This was grown near Montgomery, NY area. I did a search and Cornell has someone investigating Johnson grass in the NY region…so I sent them some better pics to see if they can identify it as that or something else. If not, I will reach out to the local ag department to see if they can id anything…it’s definitely related to that type of grass. I put a flake out this morning…my gelding had trashed the hay from the night before…ignored the morning hay…I took out a different flake and he ignored that (they all had that same broad leaf grass)…then I found a bale that did not have very much of that broad leaf, took that out and he wouldn’t even let me in the gate as he was munching that flake immediately.
The first picture looks to me to be coarser and likely higher in lignin and cellulose, and therefore less palatable to horses than what I see in the second picture. If you are interested in getting a more definitive answer, you should think about having a hay analysis done on both samples.
Your state’s land grant university’s extension service can help you. A hay analysis in my state from Clemson University Ag Lab is $5. Out of state users can get a hay analysis from them for $12.
