So despite riding and being around horses pretty much my entire life, I’ve realized I know absolutely NOTHING about what “good hay” looks like. I’ve found good resources online discussing different types of hay and protein content etc, but I haven’t been able to find any information here or elsewhere on how to look at hay and assess if it’s “good quality” - it seems like an obvious skill that I just somehow missed in my equine education. We board, so unfortunately I have no control over the hay and it does change pretty frequently. My mare gets fed grass hay which sometimes looks soft and green, other times looks “stemmier” and thicker. She’s looking great (shiny, healthy coat, filling out - she’s just turned 4 and was started this spring) so I’m not asking out of concern, but I would really like to educate myself so I can identify any problems in advance I feel like I know absolutely nothing about the majority of her intake, and of course I spent hours researching and putting together the rest of her diet (LMF super supplement ration balancer, horse guard flaxen flow, salt). I would love to know any resources that I could use to educate myself on how to visually assess hay and determine if it’s “good” or “bad”. Thanks in advance for any guidance!
Good hay is relative to the class, species, mix (if there is one), quality of the forage itself, where/how it’s grown, the cutting, drying and baling process and storage.
Different species have different maturation rates. It’s important to know what types of grasses/legumes you have in your hay. Alfalfa needs different drying times before baling, than grass species.
The process of hay production is intensive and time consuming. If one aspect doesn’t go completely to plan, the hay quality will suffer. EX: Hay cut late (past maturation), hay not turned over to dry and baled wet, hay that’s been rained on before it’s stacked and stored, or hay cut on time, but left to dry too long before baling, which results in the breakdown of the leaves, IE less nutritious and dusty!
More than likely the soft and green bales were baled on time, were fluffed and turned over, left to dry for an appropriate amount of time and baled nicely. The bales that were thicker/stemmier etc were more than likely baled past the maturation point, which will result in somewhat less nutritious hay.
If we are going off the basic definitions of “good” and “bad,” bad hay really only is hay that is dangerous to feed. Hay that is baled wet and hot to the touch, moldy hay, or hay that is incredibly dusty.
I do the sniff test. It should smell like hay and not mold and should not be overly dusty. Stick your hand into a bale (if you can) and pull out some strands and sniff them. If they smell good and not moldy or musty, that’s good. Hay should be green, not brown. Brown hay has been rained on and left to dry outside. A little sun bleaching on the outside is okay if it’s coming off a stack, but the inside should still smell fresh. If you can, break open a bale so you can check the inside, look for weeds like foxtail which can injure your horse, whether the hay is overly stemmy meaning it was baled past its prime, the ratio of leaf to stem, any mold, etc.
Thank you so much, that is all really helpful! Couple more questions:
So the quality of hay comes down to how it’s cut+baled, not as much how it’s grown?
I’ve heard colic cases blamed on “bad” hay, which I understood meant not that it was moldy or hot but somehow inferior quality - I guess, stemmier and could cause an impaction? Is there any merit to that?
An inferior quality hay but otherwise okay, should not cause colic. It won’t have the nutritional value of a good quality hay and horses will rifle through it looking for the best tasting parts.
Yes, if the hay is grown on fertile soil and dried, baled, and stored correctly, the quality will be there.
@Spudsmyguy is absolutely on point.
Inferior hay should not cause colic or other GI distress, it simply doesn’t have the nutrition levels that "good’ hay does.
The quality is only as good as the grass that’s grown. There is influence from soil conditions, weather conditions etc. If the grass that’s grown is mediocre, then the hay will be mediocre. If the grass is good, and it’s baled correctly for it’s species and conditions, then it should come out as “good” hay. But the quality of the hay and it’s nutrition can be negatively impacted by the cutting, drying and baling process.
This may have been in reference to coastal bermuda grass hay in the southeast. Depending on the specific variety and how it is grown, it can be tough and like long wires, with not much leaf. It has definitely been blamed for impaction colics. There are many kinds of bermuda though. Out west where it is grown in irrigated fields, I never heard of problems like this.
To me, good hay is not too stemmy and smells sweet, almost like tobacco. Some hay grown as a monocrop (here, alfalfa and orchard grass) is harvested at peak ripeness, while most local grass hay that consists of many grass varieties will be inconsistent. Some grasses will be bloomed out, lowering quality.
I guess my answer will be different than the others. To me good hay is hay that the horses will willingly eat with gusto and that keeps them at a good weight easily.
To me it really doesn’t matter if it is a bit stemmier , or if it is fine stemmed as my horses eat both well.
We cut and bale our own and have for a long time. We planted our hay fields and fertilize and tend them so we know our hay is good but it all depends on when the weather is favorable for getting hay put up correctly.
Any hay should smell good and be green in color ( when you open a bale) it will bleach on the outside a bit even if stored in a loft . Be free of dust, dirt, mold or any off smell.
Here we put up mixed grass hay and mixed grass/ red clover. I try to give my horses just the mixed grass. They don’t need the extra from the clover but they love it.
ETA: I didn’t add weeds because the few we do/ may have in our fields my goats and horses eat them!
@spottedprincess, you do not have to give specifics, but if you give the general part of the world you are in, people can help you understand the specifics of hay in your part of the world.
What people feed daily in area A might be totally different than what people feed daily in area B.
Edit to add - I agree that good hay is free of mold, excessive dust, dirt, noxious weeds, etc.
Lower quality “inferior” hay can absolutely cause colic or other GI distress. Some horses with free fecal water syndrome can’t tolerate stemmier hay that is still totally ok and safe to eat for many horses. Lower quality/inferior hay can be higher in ADF and/or NDF, which might be great for the easiest keepers who need something to chew but not get too much out of it, but can cause issues for horses who don’t have robust digestive systems. And, horses without the best chewing surfaces on their teeth, eating hay that’s too coarse, are at bigger risk of an impaction.
Yes, COASTAL Bermuda is the hay that has a higher risk of causing ileal impactions, due to its inherently finer stem and higher lignin content. Other Bermudas don’t have that.
This is kind of the best generic answer there is. Barring a forage analysis, that’s the best you can do.
I will say that even that hay can be nutrient deficient and/or unbalanced to the point it really needs fortification. What keeps a horse in good body weight, isn’t necessarily what keeps him optimally healthy
Looks - green, dry, not (overly) dusty, NO mold, smells fresh not musty, no toxic plants mixed in.
You can’t tell much of anything about nutritional quality from looking at hay. At best, you can get a general idea of the Vit A content - green = Vit A. So, bleached hay won’t have much, but that doesn’t mean there’s anything else wrong with is. Green alfalfa hay has more than green grass hay.
stemmier doesn’t mean it’s a lower quality, though it may be a bit less palatable to some (but not all)
Some of this depends on what you are using to define good vs bad. Safe to feed vs not? For the normal health horse, it’s simply a matter of mold, or toxic plants mixed in. But “safe” in the context of a metabolic horse? You can’t tell anything about that by looking, you must test.
How it’s grown plays a huge role. Proper liming, fertilizing, and weed control create the healthiest grasses. Drought stresses grass, raising sugar levels.
There’s not a lot about the nutritional content that varies based on how it’s cut, dried, and baled. Alfalfa is an exception, as leaf shatter is a real issue (where most of the nutrients are), which means it gets baled sooner than grasses, with more moisture content, and then often topped with proprionic acid to help dry it out to be safe. But grasses don’t really have that issue, so what you have when you cut it, is what you have when it’s dried, and baled, beyond the basic reduction in sugars as the grass dries, and then Vit E as all forages dry.
What is “good hay” for a normal, healthy 10yo in reasonable work, no metabolic issues, might not be “good hay” for a 10yo IR horse, or a 25yo horse with dental issues or just overall digestibility issues. At some point you have to do the nutritional analysis to see what you’re feeding, not just that it’s yummy and keeps them in good weight
No one has mentioned the soil fertility, which will greatly impact the quality of the hay, nutrients it contains. Soil requires applications of fertilizer to replace nutrients that get removed wuth every cutting of hay. Without fertilizer, the grass can look the same, hay bales look the same, but have less nutrition every cutting.
And once you THINK you “know your hay” in purchasing, you get slapped upside the head with “fooler” hay. This is stuff that has great color, smells good, no dust and contains little or no nutrition!! Have to say that is very humbling AND your horses look terrible come spring! We did that a couple years ago, added more grain, other feeds, cost a LOT more to feed them that winter!! And they looked poor, which we have never had before. Then add in the fact we paid premium (for this area) because of lack of rain to make hay grow. Angry does not come close to my feeling! Well, pride goeth before a fall, an expensive lesson to learn.
You cannot tell what nutrients hay contains without having it tested. And according to the feed sellers, you do not know what hay balancers to feed, unless the hay is tested. Picking a balancer off the shelf may help, or could be wasted money feeding things horse already gets from his other food. My location is Selenium poor, none in our soil to get into grass or hay, locally produced plain grains that we feed. So adding Selenium and Vit E is required to keep a horse body working right, here.
We started putting up our own hay, which is pretty nutient perfect when sent in for testing. Being so good means we feed minimal quantity of grain. They get added Selenium and Vit E, salt and vitamins for micro-nutrients. We actually need to feed less hay quantity over winter, using the nutritional hay.
As a note, clover has invaded part of our hayfield. So far I have not killed it off, so we cut and bale it too. It takes an extra day to dry WELL before baling. The clover dries to a dark brown when as dry as it needs to be. It LOOKS terrible! But the horses like it, eat every shriveled leaf, along with the grass it is mixed with. Being brown, it may look like it is a year or two old, but horses don’t care about how it looks! They like it, clean it all up. So if you get offered clover hay, check it as others have said. Smell it, clap a couple flakes together to check for a cloud of mold dust or plain dirt rising, to see that bales were truly dried properly. Leaves may fall, they dry faster than stem and may shatter during testing. But the brown clover, put up right, could be a good buy, be quite edible and nutritious hay. Few folks put up clover hay, but you may find some to buy where it has taken over part of a grass hayfield, so they cut and bale it too.
Hay knowledge is a learning process. You may need to reduce quantity if the fine, dark green is ‘rich’ in nutrients. Or add another flake or two if recent load of hay is “poor” in nutrients. You want hay cleaned up, not wasted with pawing or using it for bedding. Different hay sources will keep you on your toes! Get a weight tape, use it every couple weeks and mark weight someplace. Your eyes can fool you on gains and losses, especially with winter hair, being blanketed. Tapes don’t lie.
Of course, happy to give more info! I’m in Northern CA, SF bay area. Everyone I know either feeds grass or alfalfa. I know there are multiple sub-types within these, but what my boarding barn gets seems to vary and most people seem to just distinguish between these broad categories.
I did self board as a kid and now as an adult and I have seen it all.
First familiarize yourself with the species of hay typically sold and fed in your region. Different forage species have different colors fresh and dried and different stem and leaf size.
Second, all hay should be dry, sweet smelling, and free of dead mummified rabbits. It should be dry before being baled so it does not heat up inside and spontaneously combust.
The coarseness of the stalk is a function of maturity and of species which you can observe for yourself if you watch wild grass growing over a season in a park or vacant lot. For instance, Timothy will always be stalkier than Teff or an out of control lawn.
Where I live, it’s mild and wet. Grass can start growing in February and not be hayed until June because the fields are too wet. That is first cutting and it can be very mature. Then we can get a second cutting in August or September that is regrowth and much finer and better nutrition. This however varies by region.
Hay in storage can get musty dusty spores on the surface but still be good inside if you toss the first flake in the bail.
A visual inspection is important but if you want to know the actual nutrition of the hay, you need to send it away for analysis. Dairy farmers always do this but horse folks not do often. Sugar per cent can vary widely, as can protein and minerals.
As far as colic from hay, its very idiosyncratic but you should always transition slowly to new hay over say a week. I had one Winter where my mare appeared to get impaction coilc several times from a particularly stemmy alfalfa because she wasn’t drinking enough water. Horses can get botulism from dead animals in hay. They can get impaction from switching to a very fine hay. They can get diarrhea moving from pasture to hay, etc. In other words, gastric upset caused from some aspect of forage is a very wide category and “colic” is not a specific term. Horses can also colic just from missing a feeding and then gorging.
They can also get laminitis from high sugar hay especially if they are obese.
Where I live (PNW) we have access to Timothy, Orchard, Alfalfa, Teff (new), and local pasture grass hay of mixed species. We don’t see the warm climate grasses like Bermuda etc.
If you are curious about hay, Google the hay dealers in your area. Visit the feed stores to look at what they sell. Ask around at your barn to see if anyone has done selfboard and knows the area. Ask your barn manager in a nonjudgmental I want to learn more way.
Thank you all SO MUCH for this information!! This is exactly what I was hoping for. Few more questions, if you all wouldn’t mind bearing with me:
Love the suggestion from @goodhors to get a weight tape - my quest for knowledge stems from me wanting to prevent an issue before it arises, so I think this is a great thing for me to track proactively.
I understand too the need to test if I really want answers, mentioned by several posters, but I’ve hesitated to do so given that the hay changes so frequently. It sounds like the nutritional content could vary WILDLY between sources, even if they are all grown in the same region, depending on soil quality, fertilizers used, etc?
Yes, forage from the same region can vary a lot. Just within 30 miles of me I know pastures that are green all summer and fall, others that are dead and dry by August. Soil and water table vary a lot. Also species
You should try to find out what species are in your hay and where it is sourced, and then find some general guidelines for that region and species. For instance Orchard Grass runs higher sugar on average than Timothy. Where i live, we source these from commercial growers in the dry country. So both are lower in sugar compared to our local random grass small scale hay can be freakishly high in sugar and low in protein due to our mild wet climate. That’s a regional phenomenon.
BTW low sugar is preferred these days.
Find out where your grass hay comes from and what species it is as a starter. In California they could be bringing almost anything in, Timothy and Orchard Grass from Eastern Washington, prairie species from Wyoming, Bermuda, Teff etc. Look at hay dealer websites to see what they are advertising.
I don’t know if grass hay species are grown commercially in Cifirnia. Alfalfa tends to get irrigated and grown in the Southwest.
Alfalfa is not grass and has a totally different nutrition profile.
Yes, nutitional value of a crop (hay, corn, oats) can be very different, with soil testing two adjoining fields and getting wildly different test results!
My soil test the first year we owned the hay property was terrible! The fertilizer guy said he never saw such a poor test!! Test usually shows your mineral percentages in color, green is good, thru lighter green, yellow, to red which is bad. My test had NO COLOR on it at all. We ended up applying fertilizer three times that summer so lesser amounts would be absorbed and not wash away. I just kept the field mowed tall, 6-8 inches, did not bale anything. The newly planted grasses developed an excellent root system, filled in nicely, so we could cut and bale the next year.
Fields have been soil tested and fertilized with what the soil test says it needs, yearly since then to keep the nutrients up. Needs change, I don’t get the same “fertilizer recipe” every year. It is a waste of money to just lime, if field does not need lime. But some folks do that “because they always have” instead of getting a soil test.
A related question: what would you think of hay that had basically no scent? A friend got a few trial bales from a new supplier. The hay had been cut and baled very recently from a field less than a mile from her house. It’s mixed timothy/orchard grass. One of her horses wouldn’t touch it but the other will eat anything.
Full disclaimer, I have very easy keepers who spend all summer on grass. I actually like hay that has ‘weeds’ in it, perhaps .5% or so Now, I am in New England, so the probability of a toxic weed in the hay, at that percentage? Is small. But weeds tell me immediately that I am not dealing with hay from a field that has been well treated with herbicides. As my manure is a valuable byproduct, that matters. But also, I find that horses don’t just eat grass, other stuff even if they reject it, is interesting to them. I also think, knowing the sheets for those herbicides from my other work, that I really, really don’t think they should be eaten in quantity by anything.
All that said. No mold. No hot hay (I just turned down a well priced load last week 
) as I like my barn in an unburnt state. NO Trash. No weeds in quantity (over one percent). I’d love to test it, but I am getting hay from one supplier…but his fields are in three different towns and at least as many different soil types. Not happening!
NEVER, ever, ever feed any horse a bale of hay that has mold. It can cause colic and many other issues. Another thing to look out for is hay that is very warm. That can spontaneously combust and cause a fire. If you come across a hot bale, take it out of the barn and fluff them, if you can do so safely. Fluffing causes air to ‘breathe’ and the water(which is a cause of hot hay) will evaporate
