I remember reading on Katy Watts’s safergrass.org website that the “safest” time for grazing is early in the morning. I wonder, however, about grass being the first thing they eat in the morning. Would this have any adverse affect if they don’t already have hay in their bellies?
If they are hungry they might be more likely to pig out and overeat. How long are they without hay for overnight/ in the morning?
All else equal, sugars are lowest from 3-10am. Certainly if they have spent many hours overnight without anything to eat, they will tend to pig out on that grass, and consume more overall sugar. If you think they have had too long without hay, before being turned out on grass, then toss half a flake of hay or so, let them eat that, then turn out. That amount of hay won’t take long to eat.
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My horses very rarely have nothing to eat, so very rarely have empty bellies. I know you have an issue with Mac eating all the hay, and I don’t remember your exact circumstances, but I’d at least make sure there was some low NSC hay in very slow feed nets hung around the dry lot so they have a little bit of something to munch on all night long. I would not want rich spring grass to hit empty bellies, but that’s just my “gut” feeling, not based on anything.
Ideally he wouldn’t eat so fast! He does get slow feeder hay nets at night. He eats twice as fast as my other horse and what will last her six hours he’ll go through in three. Sigh. Unless I just offer him free choice hay or unlimited hay nets (basically would be the same thing), he will go a few hours without food in his belly. The only time he wouldn’t go through a net at night is when he was out grazing during the day, but then that makes him too fat!
I agree. At certain times of the day the grass has more sugar. I may be wrong on this but I thought it was early morning when there may be a dew on the grass or if it is raining out.
As mentioned, 3-10am are the lowest sugar levels, all else equal.
Sun and warmth have grasses generating and storing sugars. Nights are for sugar use for growth if the temperature is warm enough.
A cloudy day means less sugar accumulation. A colder night means less sugar usage.
That’s why warmer/sunnier days, with cooler nights are the worst for sugars in grasses, which is why Spring and Fall are the worst times. As a sunnier/warmer day goes on, sugar content rises, so it’s highest by the end of the day. As the night progresses, if it’s warm enough, sugars are used, so sugars are lowest at the end of the night/earliest in the morning.
But a cooler cloudy April day might end up with less sugar in the grass than a sunny day in July.
It depends on the type of grass too.
In the ideal world, hay would be cut just as soon as the dew dried, for the lowest possible sugar content of the day. It’s much worse to cut the hay at, say, 4pm.
All that is discussed in various articles at www.safergrass.org
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