# Western Wheat Grass



## BrianS (Aug 19, 2009)

How would western wheat grass compare to timothy and to coastal as far as being a high quality horse hay? I would imagine it would be better than coastal but not quite as good as timothy. Where would brome fit in on that lineup?

Thanks;

Brian


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

Brian, I surely don't know. Maybe you could get Hay Wilson's attention on here. He seems to be very knowledgeable on that kind of thing and he is in TX so he might know. I would try him first, maybe send him a private message.


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

forage test - forage test - forage test 
some wheat grass is as good as anything, with some of it, you might as well buy baled cardboard from wallmart and feed that.
It is kind of like saying angus beef is better - well are you comparing 18mo old fat steers or 15yr old worn out cows. makes a little bit of difference.
Pull a forage test and you know what the quality is.


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## UpNorth (Jun 15, 2009)

Production Acres has the right line of thought here. More specifically the harvest (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) and the maturity stage (vegetative, boot, heading, etc) will be a bigger factor in some cases than the species involved. In the upper Midwest we see the biggest variation in quality changes in the spring for grasses (we mostly grow cool season grasses so that's expected). The quality of cool season grasses declines rapidly in the spring up here because the grasses will quickly switch from lush, leafy vegetative growth to stemy, cardboard like reproductive growth. But for our 2nd and 3rd+ cuttings the grasses just put up leaves and the quality doesn't change much except in the case of some annual ryegrases and maybe reed canarygrass.

Definetly want to test the grass, but like I said the harvest timing and stage of the grass is critical depending on the harvest number and if the grass is a cool or warm season type. I would think that warm season grasses would lose quality more quickly in the summer farther south, but I haven't work with them much and would need to do some research to know for sure.


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