Hay snobs?

[Critter]

Okay, my horses have decided that the hay I put out today was not acceptable, but it looks and smells totally fine.

So we are halfway through a 15 ton load of timothy…same supplier…though different hay source than the year before (this is actually 2020s stuff that we are finishing…this years cut is put up in the loft to use after we finish the 2020 second cutting hay). The bales are super heavy, but dry/clean…they look nice, smell good, no dust or mold. Occasionally we get a bale that seems to have a bit of straw mixed in…those bales I know they won’t eat so I set those aside for my friend with chickens/other farm animals.

They have been mostly eating this load with only being occasionally fussy and leaving hay with the straw type bales. Today, I’ve opened several bales and they were all not wanting to eat it (sniffed it and walked away). They usually are not ultra picky…the one gelding eats most stuff, or will at least pick out the yummy bits and leave the straw bits when we get one of those bales. These bales they are ignoring don’t seem to have a lot of straw bit though so I was surprised they deemed them not edible!

Hay is stored in the loft, and I’m just working my way down the aisle of the loft…so no animals up there (except the sparrows). Again, the hay is not dusty, no mold, no foul smell…looks great…and is part of the exact same load they’ve been eating for months.

None of them are sick/colicky - I kept opening bales that I had tossed down from the loft, and found one they deemed edible…soon as I switched to that bale, they chowed down. So there is clearly something about the group of bales they don’t like! But what could it be? I hate to have to toss hay because they won’t eat it - a bale here and there is one thing…this is 6 bales (maybe more) of the 15 I just dropped from the loft (I have 5 more I’ve not yet opened from what I just dropped down).

[js]

Do you know if the hay was sprayed with a drying agent? My horses were not crazy about a load of timothy we tried because it had a drying agent on it.

[Critter]

Not sure…but I do suspect it might have been. These are the standard size rectangle bales…but they are baled with wire (string would not hold these) as they are so heavy. I would guess that to bale them with that weight and not have any issue with mold they might have been sprayed. The bales still feel “fluffy” when you open them (the flakes don’t have a compressed feel that bales get when baled a bit wet). But the horses have been pretty much eating the hay so far, and we are halfway into the load…so why get pickier now?

[SusanO]

Well I do know talking to a hay farmer that occasionally uses preservative - there is some device on the tractor or baler that measures the moisture level before it sprays preservative. So the higher moisture levels get more spray and the lower moisture levels get less. And heavier bales can be a sign of baled with more moisture but not always. Maybe these bales were from a part of the field that the hay did not get as dry before it was baled.

My horses can be weirdly picky too. I wish they could tell me why or I could take one with me when I buy hay.

[Calvincrowe]

Dead animal baled into it? Or near it? I got a bale that the horses refused to touch—they gobble this orchard down like mad—and it took me a bit to find the dead bits of something in one end of the bale.

I got a load of orchard earlier this summer that seemed to have musty, brown grass baled into really nice, fresh green stuff. Not sure how it happened, maybe a first cut that got left on the field and baled into the second cut? Smelled fine, but the horses juts hated it, wasting it and picking through it leaving about half each time.

[Critter]

Nothing baled into it but hay…no brown or funky spots or sticks even. I separated the flakes, but nothing looks/smells off at all. The hay in the bale looks pretty consistent…the only thing I can may say about the bales they are refusing is that there is a broader leaf to the hay…I’ll take some pics tomorrow as maybe it’s a type of grass in there they are not finding tasty?

[Calvincrowe]

Maybe the edge of the field and it caught up some weird grass or it had preservative because it was in a wet spot in the field? Pics would help. What part of the US is it from?

[stb]

My horses are currently a bit miffed that they are being served first cut Timothy hay. It’s nice hay and they are eating it, but they are not as excited about it as they are second cut hay. However, they are both a bit portly right now, so their lack of enthusiasm for their hay is actually not a bad thing.

If I feed them alfalfa or a nice fluffy orchard they will stand around and eat hay till the cows come home. With the Timothy hay they tend to eat what they need but don’t gorge on it. As long as the hay is good quality and the horses are in good condition I don’t worry too much about it.

[Critter]

So the first pic is what they have deemed as the “nasty hay”…and the second pic is “edible” though the one still says it not the yummiest. Again, all the from the same location/baling cycle…some bales they chow down on and finish every piece.

The only thing is it does seem to be they don’t like the stuff with a broader leaf? But they’ve eaten other bales with a broad leaf, so I am not 100% sure it is that. It looks greener in person - the lighting in the barn wasn’t the best for a really great pic.

The hay comes from NY…supposedly this was second cut timothy. Though we’ve had issues with them delivering stuff that was clearly not what they said (we ordered second cut timothy and a load came in that was all grass and not a timothy head in it)…this year’s load is supposed to be orchard/alfalfa/timothy…and it is a lovely orchard timothy…with a tiny occasional smidge of alfalfa.

[SusanO]

The thing about timothy is that it is at the “boot” stage only once so you only see the seed heads on the first cutting. After that it is hard to identify if it is timothy or something else. I can see some orchard grass seed heads in the top picture but I can’t tell what the thicker grass is. But then I can’t really tell what the bottom picture is either. Maybe somebody who is more familiar with cool season grasses can figure it out.

[lenapesadie]

My test for hay pickiness is will my horse eat it if locked in a stall with no other options. If yes, horses must not be that hungry and/or they prefer whatever they are grazing in paddock. If no, then I consider the hay suspect and don’t force the issue.

[Critter]

Agree…top bale in the pics my one horse who always eats at least 85% of the hay outside - he completely walked away from it outside. When the same hay was in the stall, he went over sniffed, came to the door and yelled at me. So clearly he deemed it not edible…and he’s not ultra picky, especially in the stall. I did take it out and replaced with other hay, which he started eating. Just wish I could sort out the why - since the hay looks and smells perfectly fine and looks/smells just like bales they are eating.

[lenapesadie]

How long did you leave him in there? I’ll do a “day” test. 6-7 hours. On the juicy horse. Oldie gets a pass on being the test subject.

Mine scream at me for goodies unless they have alfalfa or grain in front of them so I tend to ignore their histrionics.

Personally I think horse’s are more likely to be picky than detecting bad hay. As far as understanding their palates…

[Critter]

With him - he always goes into his stall and straight to his hay…even at dinner time while I mix grain he will munch on hay. So for him to stick him nose in the hay, walk away, and yell at me is a clear signal he has no plans on eating the hay (he’s also not a very vocal horse). He’s not a super picky type. I did leave it in the stall longer with another horse who will eat most anything…he also left it mostly untouched until late night check.

[candyappy]

@Critter

These are the standard size rectangle bales…but they are baled with wire (string would not hold these) as they are so heavy.

Even though they appear to smell and look normal sometimes the overly heavy bales may have an off taste as they may not have been quite dry enough when baled, but not wet enough to mold .

An overly heavy bale may also be just fine and is heavy only due to a huge windrow when baling.

Also possible that an animal was baled up or some other animal peed or pooped in the windrow these few bales came from.

When hay is costly it sure is painful to have to sort through it.

[foggybok]

Mine are being funny about my last load of hay. All my hay is from the same field/farmer as I did not bale my own this year. This is orchard/alfalfa mix. The first cutting is a bit mature with seed heads. Typical first cutting around here, they eat it just fine. The second cutting was mostly alfalfa due to the drought making all the grass go dormant. They LOVE that stuff, it’s like candy. So then I try and feed them the beautiful 4th cutting mostly orchard grass with no seed heads and a little alfalfa, something they would normally snarf up, and they are telling me it’s no good. It looks like salad! It smells great. I think they just want me to feed them the second cutting with all the alfalfa instead, so they just stare at me and claim to be starving. I suspect the later cutting isn’t as high sugar as the 1st cutting because they will snarf up the first before the 4th too. I’m going to test all of them to see, In the meantime, I just keep feeding what I’m feeding. They’ll eat if if they are hungry enough! They don’t need to be eating the “candy” all the time! In fact, they could all lose a little weight (although they look good for going in to winter).

[Critter]

So it definitely has to do with the hay that has that broader leaf (the top photo)…every bale I’ve opened that has that they absolutely refuse (as in won’t eat it in the field, and will come in and leave it overnight in the stall). The bales that have a bit more of the finer grass (bottom pic), they are fine about eating and not wasting. So there must be something about the top grass that they don’t like.

I am hoping it is just a section of the field and that when we get through some more bales we get back to the stuff they will eat. Hopefully the rest of the load is not the broad leaf stuff…it’s a bit hard to tell until you open the bale up. I may have to call the hay supplier and see if they know what type of grass that top photo is.

[SusanO]

Could the broader leaf be Johnson grass? I don’t know how far north that stuff grows. It is a weed usually found in the lower lying, wetter areas because it needs more water than other grasses. Sometimes my Tenn OG hay has some in it and my horses don’t eat it but will usually eat the rest of the bale. But sometimes because the stems are so thick and the areas wetter where it grows that the section of the bale with it in it doesn’t cure as well as the rest and they refuse the whole bale.

[clanter]

@SusanO

Could the broader leaf be Johnson grass?

that was what I thought also, the broadleaf in the upper photo sure reminds me of johnson grass… I know it grows as far north as northern Kentucky

[candyappy]

Johnson grass actually makes good hay and it is palatable if cut early. We battle it here in places but my 3 hoover it up when it is baled. If left to get too tall I believe it is toxic. We keep it mowed religiously during the growing season where it comes up.

I admit that some horses are picky but I am not" blessed" to have owned any of them. That doesn’t look like the Johnson grass we have. Ours has a broader longer blade. There are several varieties of Sudan Grass.

We did have some strange looking grass type stuff in a newly planted stand of hay this year . It was crop ground for decades previous and that makes weeds abound.

It was long,coarse and kind of dry and brownish after curing and baling and my husband thought it would be wasted, but the horses adore it. Go figure.

Take some to your county extension and see if they can identify it?