When your hay supplier has their hay tested and shares the results with you, what values are you most concerned with and for what kind of horse, i.e. easy keeper, endurance horse, pregnant mare, yearling, etc,
Thanks!
The same values are of concern to everyone. The ideal number, or range, will vary a bit based on the category of animal.
http://gettyequinenutrition.biz/Library/Howtointerpretyourhayanalysisreport.htm
No matter what category though, you still don’t want ADF or NDF too high, as that means high lignin (indigestible fiber) which is either unpalatable at its lower end of high, or getting to be dangerous at its higher end of high.
NSC has a range of pretty safe for most horses, but some of that can be much too high for IR horses.
Mineral balances matter no matter the category. Having enough minerals also matters, with certain categories of horses needing higher %s.
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I pay attention to ADF, NSC, Protein and Lysine for the most part - and any wildly disproportionate minerals, though other than isolated cases of iron, thats a low probability in my area. I’m feeding 3 horses with varying nutritional needs, but all 3 are easy keepers and all 3 benefit from the most protein and lysine possible, and low nsc.
One of my herd is coming 37-ish and has very few teeth left, but still manages to chew hay. Low ADF is a priority as his ability to masticate and process hay is limited.
I have never tested hay ever ,never felt the need to test hay. Only one farmer i got hay from had tested it was only for NSC value & protein and nothing else. My horses are hard to keep decent weight on so NSC isn’t a concern.
I’m guessing ADF of my current hay is high,being horses waste a lot of it,and doesn’t matter if no other hay is available they still won’t touch hay that’s left. This year is starting off just like 2016 so unless it drys up ,getting early cut hay will be next to impossible. Maybe i’ll test this years hay just because horses drop off weight so darn easley.
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Not caring if hay is 30% NSC just because your horse is a hard keeper is like saying it’s ok to feed a diet of ice cream and candy bars to a thin teenager.
I’m guessing ADF of my current hay is high,being horses waste a lot of it,and doesn’t matter if no other hay is available they still won’t touch hay that’s left. This year is starting off just like 2016 so unless it drys up ,getting early cut hay will be next to impossible. Maybe i’ll test this years hay just because horses drop off weight so darn easley.
And that’s exactly why testing can be important. It’s not always feasible, and many horses are just fine with most hay, assuming they get enough additional calories if they need it. But also, most horses in any sort of real work need nutrient supplementation if nothing else.
High NSC, high ADF, high NDF hay is a disaster waiting to happen for horses.
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The hay that was tested wasn’t 30% NSC more like 20 or 25% really don’t recall now. No i do care what i feed,sometimes there are NO other options on hay. Can’t control weather so if it continues to be wet through haying season,late cut hay it will be. Horses aren’t currently thin can’t see ribs ,but they aren’t fat sure can’t afford to lose weight.
I do supplement with good feed Triple crown senior. Is it really worth testing late cut hay? it’s a given it will lack vit/mins. So if i test this years hay, if i post results here i can get an idea of what i need to add to the diet from numbers on hay test. Do i need to test every bale?
Yeah i can be a jerk on here and sound like i don’t care but i really do care.
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Uh-huh. Didn’t you founder your horses last year by feeding the wrong kind of hay? And then one died?
Maybe you SHOULD care about testing. :rolleyes:
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Some useful guidelines here:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/horse/nutrition/equine-hay-analysis/
Consider that the latest thinking is that hay for EMS horses should test as ESC+starch ideally be less than 10. (Old thinking was using NSC of < 10. Similar, but the newer standard appears to give a more accurate reading for very sensitive horses.)
Even if your horse isn’t currently EMS, many will become so if they live to older ages (late teens and beyond). Feeding by the EMS recommendations may help delay the inevitable.Food for thought: Is it worth feeding really high sugar hay? Is it any different than a horse who gets into the feed bin and binges on sweet feed?
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Quick question for the hay folks… One of the websites says:
Crude protein (CP) – an estimation of total protein based on the amount of nitrogen in the hay. It does not tell you anything about the amino acid composition or the protein quality. To create a high quality protein, one that will help your horse maintain and repair tissue, combine a grass hay with a lesser amount of a legume (typically alfalfa). Most grass hay contains 8 to 10% CP whereas legumes (e.g., alfalfa, clover, perennial peanut) can range from 17-20%. Grain hays (oat, rye) generally have a lower CP than grass hay.
When they recommend combining a grass hay with a lesser amount of a legume, is that something that hay distributors typically do? So you’d get a bale of grass with alfalfa? Or is it recommending that you purchase grass hay and legume hay, and provide both?
I’ve always boarded my horse so never really looked into the details of hay analysis but would love to learn more.
Most hay growers don’t mix hays. Some do specific mixes, like T&A (timothy and alf), or O&A (orchardgrass and alf). I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a fescue/alf mix, or bermuda/alf mix, and that may be due to very different growing conditions. There are too many areas in the US where alfalfa either doesn’t grow well enough to be grown as hay, or takes so much effort to grow that it’s cost-prohibitive. The farther South you are, the less likely you are to find a grass/alfalfa mix hay.
This means you would have to buy alfalfa separately, and if you’re in an area where it isn’t grown, this means find it shipped in from farther North.
But, there are also alfalfa pellets which can be used to improve the protein content. All this does assume the horse can use the calories. Getting high nutrition into really easy keepers is really hard, and that’s when supplementing lysine and methionine is beneficial.
The CP content of hay does taken into account the nitrogen. But grass hays can be pretty high, though no, they don’t tend to be.
If you’re feeding a harder keeper some fortified feed, or even an easier keeper a ration balancer, you may be just fine. You just want your forage to at least get you in the ballpark, and you want to know the nitrates as well if you suspect a high CP hay might actually be high in nitrates (in which case you don’t want to feed it).
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Bear in mind that many hay suppliers that get hay testing are not looking for tests that are more useful to horse owners - they are using old tests that were designed for testing cattle feed, so while there are numbers to recommend for ADF or NDF, or in proximate analysis, these are not the best tests for equine nutrition application. You’re welcome to PM if interested in more info.
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Thanks JB and Lisa for that info - appreciate your insight 
