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Typical Hay Customer Visit

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Bill VA

Well-known Member
We are fortunate that our hay tests low in sugar. With quality hay and good forage test numbers, we can draw customers in that would otherwise forget an hour plus drive through the mountains and buy craigslist labeled “horse quality” hay closer to home.

The video is a typical day with a longer distance horse hay customer leading up to the sale and afterwards.

Enjoy!

Bill
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Another Hay Customer
 
I wonder that too. The "wild" horses of the American west are really just escaped domestic horses so they are the exact same animal you'll find in a barn. They run around with no shoes and eat whatever they find. I can see shoeing a horse & providing shelter, as they are kept in all sorts of places outside their natural habitat, which is dry and mild. If someone who knows something about horses can explain what I'm missing I'd be happy to learn.

This is not a dig at the original poster. If he can sell his crop at a premium to a paying customer & profit from his hay test results, good for him!
 
i glad it works for you sold hay for several years finally had enough of the want for nothing stuff, went to selling clean straw instead and that was a money maker. retired from that now also, put the ground all in crp program.
 
Could you please explain why hay that is low in sugar is Better? I have read universities studies that claim hay cut in the late afternoon after time in the hot sun will be higher in sugar. They said this was better for livestock palatability. Maybe horses to cattle it is different?? Al
 
Process of natural selection. The ones that can’t survive on open range don’t make it. See the same thing in cow herds. The western range cows live in conditions that many easterners would never dream of running cattle in. Where things are tougher, people are more accepting of some death loss.
 
(quoted from post at 12:30:22 12/13/20) I like the sellers that claim how great their hay is.
Then when you ask for a forage test they get that deer in the headlight look.
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There has been more than one hay seller bust here in Ocala using fake forage test results to bolster their sales.

Way too many pleasure horse owners feed their horse to much crap containing too much sugar in various forms along with too much grain they do not need.
Along with several "supplements" peddled by greedy veterinarians.

Then they wonder why their horse is so hyper and unridable.
 
If you have a horse that is insulin resistance, then low sugar hay is what you want. Often hay is high in sugar and these horse owners have to soak their hay in water to lower the content. If they can find hay that has been tested and is indeed low sugar, it saves a lot of hassle. Many of these same horse customers “balance” the hay against supplements to be sure they are giving their metabolic challenged horses a diet that will prolong good health and life for years.

If I’m feeding cattle, yes - I want all the octane I can get. If I’m cutting hay for my own cattle, I would bale about anything and feed it and we did for years. The difference today is I’d be making round bales, but the money for us is in quality square bales of hay. I tell my kids, it takes just much back to lift a square bale of trash as it does a quality square bale, so why don’t we do it right from the get-go and make a little more money while we’re at it.

Thanks for watching and thanks for the question.

Bill
 
Not being a horse (or even cow) person, I should probably keep my mouth shut, but then when has anyone here known me to do that! *lol*

Kidding aside, I had a thought pass through my mind that I think might have some relevance in the [b:de85edcab2]wild horse vs. domestic horse[/b:de85edcab2] comparison. Wild horses, in addition to being the 'strong that survive', but don't they also get much more exercise? Active people burn off sugars a lot better than inactive, so seems like that should figure into the conversation.
 
I now understand the sugar problem, but now have more questions. If some horses need low sugar hay because of an insulin problem, doesn't this show a genetic flaw. Horses in the wild would survive by being hardy and strong. The weak with flaws would die off and not rebreed. If someone is breeding horses for pleasure that have a insulin problem, isn't this promoting the weak to flourish? Does this insulin problem show up in all stages of a horses life, or just in old age?? Al
 
(quoted from post at 00:47:42 12/14/20) Could you please explain why hay that is low in sugar is Better? I have read universities studies that claim hay cut in the late afternoon after time in the hot sun will be higher in sugar. They said this was better for livestock palatability. Maybe horses to cattle it is different?? Al
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We have a mini that has a lot of foundering problems in the Spring. The vet said that the higher sugar content in early grass is the culprit. Told us minis often have this problem. Penned him up away from pasture and hay him and the problem disappeared. Vet also said minis do very well on the worst hay around.
 
I know nothing of horses, horse diets, or sugar in hay for that matter. But I do know that the human race often seems totally stressed out about what they feed their horses and dogs (with those big bags of vet-approved dog food and nothing else) but we stuff and gorge ourselves with not only sugar and starches but fat-laced food loaded with cholesterol and excess carbs that give your bathroom scales a workout. Just sayin ......
 
Lady not far from me had horses in a field that bordered a hay field I use to cut hay,the hay was nothing special Heinz 57 of grasses and weeds.This lady was buying all sorts of special hay and feed until her husband who was footing the bill left.Desperate she asked me about buying some of the round bales for her horses.
So I started just taking the loader and dropping a bale over the fence the horses cleaned the first few bales up in a hurry,then asked if I had some hay that wasn't that good since the horses were eating it so fast.(LOL)Anyway the horses looked fine come Spring bought hay from me for several years after that even after her husband come back home.
 


When I was making more hay and we were getting multiple analyses done per year I found that it didn't take good fortune to make low sugar hay, LOL. The sugar content would drop week by week as the grass matured, and we would reduce the price if we ended up getting into August and still working on our first cutting due to adverse weather conditions. The early cut hay continues to be in higher demand due to higher RFV, because the knowledgeable horse owners know that if they feed quality hay they need to feed substantially less concentrate in order to keep up with the nutritional needs of their horses. An average horse's nutritional requirements are far less than dairy cows, but if they are working any amount, even if it is just frequent training for competition they are going to need some sugar. Excessive carbohydrate and thus sugar in horses diet is a real problem but it almost always comes from too much un-needed concentrate as opposed to hay that is "too good".
 
(quoted from post at 08:17:44 12/13/20) Looks like your bush hogging about twice as fast as we do on the farm!
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I also have to say that I have never seen anyone brush hog anywhere near that fast. Bill, are you sure that you are cutting anything?
 
The way I've seen it explained is that the horse species evolved in Central Asia, in the desert (Mongolia?). So their baseline DNA was not based on dealing with a rich, lush diet. When horses were used as work animals, the traditional feed was mature, late cut grass hay and oats, a low sugar, high fiber diet. My father grew up in the 1930's on a farm that still worked horses, and the latest cut, coarsest hay went to the draft animals, and the early cut rich hay went to the dairy cows. Nowadays most horses are basically pets, and people tend to pamper their pets. So just as too rich a diet and too little physical activity have led to diabetes becoming common among humans, it's also happened with horses. Some individuals are more prone than others, but the tendency is there in the species.
 
Al,

I’m not sure about the genetics, but there is a slew of horses with all manner of health issues and dry lots, low sugar hay and medicines are normaltese days.

Thanks!
Bill
 
Bill, You have a really nice barn. I was wondering what the dimensions are? Hard to tell from the video.

Garry
 
Because they dident have idiot horse people interfering with them, i worked with thoroughbreds for 30 years, all they need for hay is dry, dust free and no moldy hay, some horses can eat dusty hay, some can not. If the hay is weedy, they eat around the weeds. Of the last 7 mares i took care of along with my mare, lived to late 20s to 3 that lived to 35. Some horses people make it complicated, then they wonder why they’re horses have problems.
 
Bill, I have a few questions: the field you are bush hogging is obviously not a good hay field. Why not or what is it? What keeps the bales on the ground in your pole barn from getting moldy? Is that your house in the background? What year built? Are the chimneys original? Thanks for video.
 
Think you explained the issue exactly.My grandfather's work horses only got some oats when they were worked,on pasture and average hay at best in the Winter,they were always healthy with almost no health problems.Of course horses just like children their health problems are rooted into their diet when they were young.
 

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Insulin resistance has nothing to do with wild or domestic, most of the time it's just a luck of the draw occurrence. My horse is a wild mustang and was in the extreme mustang make over in Fort Worth in 09, he took 4th place. He coliced and it causes laminitis and we have to now watch so he doesn't get the fresh grass. He wears a grazing muzzle and gets free choice coastal and now gets shoed in the front. First horse I have ever had that I have to watch their intake.
 
I'd say that is the type animal that needs to be culled,of course with no slaughter of horses in the USA the only way to cull is to dig a hole.The Boer goat breed in the USA was about ruined by lack of culling.
 
“Bill, I have a few questions: the field you are bush hogging is obviously not a good hay field. Why not or what is it? What keeps the bales on the ground in your pole barn from getting moldy? Is that your house in the background? What year built? Are the chimneys original? Thanks for video.”

The field I’m bushhogging is one we are taking back from the autumn olives. I’m hoping to have the whole field cleared this winter. We use to use pallets, but they are a hassle. Now we put down a ground tarp and a layer of hay on top. Works pretty good, but not 100%. Even with tarps and pallets, we got occasional surface mold on a few bales. Yes the farm house is ours. I’d say it’s at least 125 years old. Chimneys are original. My kids are 5th generation on this farm.
 
“Bill, You have a really nice barn. I was wondering what the dimensions are? Hard to tell from the video.
Garry”

The barn dimensions are 32x88x16
 
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