Copyright 2023 Kentucky Equine Research. If they are under two months old, they probably need more milk. Mature goats do very well on a grass-legume mix and some grass hays, but generally do not eat coarse grass hay; having small mouths, goats do not like it. Matt Gard, a Fairview, OK, farmer/custom hayman, doesn't run cattle. Alfalfa Hay (also known as Legume Hay) averages 21.2% protein and 11% NSC (simple starches). The digestibility, palatability and nutrient values are highest when the plant is youngwith more leaves and less stems. Alfalfa Hay This hay has many things compared to Timothy hay. The chief value of oats remains as a pasturage and hay crop, especially for horses. According to horse nutritionist Dr. Juliet Getty, "Grain hays tend to be higher in nitrates. Pearl barley is often used in soups. Legume hays (alfalfa and clover) contain 12% to 20% protein. There is always some risk of nitrate poisoning, however, if cereal grain hays are harvested after a spurt of growth following a drought period. When feeding barley hay, be aware that awns from the heads may catch in a horse's teeth or cause ulcers in the horse's mouth. ", "Oat hay is best cut when the oat seed is out of the milk stage and into the dough. When fed on dry, well-sodded, snow covered or frozen ground, however, sheep will clean up fine hay better than cattle because of their smaller mouths and ability to pick up the leaves. The smell of hay will give a clue to quality. We're not around right now. No sweet feed or grain ever. post . Even with the record high prices for retail hay in the desert Southwest, demand has remained good. The color of the grain varies from one type to another; white wheats are mostly winter wheats, red are spring wheats. I tried to enter the giveaway but I dont have Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest so I guess I cannot. Closely related to the common wheats are the club wheats, which have especially compact spikes, and spelta (not grown in the United States), in which the glumes (reduced, scalelike leaves) tightly enclose the grains. Getting Value When You Purchase Horse Feed and Supplements, Dr. Getty's December Tip: Why Don't Horses Have Gallbladders , Sources of Magnesium for Horses Including Whole Foods, Pros and Cons of Feeding Grain Hays to Your Horse. Either pick it up or drag the pasture to spread the manure so it will decompose more quickly. Have a truck of BEAUTIFUL GREEN LEAFY alfalfa. Ive always had a hard time discriminating between hay types. An average CA alfalfa field can produce a potential milk yield of 2400 gallons/a/year. The choice between alfalfa and oat hay depends on price per unit of energy or protein and the type of horse being fed. This means that grass hay, not alfalfa hay, is a more dangerous food for an obese horse, or a horse with laminitis concerns. Large Round. This ensures a high quality product still showing some color with good carbohydrate content and sweetness in the stem. When oat seeds are planted, they first grow as a grass. The leaves of grass hay have more nutrients and are more digestible when the plant is immature and growing, and more fiber when the plant has reached full growth. Crude Fiber (max). 2022 5X6 BIG ROUND BALES OF HAY -High percentage of alfalfa with lower percentage of Timothy. Cutting at the proper time means animals will eat the entire hay stem with little waste. "The beards (awns) on bearded wheat can cause. Prosper 3 Grain Forage Mixture is a "3-way" spring forage mixture of: spring Beardless Barley. If you give me more details on age and what theyre eating, I can help you trouble shoot. Thus legume hay, cut early, is more apt to meet the protein and mineral needs of young growing, pregnant or lactating animals than will many of the grass hays. Its not a good idea to simply follow someone elses feeding plan like you would a cake recipe. Login. The common cultivated species (A. sativa), native to Eurasia, is no longer found growing wild. Thank you for this article! It is an excellent source of good quality protein, fiber, and mineral and is more palatable than grass hays. 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). ft. expanded 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. The USSR continued as the worlds leading producer, with a near-record 235 million metric tons, but as the central government broke up in 1991, production fell. This is counter intuitive for most horse people, but is certainly something to keep in mind in regards to your horse. Barley hay is suitable as an alternative forage for horses. Alfalfa hay. In many geographic regions that get only two or three cuttings of alfalfa per season, first-cutting alfalfa might be the preferred hay for horses. Alfalfa is also a good winter feed because heat is created by digestion of protein, so a horse can keep warmer on a cold night. Wheat hay, if harvested right, can fit the bill, just like it does for stockers and other cattle in winter grazing programs. Ca:P Ratio - 1.3:1. 3). If this is the main source of forage in the diet, the horse will consume too much starch, leading to such problems as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and even laminitis.". . Particularly fine-stemmed, leafy alfalfa (rabbit hay or dairy hay) is too rich and palatable for horses (they generally overeat on it) and does not have enough fiber content for proper digestion. I start feeding alfalfa hay when they are about 4 months into their pregnancy . 2016 by Henrik Sendelbach, According to Dr. Getty, "Oat hay is an excellent feed for horses. 2012 - 2023 Alfalfa King. All rights reserved. All millets can accumulate nitrates, which can reach toxic proportions. And in fact, it is usually a lower carbohydrate feed than most grass hays, making alfalfa ideal for feeding to horses with special needs like insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, laminitis, or even PSSM. 32.0% After all wheat is just a grass with plumper seeds than most. Wheat grass is a kind of grass (actually there are several of them) and they are a kind of grass that has tiny grass seeds rather than . A lot will depend on how hungry the cattle are. Robotika/Flickr. Our Beardless Wheat Hay is a magnificent feed for your animals. A grain-based goat feed is best for does in milk as it has protein of about 16% like alfalfa. I think if it is cut late, you could say it is grain since the grain will be in the heads. 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 when using it as feed for horses. It was a hard sell at first, but now they love it. 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. With mid-summer dry weather, there's always the possibility of parched pastures. It should smell good, not musty, sour Burning Question: Is It Time For A High Efficiency Woodstove? If ingested, wire can cause hardware disease in cattle by perforating the gut and causing fatal peritonitis because they do not sort out foreign materials before eating. Experimental programs have produced commercial wheat varieties for hardiness and disease resistance. Sudangrass is 56%, fescue 53%, prairie 51%, baled milo stubble 49%, and baled corn stover 49%. Oats. For best quality, make sure it was hayed no later than the flag leaf.. Beef Magazine is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC. Leaf-to-stem ratio is the most important criterion in judging nutrient quality in an alfalfa plant. A few months ago I wrote about the differences between baled hay, hay cubes, and hay pellets. Wheat species crossbreed relatively frequently in nature. Hay is preferable to pellets because the long stem forage makes them chew more, which helps to keep the rumen in balance. It does not do well in hot climates, however. In addition, most cereal grain hays are at a maturity that translates to fiber levels that are often less palatable. Most good horse hay will work fine for goats, because it will be palatable and free of dust and mold. Wheat is a tall, annual plant attaining an average height of 1.2 m (4 ft). Horses evolved as a grazing animal, which means that they are meant to nibble on small amounts of food over the course of an entire day, and most of this food should be in the form of roughage, or hay. This is much higher than the protein levels of grass hay, which typically contains 10% or less protein. bend > for sale > farm & garden - by owner. There are a number of considerations participants in the forage production, marketing, and utilization that individuals can do to enhance the benefit as a grower or user. Hot Blood, Warm Blood, Cold Blood in Horses, Possible Link Between Selenium and Cribbing in Horses, Ertugliflozin for Managing Metabolic Horses, Link Between Liver Virus and Poor Performance in Horses Questioned, Pastern Abnormalities and Future Soundness in High-Performance Horses, Tracking Sperm Motility in Stallions by Measuring a Specific Protein. supplement and oat based sweet feed. hRj@yl`'qZ]`@#mY], M9s9sd< thanks! A hay shed is ideal because you can build up the floor with gravel for good drainage so the entire haystack is kept dry. Cattle do well on it and horses colic or founder and can die on it. It feeds really good, he says, noting that yield for wheat hay's single cutting can be up to five round bales, or four tons/acre. Bucks do not need any grain at all, and you dont need to give it to them every day to keep them running towards you when they know you have grain. I would love to try one of their products. Oat straw is generally considered best since it is softer and does not have the awns that are on barley and some wheat straw. Copyright 2023 The Thrifty Homesteader |. Score: 4.1/5 (26 votes) . Four months is good but three months would be better. Like wheat, it is broadly classified into spring and winter types, depending upon the season of planting. Normal horses can tolerate NSC levels of 20% or higher. This means that if you fed strictly what your horse needed for nutrients, your horse could still not feel full, since the amount of alfalfa that would reach these nutrient needs is not going to be the amount to properly fill the horse up or make them feel full. In the United States wheat is usually planted by sowing machines of the drill or broadcast type. It has a wide range of cultivation and matures even at high altitudes, since its growing period is short; however, it cannot withstand hot and humid climates. Months would be better the beards ( awns ) on bearded wheat can.! Southwest, demand has remained good more quickly to simply follow someone elses feeding plan like you would cake! Idea to simply follow someone elses feeding plan like you would a cake recipe some straw... Leaves and less stems but is certainly something to keep the rumen in balance quality protein, fiber and! Considered best since it is an excellent feed for horses, according to Getty. 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