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Hay Making

K

kcollinsuk

New User
Hello

I am not sure if this is the right forum? Sorry if not. My friend cut my hay for me 4 weeks ago but his baler has been broken for 3 weeks and so we have not managed to bale it. It's been very dry here with on 2 days of rain in that time and we have turned it twice. I want low calorie hay as my horses are fat. The hay has been lying on the ground for 4 weeks. Is there any way to save it or is it no good just because it's been on the ground for 4 weeks?

Thank you
 

Welcome to YT
What type of hay? I agree 4 weeks is a very long time for un-baled hay to lay on the ground. If baled it certainly will probably be "low calorie hay".
 
(quoted from post at 02:56:30 09/13/16)
Welcome to YT
What type of hay? I agree 4 weeks is a very long time for un-baled hay to lay on the ground. If baled it certainly will probably be "low calorie hay".
Click to expand...

It is a mixture of Yorkshire Fog and other meadow grasses and little bit of rye grass. We want low calorie so that is fine. I am more concerned that it will be dangerous to feed to them if it has been laying on the ground for so long? If it is not dangerous I am not concerned by the low calorie as that is what I want. I feed minerals and vitamins so that is of no concern. It is to provide them feed and fibre. Thank you for your reply
 

Thank you. I assume mould is quite obvious to see? It was bone dry when cut and given the dought this summer and that it was cut middle of August it was very much dried grass, virtually no green left at all
 
Green is not necessarily an indication of quality. It just says it wasn't bleached by the sun. One way or another, get it off the field. You could have it tested by a feed testing lab. $30 spent there is a
lot less than throwing the hay away or a dead horse.

Next time, get someone else to bale in a more timely manner.
 
I don't know about horses,but I've never baled anything that the cows wouldn't eat eventually.
 
If there is one thing I've learned in regards to horses, is do not take chances with any kind of feed. The potential risks, in my experience, when it goes wrong, are very costly. Maybe the breed you are dealing with is not as sensitive to colic, but it sure seems the Thorougbreds we've always had most certainly are. You don't have to work very hard to have one colic, and I have been through that nightmare numerous times.

That hay is just been on the ground for too long. Bleached like straw, none of the horses we've had would likely be interested in it. It would get mashed into the stall bedding. They are really good at picking through things like hay and might find a little of it appealing, most of it would be left.

I would agree, some horses may do fine with less than average hay, and in some seasons, that's all you may have available because conditions are just not ideal, lots of rain or otherwise. Mold and dust are more of a concern than if the hay is high in feed value. You'll just feed more of it to get by.
 
I don't think it would be much good for feed. I would haul it to the ditch and feed the cows good hay. if they go to the ditch and eat it that's OK, but don't force them to eat it.
 
IMHO - at minimum you should bale it, just to get it off the field. Once baled, you can have some tested. Depending on the results and no
mold or mold dust, then you might be able to feed it.

Worse case is you sell it for a couple dollars a bale for straw or goat food.

Good luck,
Bill
 
May not look good, or be worth much, but to a cow, it beats the crap outta snowballs......
 
They won't eat mature Reeds Canarygrass when the stems are 1/4 inch thick. Bale it just before or after heading when the stems are small and they eat it readily.
 
Extremely hard to make a call without seeing the hay and knowing for sure what it has gone through. I would definitely not feed it to horses, and that is not saying it would definitely hurt them, but it is just not worth the risk. As said below, colic in a horse is not a pretty sight, I can vouch for that.

Again, without being there to know exact circumstances, if it looks OK, I would probably either try some type of a trade for better hay, or sell it to a cow or goat person and buy better hay.
 
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