

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/standlee-premium-organic-alfalfa-grab-n-go-bale-50-lb?cid=Shopping-Google-Product-1379383&gclid=CjwKCAiA8OmdBhAgEiwAShr40yHg5GBVp67J14aYsVBPFsdOHFrND0WRR04_0fee_--WN5zufpWS7xoCRRcQAvD_BwE

I am the first to admit I am ignorant in nutrition/feeding when it comes to horses and am trying to get better, but is the bales significantly better than the Standlee stuff? Obviously convenience would be great, but if the bales from a farmer is better, I’ll get that

[lenapesadie]

It’s really impossible to know if one is better nutritionally than the other without a hay analysis test.

I feed alfalfa in traditional bales and the compressed Standlee bales depending on what I have going on. For me, the traditional bales are cheaper per lb of hay usually. Otoh, sometimes what I can get in traditional bales is quite stemmy and my horse wastes it making the Standlee compressed bales more attractive.

YMMV

[wsmoak]

The compressed bales have a lot of leaf shatter, I would plan to feed them in a tub to reduce loss, possibly sprayed with water (not soaked, just wet to reduce dust.)

If the horse is getting enough long stem forage elsewhere, then alfalfa pellets may be easier to manage. I like the Alfa Green brand https://www.alfagreensupreme.com/

[Texarkana]

I’ve used the Standlee bales on many occasions to supplement alfalfa. As said above, you can’t know better/worse without seeing a hay analysis on both products you are considering. But the Standlee bales are high quality western alfalfa. It’s good hay.

The shatter factor is significant. You can lose a lot of product and nutrition in the dust and fines that result from compression. Some horses don’t like that about it, others don’t mind and eat it like candy.

It can be hard to pull the flakes apart because of how dry and compressed it is. I find it handy to keep the wrapper on, open it from the top standing on end, and pull flakes/chunks off and place them directly into a large tub for feeding.