What makes hay lose all color between baling and winter feeding?

[trubandloki]

@JB

Light - any light - bleaches hay.

This is my experience too.

[CanteringCarrot]

@jawa

I bought some small squares from a hay guy during the STUPID, VERY WET year we had (normal rain is around 40", we had over 70"). It was over mature, very yellow, loose, light bales. I was a bit depressed that this is what I had purchased, but hay was at a premium, so hay in the barn is better than not… I was able to purchase some additional hay that was a beautiful green, soft blades, smelled SOOO good. Wouldn’t you know the horses ate EVERY SINGLE BIT of the over mature, yellow, loose, light baled hay and would pick through the green, soft bladed, good smelling hay. HORSES!!!

Yes! This is also my horse! We have some bales that smell great…to me. They’re green, softer, and look great. My horse prefers stemmy, super dry, yellow hay. I have to use gloves when I stuff his hay net it is so pokey. He loves it.

But maybe there is something about the taste or lack thereof factor for them. This horse is from a dry climate (Spain) and doesn’t mind foraging for dry grasses and bushes, so I chalked it up to that to rationalize it in my simple human head. :winkgrin:

I do find that our hay (round bales) bleaches on the outside between the time it is baled, loaded, and transported (open wagons) then stored. So or doesn’t take much IME.

[JB]

That overly-mature hay can easily be high in sugar which makes it yummy

[J-Lu]

@candyappy

If it was over dried ( let sit too long) or cut later than optimal, I think you will see some color loss. Was it first cutting?

We do wrapped rounds that I feed by hand and I do see some color loss as we unwind and feed them ( could be from exposure to light under the lean to) . We also do first and second cut squares of the same fields and those bales are a bit lighter than when first baled but not much.

Are your horses happy eating the hay and doing well on it? If so I wouldn’t worry much. You could add a supplement if you think vitamins are lacking?

I don’t think it was over dried. It was a matter of days (I don’t actually know, it’s just what I remember) between cutting and baling. In between rain events! But sunny days. I think maybe first cutting but maybe second cutting as I remember I was very inappropriately dressed (wasn’t expecting guests when I was house-sitting at the barn) when the guys delivered the hay. I was in a camisole and short-shorts. June? We had snowstorms in March and a weird hay year last year.

As I mentioned in I think the first post, the horses are not happy eating the hay. They leave a LOT of waste. All horses are on grain or a balancer, but I can say my horse has lost weight (nothing terrible) and leaves a lot of wasted hay. That’s saying something for such a food-driven horse!

[millerra]

So - we have primarily 3 different hays all mixed in our hay fields- the percentage varies by field.
We have alfalfa, red clover and grass. Time to cure in the field changes the intensity of color for all hay types. The ripeness of the hay prior to cutting will determine the intensity of color too. But once baled - the grass is always paler in color; the clover stems can range from green to deep brown - and leaves can go from green to black. And the alfalfa is always what stays the greenest - unless it’s quite old. Sometimes we will cut into the low ground - which primarily has reed canary grass. That is always the faintest of green - even when baled quickly. The horses do NOT eat it. The cows don’t care.

Long story short - it depends, depends, depends. And all of the colors I mention occur in properly cured hay, stored indoors.