How palatable is it providing it has been properly cured? I think I am going to have to make a road trip to get some more hay to get me into summer and I see a lot of this advertised around Lexington. Since I can’t take a horse along to sample it I need to get some feedback from people in and around Kentucky. I have easy keepers and the grass is greening up but I still need hay for them. They do not like bermuda, fescue and will not touch hay that has any amount of rye in it. I do not want to drive and bring back hay they will not eat.
What cutting is it? By which I mean how mature and coarse is the hay?
Typically where I live a first cutting is very mature because the grass starts to grow in February but it’s too wet to mow until June so grass has already headed out. Second cutting in August is finer and younger.
Orchard grass is a nice hay similar to Timothy but like Timothy it can be fine or twiggy depending on maturity.
I’ve never seen bluegrass hay but it’s supposed to make lovely pasture so I would think nice hay!
I get OG from my hay guy, and can choose between a Spring and Fall cutting. In any given year, one might be better than the other, depending on when (month) it was cut, and what had been going on leading up to that cut - slow growth, fast growth, etc.
The good cuttings are very palatable, and the great ones are like crack.
Right now, I have some of both. The Spring cutting is crack. The Fall cutting is palatable, but not as much, so they take longer to eat it, but still cleaning it up.
We’ve had orchard/bluegrass in the past. The horses loved it. It was second cutting, soft and fine, with a nice amount of roughage. Blue grass is finer than orchard. The lower the cutting, the more stem and roughage. First cutting orchard has a coarse stem that can be twiggy compared to higher cuttings. It also has more seed heads than other cuttings, which horses love. Second cutting is softer, less stem, and has a nice balance of stem/roughage seed heads and grass blades. Third cutting I personally wouldn’t feed, but maybe if combined with BG, it could be ok. Third is fine, and can go right thorough horses due to low roughage and make for messy butts and stalls. We would buy more BG/orchard mix, but are just not interested in buying 30 tons to have hauled in right now or picking it up ourselves again like we previously did to get less tonage. If you don’t already have close up and full bale pictures from the seller, ask the seller for them. It should be very nice hay.
Fine hay does not go through the horses without being digested.
If horses are getting the runs from a batch of hay it is more likely due to the nutrition content, likely high sugar that is upsetting the hind gut bacteria. Or it has been fertilized with something.
The connection between hay maturity and time of year cut varies by region depending on when grass starts growing and when it can be cut.
Thus while you and I associate first cut with twiggy seedy hay, this is not true in every climate.
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Yep, first cut OG here is typically finer and softer and tastier than a later cut, and unless fields are supremely taken care or, that’s almost always the only 2 cuttings we get. There’s not enough rain, usually, for a Summer cutting. Most often, any 3rd cutting is very late Fall if there was enough rain, and warmth, to make it feasible to cut a shorter grass.
I don’t believe it goes right through them. More like it is probably pretty rich , which would cause your loose stools.
I think it’s worth mentioning that the terms “orchard grass” and “bluegrass” get used colloquially (and incorrectly) to describe mixed, locally grown grasses that may not even contain either species. Make sure you are buying from someone reputable and not getting the weedy junk they baled after the back 40 became overgrown.
Agree with Texarkana. There are no specifically-grown hayfields of “orchard and bluegrass.” KY orchard and bluegrass hay can be just fine…but keep in mind they probably just baled one of the horse pastures. This can be good hay, particularly for easier keepers or fed as a “filler,” but typically it is not managed to yield a high-quality, ultra-palatable forage. It’s pasture. It might have weeds, it might have been the last field to get mowed and baled (after the good hayfields). In other words…it’s difficult to know what you’re buying unless you know where it came from and how it was done.
This coming from someone who has baled many hundred acres of KY horse pasture. 
Most often low quality, as it was intended to use for bedding instead of buying straw. We did sell some of the good stuff for horse hay; some of the average stuff was great for cows. It can be great hay if managed well…but typically it’s “just” a pasture. In general, I wouldn’t go out and buy random “pasture grass” and expect it to be a really nice hay, though it certainly could be suitable for your horse’s needs.
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Ah, that’s what we call “local hay” here. North of us Timothy is a commercial hay crop and South of us, purpose grown monocrop Orchard grass is a commercial hay crop. Sometimes grown mixed with alfalfa. Timothy and Orchard esch have different but distinctive panicles and are considered premium hay in relation to “local hay.”
So I didn’t guess that in a different region it could be the term for unknown pasture grass. Good to know though of no practical use to me!
Well bummer!!! I think I may punt on this idea for the time being. The only thing you can get locally is bermuda ( bahia is not horse hay) and alfalfa. I still have some alfalfa and my horses are easy keepers so I don’t need more alfalfa. They really don’t like bermuda after they have been dining on hay grown up north. I don’t want to make that long of a road trip and get back with hay my horses will not eat. I did a lot of that last year in the drought. I don’t want to do that this year.
The most expensive hay you can buy is hay your horses won’t eat. I did notice that a lot of this hay is baled in 3x3x8 bales. Maybe it is not worth the expense of small squares? I may revisit this idea later but not when my orchard grass hay is running out and I don’t have a lot of spare time.
But I didn’t say that it went undigested. I also didn’t say fine hay, I said less stem. 
Stem is fiber. Fiber (structural carbs) is bulk-forming and gives structure to manure. If hay lacks structural carbs/fiber, it will move through the system quicker and the manure will have looser consistency. This does not necessarily mean it is undigested. The lack of fiber just means there is nothing to slow down the digestion of the hay and nothing is there to form the fecal balls. Leafy doesn’t mean fine either. Leaf can be fine or coarser, depending on the type of hay, the cutting, climate, season.
Leafy hay has plenty of fibre.
Twiggy hay has too much lignin which can’t be digested.
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