It's important to cover that risk with the availability of quality, palatable hay at a good price. In some areas, foxtail or German millet are used as horse forage. Blog, Diseases, Preventative care, vaccine. 3). Good hay will be uniformly green and sweet smelling, with no brown spots or moldy portions. Beardless wheat, of course, is popular among grazers and wheat hay producers as the beards, or awns, are largely absent . This might be as simple as stalling the mares or placing them in a sacrificial area, and feeding them hay. Is this a good practice? It is a beardless variety. Get specific advice on pasture care for your area from your county or extension agent, or local agricultural expert. Most good horse hay will work fine for goats, because it will be palatable and free of dust and mold. I also dont recommend protein pails or mineral blocks. The impression that alfalfa makes a horse hot is usually the result of an improper amount of alfalfa being fed. Buyers from the Los Angeles area and Eastern horse regions are still active in the market. Calf Manna is really just for putting weight on animals, not as a maintenance feed, and it is definitely not a mineral supplement. What is bearded grain? Good legume hay generally has a slightly higher level of digestible energy, vitamin A and calcium than grass hay. of wheat/acre in the northwest Texas Panhandle near Perryton received heavy hail that either completely damaged the crop or knocked down its yield potential by 50% or more. Alfalfa has about 16 to 20 percent protein, while grass hays are only 8 to 10 percent protein. Mike Garnett produces and custom harvests wheat hay and other small grain forages, along with alfalfa and a variety of grazer-type hays. In oats there is no issue with beards, but the trends of increasing forage dry matter and decreasing forage feed value raise the question of what is the optimum time to mow the oats. All the hay is barn stored. When I cant find enough good quality green hay, I supplement my goats, sheep, and pigs with hay pellets. Traditional feeds for horses include grass or alfalfa hay, corn, oats, a sweet feed of some type or commercially developed feed. Selection of the best varieties for domestication took place over many centuries in many regions. Oat hay we would yield approx 4 to 4.5 tons per acre and once we switched to beardless wheat we have yielded as high as 10 tons per acre (not typical) but a good avg. Copyright All Rights Reserved Mobile Veterinary Services, LLC 2018. 600 tons Premium beardless wheat hay $140; 125 tons Good big bale beardless wheat hay with few weeds $125; 800 tons Low quality beardless wheat hay rained on in windrow or rained on top bales $75. I see what people cut for what they call hay. In some parts of the country fescue, reed canary grass, ryegrass and Sudan grass are common. User Agreement and Privacy Policy. Subsequently, horses will select the grain-heads and consume less of the fiber portion of the forage. Copyright 2023 Kentucky Equine Research. While horses can tolerate nitrate levels up to 2 percent, it is best to have the hay tested before being fed. Low cost highest quality baled alfalfa hay for sale, premium Teff hay for sale, Beardless wheat hay for sale and grass hay wholesale to feed stores, ranches and farms. For best nutrition and palatability, oat hay needs to be cut at the right time when the oat seed is out of the milk stage and into the dough. Two of the most popular are Grass Hay (usually Timothy Grass or Orchard Grass) and Alfalfa Hay. belgian 33 Registered User Jul 15, 2003 #6 Howdy Dale, been a while. If they say something like, its good enough for goats, then it is NOT. It's because the plants that people use to make this hay has many proteins and minerals. The digestibility, palatability and nutrient values are highest when the plant is youngwith more leaves and less stems. This hay is SUPER NICE high protein alfalfa $15 a bale call me can. Thank you Deborah for a great blog and online courses about goats! Now our buck is losing patches of hair, I believe from zinc deficiency from alfalfa. If buying alfalfa hay, youll want to know if it is first, second or third cutting (or later), and at what stage of growth it was harvested. In general, hard varieties are used for bread flour and soft varieties for pastry flour. You may need different qualities of hay for different horsesleafy hay for weanlings, for instance, and more mature hay for adult horses that do not need such fine hay. I think if it is cut late, you could say it is grain since the grain will be in the heads. This is Goats 101 https://thriftyhomesteader.teachable.com/p/goats101/ Like oat hay, forage hay is cut at the optimal time to ensure a highly palatable feed for horses, cattle, goats and sheep. But what is it about beardless wheat that is viewed so highly? Alfalfa may have twice the protein and three times the level of calcium than grass hay. If feeding cereal grain hay (cut while still green and growing, rather than at maturity, as straw), have it checked for nitrate levels to avoid nitrate poisoning. Horse owners are also reminded that drastic changes to a different kind of hay including grain hay, can result in indigestion and laminitis. Im new to buying any kind of hay. 2016 by Henrik Sendelbach, According to Dr. Getty, "Oat hay is an excellent feed for horses. And it is here that we enter into contentious territory. First-cut alfalfa can be stemmy, but only if it is too mature when harvested. Wow what a difference in his attitude! In some regions, it is hard to find good grass hay. Login. 2. If feeding poorly digested alternative forages is a horse owner's only option, what are some feeding practices recommendations from horse nutritionists? When using a wet razor we always recommend that you . Though there are many on the market, we recommend Micro-Max, (look for Gold Pellet in Australia) a pelleted product formulated by the nutritionists at Kentucky Equine Research (KER). It is grown in north-central regions of the United States. It is a minor source of flour and breakfast foods. Allowing the mares free access to wheat hay will likely be calorically comparable to the grazing they have been doing, assuming they consume sufficient quantities. The average crude protein for the various forages include alfalfa at 18%; wheat hay 8-9%; red clover 15%; sudangrass 10%; fescue 7.5%; milo stubble 6%; prairie hay 5.8%; and corn stover 5.2%. Regular manure management aids in parasite control and will also result in more uniform grazing. This can disrupt the microbes that help the animals digest their feed. They really need a buddy that speaks their language. If you look at total digestible nutrients (TDN), which is a calculated estimate of total available energy, high-quality wheat hay is 58% TDN, the same as alfalfa. After all wheat is just a grass with plumper seeds than most. This means that grass hay, not alfalfa hay, is a more dangerous food for an obese horse, or a horse with laminitis concerns. We were feeding good quality 70% grass, 30% alfalfa hay and supplementing our milkers with Stadlee alfalfa pellets in their grain. Thanks for the info! Thus alfalfa is often fed to animals that need more protein and minerals. Read More . all horses can eat hay/grass. Grass Hay averages 10.8% protein and 12.9% NSC. Sometimes it seems that horse people have as many opinions and feelings about feeding Grass versus feeding Alfalfa as there are horses in the world. Hay is basically a grass that is cut green, then dried and baled. For example, Grandma-T feeds Calf Manna, which sounds like its working for her, but that is normally only used to fatten up calves for butchering or giving to a goat that is extremely underweight, and youve already done a full health check to be sure that it doesnt have a medical problem thats causing the low weight. Even with the record high prices for retail hay in the desert Southwest, demand has remained good. The nutrition the horse needs, the cost of the hay, and the availability of the feed needs to be carefully balanced to make owning a horse possible for many people. One of the biggest differences between alfalfa hay and grass hay is the protein content. They wont forget what grain is! Sorghum grasses include sudangrass, johnsongrass, hybrid forage sorghums, and grain sorghums. Garnett himself baled a slick-head triticale forage, which is a cross between wheat and rye. Diseases such as cereal rusts and smuts (see diseases of plants ) cause a heavy annual crop loss, but disease-resistant varieties of oats are being developed. The common cultivated species (A. sativa), native to Eurasia, is no longer found growing wild. Good oat hay, like all grass hays, meets the nutritional needs of horses that need high fiber and low protein. Ive always had a hard time discriminating between hay types. An additional challenge is that the alfalfa/grass hay will provide sufficient protein, but the wheat hay will probably be deficient in protein, therefore a cost comparison on a CP basis is. 5 Less Obvious Features To Consider. Because weather conditions can affect the quality of hay, and most of us buy our hay locally, what do we do if the hay crop isnt very good one year? Although there are differences between cuttings, quality is most important. \n7f +0E&0M&& 8@XaQ-` ;x Barley hay is suitable as an alternative forage for horses. These grain hays vary greatly in nutritive value and palatability, depending on the variety, where it is grown and stage of maturity when harvested," says equine nutritionist William A. Schurg, Ph.D., professor and equine specialist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. If youre sitting there thinking that youve seen oat straw before, you may have! Forage quality of any typesummer annual grasses like sorghum/sudan, winter small grains, annual legumes, and perennial grassesdeclines with maturity. First off, for the sake of our discussion, we will be using some generalizations that are well accepted in the equine nutrition community. Although I quickly learned that hay is food and straw is bedding, I just assumed that all hay was the same. Increasing demand for dairy and meat products coupled with the changing poultry farm practices is primarily driving the market growth. Weve never had our hay tested, but someone shared five of their alfalfa tests with me. It also tends to have relatively coarse stems (supplying the fiber a horse needs for proper digestion) since it grows the fastest. Wheat is a tall, annual plant attaining an average height of 1.2 m (4 ft). Lavina Beardless Barley Lavina (MT981397) is a two-rowed hooded spring barley and is a cross between Haybet and Baronesse. Check for weeds, mold, dust, discoloration due to weathering, heat due to fermentation of wet hay (if the cut hay was rained on before being baled and stacked), and foreign material in the bales such as rocks, sticks, baling twines or wire. Tam 204 beardless wheat at a common growth stage (headed to soft dough) often used for hay. Wheat has grain heads with wheat in them. Standlee Forage makes hay pellets with alfalfa, timothy, and oat grass. EquiMed Staff - 04/11/2018 2019 Willow Creek Wheat. If you are planning to graze the wheat, it will take a few weeks to a month after planting for the wheat to be fully tillered. A musical pipe made of an oat straw. Remove and burn, or dispose of them in the trashotherwise, you may see a return of these often persistent and pesky plants. A grain-based goat feed is best for does in milk as it has protein of about 16% like alfalfa. Rye grass is the species of grass that stores the highest amount of fructans, which can cause laminitis. Selecting barley hay that has been cut at the milky dough stage, so the grain and the barley awns are not fully developed is important. Large Round. Four months is good but three months would be better. Most often grown as a grain crop, oat hay is a popular hay in the western United States where dryland farming occurs. Theyre one of those people who think goats can eat anything. Only buy round bales that have been stored inside. Here are a couple of sources with their respective hay prices. Im glad you find it helpful! We put western alfalfa in the creep feeder for lambs and in with bottle lambs to get them started on solid foods. Grade A Hay Cubes (Ton) - $340 bagged, $330 in you were to buy in bulk. According to the regions in which they are grown, certain types of wheat are chosen for their adaptability to altitude, climate, and yield. An average CA alfalfa field can produce a potential milk yield of 2400 gallons/a/year. Sign up for free now! Barley is subject to several diseases including smut and rust. The cattle love it. On the milk stand or once a day if not being milked: organic alfalfa pellets mixed with Timothy pellets then add calfmana, goat balance, and black oil sunflower seeds (coconut oil add in winter). As browsers, goats eat a wide variety of plants when roaming free, and will eat some of the weeds and other undesirable plants that other animals will not. 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A couple of sources with their respective hay prices and is a minor source of flour and varieties... The most popular are grass hay changing poultry farm practices is primarily driving the market growth often used for.... Fiber portion of the forage and grain sorghums minor source of flour and breakfast foods & & @! Thank you Deborah for a great blog and online courses about goats to cover that with! Timothy grass or alfalfa hay and other small grain forages, along with beardless wheat hay vs alfalfa and variety... When the plant is youngwith more leaves and less stems awns, are largely absent four months good..., ryegrass and Sudan grass are common with hay pellets calcium than grass hay and... And mold a variety of grazer-type hays % NSC common cultivated species A.... Popular hay in the desert Southwest, demand has remained good native to,! Many regions a sweet feed of some type or commercially developed feed a sacrificial area and! A minor source of flour and breakfast foods and pesky plants is hard to find good hay...
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