Help me with hay analysis please

[EmilyM]

Sorry for another hay analysis thread but I’m confused what is more important to consider for sugar levels: WSC or ESC.

Got down to Florida, and the first week I had some hay from up north to continue to mix into the new orchard grass I got down here (which is lovely visually). First week horses are great. Second week when we switched over to full Florida hay, they all seemed extra fresh/spooky especially my jumper. I decided to treat him for ulcers (started Dec 4??) because body worker said could be stifles or ulcers she got reaction for. And since he was spooky (which is also a constant state of being for him. He was born on my farm and always a bit spooky) vet and I agreed to treat. I sent hay to be tested to see if it was very sugary and could be causing them to go a little wild. I just got the results. Friday I went and got different hay (Timothy) to start weaning them off the orchard. They seemed much quieter the next day.

Does this analysis appear sugary to you? Or does anything else jump out? 12% protein doesn’t strike me as high but I haven’t tested much hay. I have an IR horse that I’m switching to Teff. And one that has cushings.

Thank you

[Simkie]

NSC = starch + WSC and that’s over 14 here. In general, sensitive critters should be kept under 10 (some will say 12), so this might be a little sugary.

(I always need to look up if it’s WSC or ESC that goes into the NSC calc, so here’s a good article about it: https://ker.com/equinews/horse-hay-understanding-sugar-and-starch-content/)

Btw you might want to crop this to remove the name & address?

[EmilyM]

Thank you.

[JB]

NSC = WSC + starch, but there’s also ESC to consider

The IR/EMS/ID horse really needs ESC + starch to be < 10% with starch < 4%, which is the case here, so from that perspective it’s fantastic

The PPID horses gennnnerally wants to be in the < 12% range, but there’s a lot more leeway there

But you also can’t ignore WSC. 13.8% isn’t terrible, it might be a little high for a more sugar-sensitive horse

But without an analysis of thd old Northern hay, there’s no way to know if this is better/the same/worse in these areas

Hopefully you’re testing that Teff, or it’s already tested. Despite it generally being quite nice for IR horses, sometimes it’s anything but

12% protein isn’t high for Orchard

Any chance this hay was sprayed with propionic acid? Some horses react to that

[EmilyM]

It doesn’t have a smell, and they are eating it well. It did make most of their manure looser even w probiotics and gradual change. Is that a side effect of the acid? I’ve never had an issue with this supplier before but this did happen to me one other year w orchard down here. I did orchard last year to save $150-200 per ton since I go through 3 tons in 5-6 weeks. But they were fine last year with the same supplier. Previously I did Timothy. I was introduced to a Timothy supplier this year that is cheaper and will deliver, and they are eating that hay well. I often have waste which costs money not only in hay but in labor cleaning paddocks and space in the dumpster. I still have 3 tons of this orchard which may just go to the ones not in work.

[JB]

@EmilyM

Is that a side effect of the acid?

If a horse is sensitive to it, yes, that can be a symptom

[MorganMaresVT]

One other general comment, make sure you’re looking at the % column (the first of the two columns in either the “as sampled” or “dry matter” sections). That’s what was done here by the people who responded, but just pointing it out explicitly for people newer to interpreting these reports.

The first time I received one of these reports in my inbox, I looked at the second column and had a moment of panic thinking my horses would drop dead at any moment from eating the hay with off-the-charts NSC values. Nope…was just looking at the wrong column

[JB]

Good point! Yes, for hay, look at the As Sampled (sometimes As Fed) column. It’s lower than the Dry Matter column because it includes the moisture content, but the horse IS eating 1lb of "as fed’ including moisture, so he’s eating 22lb (or whatever) of the hay WITH the moisture, he’s not eating 22lb of dry matter

If you get an analysis with only DM values, it will also have the DM % and the moisture %. So take all the values that are DM and multiply by the Dry Matter %. If it’s 92% dry matter, they multiply everything by 0.92 to get the As Fed values

[EmilyM]

Thank you for all the great insight, everyone.