Found some Hay

[O So]

I decided to start a new thread because my other one was more of not being able to find hay. This one is about finding it and wanting to show quality between the two.

This is the hay I bought from the Elverta store. It is the stuff that my guy's clean up every scrap.

Close up pic.

This new stuff I found at Douglas Ranch Supply. It is 20/80% alfalfa/grass hay.

Close up.

The Douglas stuff still breaks up easy but isn't as easy as the Elverta stuff. The Douglas stuff seems to be a bit more stemmy, but not overly bad. Nothing like the River Valleys stuff. The only thing the Douglas stuff has is those weird looking seed pods or what ever they are. I have never seen that in the other hays I have had.

I bought 6 bales of the Douglas stuff today. What I plan on doing is feeding that till the Elverta store gets more of their hay in. Then I am going to buy their stuff and make sure I have enough of theirs to get me through to the hay season. I will find out when they have ample hay, and when they start to run out and go from there. For now though I have decent hay to get me buy and don't have to worry about hay for at least 3 months!

 

[Matt73]

Both look nice

Good for you.

 

[Jill]

Looks great!!! The top hay looks like the orchard grass hay that we feed

 

[Miniv]

Careful....You're going to spoil them.

The top looks like orchard grass. The bottom mix is going to taste sweeter to them, so you can bet they'll gobble that up even faster!

 

[chandab]

This new stuff I found at Douglas Ranch Supply. It is 20/80% alfalfa/grass hay.

Close up.

The Douglas stuff still breaks up easy but isn't as easy as the Elverta stuff. The Douglas stuff seems to be a bit more stemmy, but not overly bad. Nothing like the River Valleys stuff. The only thing the Douglas stuff has is those weird looking seed pods or what ever they are. I have never seen that in the other hays I have had.

I'm pretty sure what you are calling seed pods, are just orchardgrass seed heads, this hay was cut after the grass started to go to seed (but not too late, or there would be alot more in there). I wish I could get that nice of hay around here, it looks wonderful.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

They both should be fine, but the new stuff has foxtail in it - the stuff with the "poof" like a fox tail on the end - and it can be tough on gums. You will most likely find your horses leave those peices on the ground. Just check inside their mouths now and then and look at their gums. Make sure no sore spots are starting. If they do and go ignored, they can turn nasty. My hay has foxtail in it from the last cutting last year so I just have to watch my horses' gums. It's not dangerour otherwise.

Congrats on finding hay!

 

[chandab]

This is foxtail:

This is orchardgrass:

Glad I found the pic of foxtail, cause that's exactly what popped out of the abcess I've been treating on my gelding's cheek; I've been treating his abcess since the end of February, the piece of seed head finally popped out today. [i've been snowed in, so couldn't take him anywhere, nor have anyone come in; so best we could do was consult the vet over the phone.] And, I sure hope that coming out means he'll finally be on his way to recovery.

 

[O So]

Thanks you guy's! I'm glad to hear that you guy's think the new hay is good too! I had a rough time trying to decide on which one to buy. The kind they call Orchard grass looked good. The kind I bought 20/80 looked good too. The deciding factors came down to, I had been feeding them the 20/80 before I ran out the first time, and the guy at the feed store told me he thought the 20/80 looked to be better quality then the Orchard.

I have been told it is better to feed just the Orchard grass hay, with no alfalfa and originally when I first go O So, that is what I wanted, just grass hay. My feed store (the only one I have ever gone to, till now) only had the alfalfa/orchard mix. So that is why I am feeding that to the boy's. I just never switched to regular grass. Even the stuff I got from Elverta (the kind in the first pic) is supposed to be mixed with alfalfa. I can see it in there, but not much of it. Now that I have been feeding the mixed for so long (ok, maybe not that long, lol), I figured I would just stick with it.

What are your opinions on the grass only hay and the alfalfa/grass mix? I had a lady the other day say she would never feed any amount of alfalfa! (big horse) She made it sound like it was to be avoided like the plaque! I think my guy''s are doing great on it. O So maybe a bit to great! LOL He still has a belly!

Thought I would mention that while I was trying to decide on what hay to buy, hubby turned to the guy and said that I worry more about my horses food, then his food! LOL I have to agree with that statement!

Boy, just edited my post and then hit cancel after typing all that follows! That zooped! LOL

I wanted to thank Chandab for the pics. It is good to know what Orchard pods look like! Also want to thank everyone on letting me know what they were!

Couple questions. What is the preferred cutting? 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. I want to stock up on the most preferred cutting.

Also, what is your opinion on straight grass hay and alfalfa/grass mix? I had a lady tell me she would never feed her big horse any sort of alfalfa. She made it sound like I should avoid it like the plaque!

 

[O So]

Thought I'd share may storage! LOL We were able to rearrange the barn to fit the 6 bales.

I had to move my feeding hay rack and we stacked 4 bales on top of each other, 1 bale is on its side, on the side of the pallet. The other bale was able to go on my feeding rack. I think I could actually store about 8 or 9 bales in that spot. We did talk about cleaning in front of the car and storing hay there. We would put it on pallets then cover it with a tarp. I will do that when it comes time to stock up for the winter!!

Oops, just noticed that we stacked them 5 high. LOL I "wanted" to stack them 4 high and then put one on it's side. Hubby wanted to stack them the way they are in the pic. I figures that I can just pull the top one down onto my hay rack when I need it! The hay rack is that funky thing behind the hay. It holds on bale on top and can hold 2 bales broken up in the bottom.

 

[ruffian]

Just a suggestion, but I use old tires for storing my hay on. They don't absorb moisture or break unexpectedly when you step on them. Plus as you use the hay up you can remove the tires exposed. With pallets you have to leave the whole thing down until it's empty. I've never, ever had any hay go bad on tired. Just FYI

 

[GrullaBlue]

JMO...but if I had a choice, I'd probably stick with grass hay, without alfalfa. You give them good grain too.... and having seen pics of Oso...he could stand to lose some...

If you had a choice...I'd probably stick with 2nd cutting.... 1st can be more weedy and stemmy, but if you were just going with grass hay.... 2nd or 3rd would be fine. The later the cutting, the richer the hay can be with alfalfa. We grow our own...but we sell the hay off the alfalfa field. Some years we get a 4th cutting off our fields too...all depends on the weather, and how early we can get started on first crop.

They hay you picked up looks like very nice hay.

 

[chandab]

Couple questions. What is the preferred cutting? 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. I want to stock up on the most preferred cutting.

Also, what is your opinion on straight grass hay and alfalfa/grass mix? I had a lady tell me she would never feed her big horse any sort of alfalfa. She made it sound like I should avoid it like the plaque!

I can't answer the question about preferred cutting, as we only get one cutting around here, and some years we feel lucky to get that. We are all dryland with a fairly short growing/harvesting season.

I prefer either straight grass or an alfalfa/grass mix that is very light on the alfalfa (like no more than 20% alfalfa). The quality of alfalfa varies depending on where you are and how its grown; the highest quality is usually dairy alfalfa and its very rich (i would never feed this to horses), and many other levels of quality (as long as its not too stemmy, and definitely not moldy, a little alfalfa shouldn't hurt).

 

[wingnut]

We've used three different types of hay so far. The original supply was a timothy/orchard grass mix. Lots of stem. Not a lot of green. They ate it well enough but there was a lot of waste. With our hard keeper still causing us trouble with keeping weight on her, I wanted to try an alfalfa mix to see how things went. The nearby supplier I found (on Craigslist), let me buy a couple of bales to test. The difference was incredible. This was soft, smelled divine and was a nice muted green. Only minimal dust, no mold. It's hay as I remember smelling from my childhood. The horses devoured it. Not a single blade put out was left.

Late January, my supplier ran out of his surplus stock. What he had left he needed for his beef cattle. He kindly recommend another local farmer. The new supplier also had an alfalfa/orchard grass mix. His wasn't as soft and a tad more dusty. Still, the horses like it a lot.

I know that one should be careful with feeding alfalfa to minis, but all of my girls have done really well over the winter on it. We've had NO waste. My 3 yr old has actually slimmed down. It's all counterintuitive to what I've read about.

 

[Matt73]

My girls have been on grass/alfalfa hay for 5 years (well, Lex has...and Willow has been on it for the past year...since I got her). They do really well. It's not too rich. Willow blossomed on this after coming here severely underweight and worm infested

They get fed 4x/day, along with their Gro 'n Win morning and night. I wouldn't just leave a round bale for them, of course, but I really like our hay...and so do our girls. I'm on the verge of getting grass hay so that when Lex foals she and the foal can have something in front of them pretty much all the time.

 

[weebiscuit]

Nice and grassy looking, and you are very lucky to have found it! Congrats!