What kind of hay is best for horses?
There are two primary types of horse hay: legume and grass. Alfalfa is the best variety of legume hay, and Orchard grass is the grass hay I recommend; however, Timothy, bermudagrass, bahiagrass, and Kentucky bluegrass are also excellent choices.
What hay is bad for horses?
Some hay types are particularly prone to high nitrate levels and should be avoided if there are options. These include: Sorghum, Sudan, Johnsongrass and Pearl Millet. High levels of simple carbohydrate (sugars, starch) are an issue for horses with insulin resistance and can occur in virtually any type of hay.
Can horses eat any hay?
Horses typically eat hay that’s grown locally, which means their options are often restricted to what grows best in their area. While alfalfa is considered an ideal hay, horses can also eat timothy, clover and tall fescue hays as well as mixtures of these hays.
Is timothy or alfalfa better for horses?
Alfalfa hay is typically higher in protein and essential nutrients than timothy hay, making Alfalfa a better option for more active animals that need a high protein diet. Alfalfa also has more calories per pound than timothy, so it’s generally the preferred choice of sport horse owners.
Is Bluestem hay good for horses?
Native warm-season grasses also can provide good summer pastures for horses. Warm-season grasses that horses graze well include blue grama, big bluestem and sand bluestem, sideoats grama, sand lovegrass, and indiangrass. … So they can be used for horse hay even if they make poor horse pasture.
How can you tell a good hay for a horse?
Good quality hay should be bright green in color with little fading. A bleached, yellow, brown or black color may indicate aged hay, mold or poor storage conditions. Storage condition and age have a significant effect on vitamin content of hays.
What is the healthiest hay for horses?
Alfalfa, white clover, red clover and birdsfoot trefoil are common types of legumes, with alfalfa being the most popular choice. Benefits: Legumes are higher in protein and calcium than grass hay, and may also provide more energy and a higher level of total digestible nutrients, such as vitamin A.
How much does a bale of timothy hay cost?
What Is the Average Price for a Bale of Hay? On average, a bale of hay costs around $15. For example, two wired Alfalfa Hay bales typically run high, costing $19.95 apiece, whereas bermudagrass is only $8.75. Timothy Hay is the most expensive, typically costing at least $20 a bale.
How can you tell alfalfa hay from timothy hay?
Is pasture hay good for horses?
Roughage, such as hay and pasture is critical for the health and well-being of all horses. Understanding the design, function and reliance of the horse’s digestive system on roughage is the first step in appreciating the critical value of roughage.
Is Coastal hay bad for horses?
Coastal hay is a type of Bermuda hay that has a reputation for increasing the risk of ileocecal impaction in horses. The belief that coastal hay causes impactions has been around for a long time, and in some cases might be true; however, Bermuda hay can make excellent forage for horses.
Is 3rd cutting hay OK for horses?
Hay of the third cutting is thick, green, and very nutritious, containing more legumes and high protein and fat content. It is also leafy and soft, so the horses will find it appealing.
Is Tifton 85 hay good for horses?
Tifton is beneficial to any horse. Many vets recommend horses that have weight, laminitis or founder issues to be on a diet strictly of Tifton due to its low sugar content. Tifton is also great for HYPP horses and can be one of the only hays that some HYPP horses do well on.
Do horses need hay if they have grass?
Provide plenty of roughage
Many pleasure and trail horses don’t need grain: good-quality hay or pasture is sufficient. … Horses are meant to eat roughage, and their digestive system is designed to use the nutrition in grassy stalks. A horse should eat one to two percent of their body weight in roughage every day.
Can horses graze on alfalfa?
Alfalfa can be grazed as a single-species or mixed with grass. Red or white clover doesn’t regrow well when grazed by horses, so it’s best to mix with grass. Alfalfa and red clover can be appropriate pasture species for horses diagnosed with metabolic disorders.
What is the difference between coastal and Tifton hay?
Tifton 85 is also a sterile hybrid; however, there is a distinction between the two. Coastal is a cross whose parents were two bermudagrass species (Cynodon dactylon X Cynodon dactylon). … Although more drought tolerant than Coastal, Tifton 85 is less winter hardy because of that tropical parent with no cold hardiness.
What is Tifton grass?
Tifton 85 is a hybrid strain of Bermudagrass Cynodon dactylon, a forage perennial grass that originated in Africa and was brought to the United States as a pasture and hay crop for the humid Southern states. This variety was incorrectly reported by CBS News to be a genetically modified organism (GMO).
Is Tifton 9 hay good for horses?
Considered a durable pasture grass for horses, Tifton 9 grows faster than regular Pensacola bahiagrass, provides more drought tolerance and better frost resistance. It is equal to Pensacola in digestibility, but it is less tolerant of close grazing.
What does Tifton 44 look like?
Tifton 44 bermudagrass is a fine stemmed F1 hybrid that must be propagated vegetatively. Compared with Coastal bermuda, Tifton 44 is darker green, has finer stems that cure faster when cut for hay, has more rhizomes, is a little shorter, and makes a denser sod.
Is Bermuda better than Coastal?
Coastal is more robust than most common Bermuda grasses and is more resistant to foliage diseases, frost and drought. It generally produces more forage than common Bermuda grass, especially at high fertility levels (Table 2).
Is Jiggs Bermuda hay good for horses?
Jiggs is a hybrid type of Bermuda developed at Texas A & M University. It is a leafier grass, easy to grow and a more nutritious hay for horses than common Coastal hay. Jiggs Bermuda will develop more crude protein and more digestible nutrients than common Bermuda. It will also have more calcium and phosphorus.