tess / teff (sp?) hay

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eagles ring farm

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anyone use tess / teff hay not sure of the spelling I think it's Teff

wanted to know your experience good or bad or anything you've heard

also use for pregnant mares?
 
I read about it, researched, etc........because a hay man was growing it across the street from me and I try to get some local hay. In my part of the country we are subject to sporadic showers (heat & only 50 miles from ocean) and fairly high humidity quite often. So you have to use a hay that cures quickly. Bermuda does well here both as pasture and hay (if you raise right type) .

From what I read, can be good hay. Teff does not winter over, so it's planted each year -- but, it also have very fine leaf. Now bermuda has fine leaf but much more of it! The observation I made was that when cutting just prior to seed out, the spires that carry the seed is also quite fine. This makes it a fairly good thing for the small mouths of minis -- finer roughage. However, I like the nice green color of dry orchard (LOVE the western & Canadian hays!!!) Local bermuda can keep decent color if raised/cut/cured right.

Horses seemed to like the taste but, I did not like the brown.
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So, when he did the 2nd cut, I checked and it wasn't really better in leaf, so I chose not to get any.

We have gotten timely and adequate rains here and my pastures are beyond what my animals can consume........not always so lucky........but, not enough to have any hayed. So, I cut them
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and graze them. Not complaining. (15 acres & 37 minis)

Ahhhh...winter will arrive and I'm saving for hay right now! Good grass & less grain helps with the hay $$
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We are fortunate with grass too as we have 10 acres in pasture and just 9 minis but we stall them at night so hay is needed all summer as well as winter

our hay guy has planted it (Teff) this year and we don't know if we should try it we do have the option for other hays from him.

Just wondering I've searched and read alot of good about it, but it seems to maybe be low in calcium .

We do feed grain so not sure if that would make up for the low calcium which makes me nervous, with mares in foal.

and read I 1 horrible experience some one had with it on another forum.

But wanted to get opinions from miniature owners if possible before we definitely decide against it.

I'm confused now just read the link from rubyviewminis and it says high in calcium
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any more info would be appreciated guys
 
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There was an article put out from Texas - the poor winter or whatever the reason - the hay did end up producing arsenic or cyanide - I don't remember which right now - but it killed whole herds of cows. Please do your research thoroughly. I did post sometime ago about this.
 
I tried the teff hay. One of my mares was very allergic to it. She had hives all over her body and she and another mare lost muscle mass across their shoulders and back. I had 20 bales of the stuff and ended up selling it for 1/2 of what I bought it for just to get it gone. Within 2-3 days of selling the teff hay and cleaning up every scrap I could find the hives went away and they both started looking better.
 
I bought some beautiful Teff hay at a local feed store probably about 10 years ago.

Walked in thru the warehouse, the stuff smelled soooo good and was such a pretty green.

Bought two bales to try the kids and the big guy on and not one of them would touch it.

They thru it all over their bedrooms - so I tried it out in pasture as lunch hay....they slept on it

and they used it to potty on.

The place where we boarded at that time, the owner's horse loved it so we donated it to him.

I didn't bother with it again.

I did some reasearch at the time - it's vague in my mind now but it's grown in other countries

as feed ---- and I know here they grow it on the sides of roads for eroision control, too.
 
I do find it interesting but not surprising that the horses lost weight on the teff hay.
 
our hay guy dropped off 2 bales for us to try right after I posted this

we have read enough that we are scared to even try it so returned it

and ordered another 150 bales of our regular orchard/timothy.

But there are some people around here too that say their horses love it

Thank you everyone for the quick responses. We are passing on the Teff

I don't want to have a story to tell in the future about being hesitant and trying it anyway
 
I love teff hay, wish I could get some more, a few years ago my hay supplier was bringing it in from Canada. My horses LOVED it and looked terrific on it. It looked bland in color, but my guys ate it with gusto and their weight was perfect on it. I just got some hay and am not happy with it, too rich and has a bit of alfalfa in it which my guys don't need. Anyway, my 2 cents, clean teff hay can be great.
 

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