My horses and their hay

[vineyridge]

I bought some hay last month from a new supplier. My horses feed from an old water tank, and they would eat a bale every two days. But this month, they have been pulling the hay out of the feeder and scattering it around on the ground in large clumps. I pick it up and put it back in. I thought maybe they just didn’t like it, so I bought a bale from my usual bale supplier, and they ate it in two days. Went back to the first hay, and they are scattering it around.

Do they not like the two month old hay? Or are they just still in grass mode? It worries me that they are not chowing down on their hay.

[ReSomething]

I’d say there is something they don’t like about this hay. Have you thoroughly inspected it for mold, weeds, other contaminants? I’ve heard of snakes and fawn parts being baled up and spoiling hay, anything like that?

[4LeafCloverFarm]

If they are leaving parts of it behind, there is something about it they don’t like. Could be taste, smell, stemmyness, weeds, coarseness, too dry, any number of things.

This past winter, I ran out of my regular hay and had to buy some bales from my local co-op. Looked okay, smelled okay. But my senior horse wasn’t gobbling it down as usual. the second or third night when I went to fill his hay rack, there was still 1/2 of what I’d put in there the day before (it should have been empty) and I just happened to look down, and there was a neat little pile of smooshed pine cones directly underneath his hay rack. They weren’t wet (like he’d chewed them), they were flat, like they’d been flattened by the baler, and my horse had carefully eaten around them and piled them up for me. Oddest thing I’ve even found in my hay. My guess is that the oils from the pine cones made the hay taste funny or smell funny or something. Thank goodness I only had 3 bales of the stuff.

[Sansena]

Viney… Do they eventually eat it if you leave it long enough? (within reason)
Did you blend it 50/50 with the ‘old’ hay you had from the previous load?

Sometimes it’s a case of changing too rapidly. This year’s first cut was snubbed in preference of last year’s. It took about a week of 1/3 to 2/3 old, then half and half, then 1/3 to 2/3 new before it was accepted. And this year’s first cut looked absolutely gorgeous.

Having said that, if hoss won’t eat hay, I usually listen to him and toss it if he’s really NOT eating it.

[AMackechnie]

I’ve had this happen with a load of hay that came from a certain field at my hay supplier’s farm.

The hay looked fine and smelled fine but the horses wouldn’t eat it. When the supplier came to pick it up I asked him if it was hay from the blue barn because he’d brought hay from that barn (and field) once before and I’d called him to come get it. He looked down and to the side and wouldn’t answer, so yes…blue barn and he just wasted his time and money bringing us hay from that barn again.

Hay supplier didn’t want to believe that there was anything wrong with this hay so he gave it to his cattle. They wouldn’t eat it either. He was going to mark that particular field and I think he mowed it under and started over this year.

[2DogsFarm]

Same thoughts as @Sansena
I usually have bales of last year’s hay left when my new stuff comes in, smelling & looking far superior to the stuff that has sat in the barn all Winter, but that was getting eaten.
I mix the new in with the old and generally the transition has some waste, but once they’re on totally new hay it’s back to Business As Usual.

[candyappy]

Just a thought and I may be wrong , but–

Hay all over the country is being cut much later than usually done this year. It may " look" alright to your eye but over mature hay is just not as tasty and they may be rooting through it to find the younger undergrowth , which will leave the more mature parts scattered around.

Even my 2 ( who eat most everything) will leave a bit of the older stalks behind if I throw a lot down. If I feed a bit less that is gone too.

[vineyridge]

It’s Tifton 44 bermuda grass hay, and it’s got very long stems. However, the hay tank was empty today, and there was very little on the ground. I gave them another bale, and they don’t seem excited to get it. One mare walked up to it, sniffed, and walked away. But then, they were waiting for their Strategy at the time.

It’s stored in my hay house, dry and pretty well ventilated.

[Montanas_Girl]

What does your pasture look like right now? At this time of year, I don’t even bother putting out hay, because the horses would rather graze.

Otherwise, yes, I’d wonder that something might be up with this particular hay. If it’s just a bit more mature than normal but not moldy/dusty/etc., then it’s worth waiting them out. A close inspection is definitely in order to be sure, though.

[trubandloki]

Something as little as when in the day a field was cut can totally affect how much the horses want to eat it.

There can be nothing at all wrong with the hay, but they liked that other stuff better.

[candyappy]

@vineyridge

It’s Tifton 44 bermuda grass hay, and it’s got very long stems. However, the hay tank was empty today, and there was very little on the ground. I gave them another bale, and they don’t seem excited to get it. One mare walked up to it, sniffed, and walked away. But then, they were waiting for their Strategy at the time.

It’s stored in my hay house, dry and pretty well ventilated.

If they ate it all then they will again, especially if that is all they are going to get and they know it.

Sometimes my girls will get some hay with the red clover in it and the next day when I feed there won’t be any and they fling it everywhere trying to find the clover. By morning it is all gone.