Brome Hay in New England

[Pico_Banana]

Does anyone in New England feed brome hay to their horses?

I’ve been trying to find a supplier to MA that actually tests their hay but no luck so far (I’ve asked on FB). But one supplier suggested that I try brome hay as it is naturally a bit lower in sugar than timothy. I’ve done enough research to know that is generally true, but I’m wondering if anyone has actually tested brome hay that they’ve gotten in New England. It doesn’t seem to be too popular around here. I’m just wondering how the climate around here affects the sugar content.

[JB]

have you talked to your county extension agency to see if they’ve got averages on file?

[Pico_Banana]

I hadn’t even thought of that. I will give it a try. But in general our extension agents never seem to do any of the things that they apparently do elsewhere in the country. [sigh]

[Simkie]

@Pico_Banana

I hadn’t even thought of that. I will give it a try. But in general our extension agents never seem to do any of the things that they apparently do elsewhere in the country. [sigh]

Yeeaahhhhh. They sure don’t, do they? We don’t even HAVE county extension agents in CT!

I don’t know if this is too far, or if you’ve tried them, but I get my hay from Kuss Farms in Bethlehem, CT, and while they don’t generally test themselves, they allow testing prior to purchase. I don’t have NSC sensitive critters, so just test after I buy, but all my hay from them (four years now) has been very low. Sometimes they’ll have a test on a load because another customer ran one. Might be worth a call? They deliver all over, maybe to you for a large load.

[Pico_Banana]

@Simkie Thanks for the tip on Kuss Farms. That’s hugely helpful. I will get in touch with them. What have been the NSC values that you’ve seen? What kind of hay are you buying?

The places I’ve contacted so far around here (MA) don’t guarantee that the batch you test will still be around when you get your test results back, so I haven’t had any luck so far. But I’m new to this so still learning the players.

It would be fantastic to get some reliably low sugar hay so I can stop soaking. Especially on a cold day like today where the hay froze as I was letting it drain.

[Simkie]

Soaking in this weather must be miserable!

Let me pull up my last few years of test results. I buy 2nd/3rd cut grass or grass/alfalfa mix. Jake kinda knows that I like the really nice stuff (and that I’ll pay for it, sigh ) and we’ve gotten to the point where I let him know when abouts I’m going to need to buy, and then he reaches out when he has hay I’d like. I buy 10 ton grass once a year, in the fall. They grow their own hay, but deal a lot more–all of the stuff I’ve bought comes from other farmers in New York, AFAIK. They’re just really good guys, and I’ve not had a single problem buying from them.

2020
Grass, 3rd cut
Protein: 15.6
WSC: 8.7
ESC: 5.2
Starch: 1.3
(I haven’t yet tested 2020, but someone else bought the rest of this lot and tested, and the guys brought a copy with the hay because they know I like to know )

2019
Grass, 2nd cut
Protein: 13.0
WSC: 13.0
ESC: 7.9
Starch: 1.3

2018
Grass/Alfalfa mix (mostly grass)
Protein: 14.8
WSC: 9.6
ESC: 6.9
Starch: 0.8

2017
Grass, 2nd cut
Protein: 14.2
WSC: 6.3
ESC: 5.0
Starch: 0.6

2016
Grass, 2nd cut
Protein: 11.4
WSC: 8.7
ESC: 5.1
Starch: 0.2

[Pico_Banana]

Wow, thank you so much @Simkie!