# What should we look for when buying Hay?



## haydays (Mar 26, 2009)

Buying Hay can be an art in itself. What do you look for when buying your Hay?
Here are some things to look for.

1.Hay should be nice and fresh

2. It should be a lively bright green in color.

3. There should be no sign of mold or dust.

4. The head of the seeds should be closed to indicate the bales were dried at the right temperature.

Any more suggestions to add to this list.


----------



## CherryBlosson (Mar 27, 2009)

This is an interesting post and great for beginners too.

I would also like to ad that using a gauge to detect and measure the moisture of the hay is often done by farmers looking for Hay.


----------



## haydays (Mar 26, 2009)

I also think that loosely packed hay collects less dust than the tightly packed variety so is a better quality hay for the horses but I may be wrong.


----------



## CantonHayGuy (Sep 25, 2008)

My wife has always been very particular in the proper feeding of our llamas and horses and prior to acquiring acreage to do our own hay she used these standards too. However, here's my 2 cents from a guy who will only be a 4th yr grower this season:

Definitely, mold is a no-no; anyone selling hay should take steps to prevent it. The farmers around here that are raising beef don't seem to care what condition the hay is, but I know breeders do. My barn floor is all gravel and from day one, I've kept the bales up on pallets because I knew that the bottom layer of bales would draw up moisture and the mold would grow. The second year I doubled the height of the pallets to allow for more air flow and I also laid down roofing paper between the pallets and gravel because after that first year I learned that, while the bottom bales hadn't molded, they still were picking up moisture by the time we got down to those bales.

I once read that dusty hay is an indicator of moldy hay. Not true. Even before we were growing our own hay, the wife would wet down the hay before feeding the horses because of the dust hazards. Where we are, SD winds blow almost constantly; there's cropland all around us and we live on a gravel road so there's bound to be some dust on the hay. If the hay grower uses a bale accumulator that drags the bales along the ground, it's bound to pick up dust.

Nice, fresh, bright green hay is good, but horses are color blind so they don't really care what color the hay is..... we people do. Some of the vitamins may deminish in older hay or hay that is sun-bleached, but the main nutrients are still there. I just had samples done on my two cuttings from last year, CP% (to my experience, what horse owners look at) is right up there (and better, from what the Co-Op guy said) where they should be.

This leads me to item 4: The stage at which the seed heads are at aren't so much of an indicator of the temperature at which the hay was dried as much as it is an indicator of the maturity of the hay when it was cut. The more mature (usually more stemmy), the less nutrients. Here's an example: Of my two cuttings last yr, the 1st cutting has that bright green fresh look compared to the second cutting, yet it grew longer and is more stemmy; the grass picked up some rust before the 2nd cutting. To look at both stacks from a distance you'd probably say the second cutting is an older hay because of the brown in it. Analysis on both cuttings shows the 1st cutting to have a slightly higher CP, yet lower RFV than the 2nd cut. Our horses will eat up both cuttings with no waste; the llamas and goats will waste the stemmy stuff unless they're forced to eat it..... which they aren't. lol

None of this is meant to be argumentative; just as some info to take into consideration when choosing hay. What hay I have sold, I have sold to horse people only and they have only talked about the "look" of the hay.


----------



## Tamara in TN (Jul 29, 2008)

haydays said:


> Buying Hay can be an art in itself. What do you look for when buying your Hay?
> 
> 2. It should be a lively bright green in color.


so how would you suggest to look at a ryegrass or brome???

Tamara


----------



## CantonHayGuy (Sep 25, 2008)

Tamara in TN said:


> so how would you suggest to look at a ryegrass or brome???
> 
> Tamara


If it were me, and I didn't have any of the analysis results to go off of, I'd look to see if the hay I was buying was mostly leafy..... as this is where most of the nutrients are.


----------



## Tamara in TN (Jul 29, 2008)

> =CantonHayGuy;2791]If it were me, and I didn't have any of the analysis results to go off of, I'd look to see if the hay I was buying was mostly leafy..... as this is where most of the nutrients are.


but one would, according to the OP, discount out of hand ryegrass and brome as it always dries out to a yellow tint....no one would bother with a test on it

no ??









Tamara


----------



## CantonHayGuy (Sep 25, 2008)

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking, but like it's been stated by others here on this forum, most folks buying hay for their barnyard animals aren't asking to see results from an analysis so they can see the true nutritional value of the hay they are going to feed to their animals; they go mostly on looks. And that's probably because they are supplementing with pellets or grain of some sort.

I don't know if the type of brome grass or rye grass in your area is prone to dry yellow, but that's not the case in our parts...... not to my limited experience so far. My hay doesn't have brome, but it is 20% forage rye grass; it doesn't dry to a yellow tint. A friend of mine grows a horse pasture mixture that contains brome and I used to buy from him; I don't recall that having a yellowish tint either. Now, I will say this.... as a bale of hay sits in storage, the outside of the bale can turn yellowish because of leaching.

Not knowing all the factors involved in your situation....If the brome and rye grass is yellowish throughout the bale, then I would wonder if the hay stayed out a day or two longer than it should have before being baled.

I guess my point was, no matter what type of hay you are buying..... rye grass, brome, CRP or alfalfa; stems equal less nutrition - leaves equal more nutrients. More leafy hay means less waste too. My goats and llamas will bypass the stemmy part of hay; the horses will eat everything..... but, not all horses will.

Please understand, I don't consider myself an expert as I've only been growing hay for 3 or 4 yrs now. I like to think that I'm trying to produce a good hay and that's why I've been diving into the whole hay analysis thing lately. If I was just buying hay (and knowing what I know now) and didn't have access to the seller's hay analysis report, I'd be looking at the leafyness (how much nutrition) of the hay combined with color (how long it may have stayed outside before baling).


----------



## kenny chaos (Jan 5, 2009)

I grow straight timothy exclusively. It is the world's best horse hay and is best NOT when still in the boot (too rich) but with a long seed head established but not yet pollinating.
I used the ultimate "performance" horses for many years to do my farming. My draft horses thrived on the timothy they got as have trillions of horses for more than a hundred years. All horses require more fibre than anything and that's where mature timothy excels.
Rich and leafy grasses and alfalfa cause most nutritional problems with horses.
A horse that barrel races once a week is NOT a performance horse.


----------



## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

Buying Hay can be an art in itself. What do you look for when buying your Hay?
Here are some things to look for.

1.Hay should be nice and fresh

2. It should be a lively bright green in color.

3. There should be no sign of mold or dust.

4. The head of the seeds should be closed to indicate the bales were dried at the right temperature.

Any more suggestions to add to this list. 
One out of 4 is not a bad average? 
Just about none of the above.
1. Hay out of a dark and dry barn 16 years old still tested high in nutrients and animal acceptance. Though it was dark in color.

2. A bright green color is important only the human paying for the hay. The animals are color blind, they judge by feel, smell and taste. 
In most climates hay will cure faster and have more nutrients if spread out to cover the entire field. Hay should not be allowed to stay in a tight windrow or even a wide swath the first day of curing. You want the hay to cure down to where there is little or no respiration over the first night. This respiration burns up a lot of the carbohydrates. 
True this also bleaches the hay, so a sign of well cured hay is a nice even bleaching!

3. I agree there should not be any mold or dust. Dust can be from many sources and may not be avoidable, but mold is avoidable. In previous threads I have explained how and when to bale the hay, no need repeating my self

4. If you see seed heads the hay is too mature and will be of lower quality.

Personally I store all my hay on a 4" rock base which avoids bottom bale mold and rotting.

What you want is a good tight bale that is full of leaves. Has no stickers, or manure.

A good observation here:
I once read that dusty hay is an indicator of moldy hay. Not true. Even before we were growing our own hay, the wife would wet down the hay before feeding the horses because of the dust hazards. Where we are, SD winds blow almost constantly; there's cropland all around us and we live on a gravel road so there's bound to be some dust on the hay. If the hay grower uses a bale accumulator that drags the bales along the ground, it's bound to pick up dust.Nice, fresh, bright green hay is good, but horses are color blind so they don't really care what color the hay is..... we people do. Some of the vitamins may deminish in older hay or hay that is sun-bleached, but the main nutrients are still there. I just had samples done on my two cuttings from last year, CP% (to my experience, what horse owners look at) is right up there (and better, from what the Co-Op guy said) where they should be.This leads me to item 4: The stage at which the seed heads are at aren't so much of an indicator of the temperature at which the hay was dried as much as it is an indicator of the maturity of the hay when it was cut. The more mature (usually more stemmy), the less nutrients. Here's an example: Of my two cuttings last yr, the 1st cutting has that bright green fresh look compared to the second cutting, yet it grew longer and is more stemmy; the grass picked up some rust before the 2nd cutting. To look at both stacks from a distance you'd probably say the second cutting is an older hay because of the brown in it. Analysis on both cuttings shows the 1st cutting to have a slightly higher CP, yet lower RFV than the 2nd cut. Our horses will eat up both cuttings with no waste; the llamas and goats will waste the stemmy stuff unless they're forced to eat it..... which they aren't. lol
Continued
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tamara in TN 
so how would you suggest to look at a ryegrass or brome???

Tamara

If it were me, and I didn't have any of the analysis results to go off of, I'd look to see if the hay I was buying was mostly leafy..... as this is where most of the nutrients are. __________________
Doing a little hobby farming with 20 acres of SD soil. Tools of choice: '63 706 gasser and '08 Farmall 31. Life is good because God is great!

but one would, according to the OP, discount out of hand ryegrass and brome as it always dries out to a yellow tint....no one would bother with a test on it

no ??

Tamara The answer to this is a definite *NO*.

03-31-2009, 09:27 PM 
CantonHayGuy

Says it very well.

As for stage of maturity for the harvesting of hay, grass hay can and should be managed to produce a 12% CP feed. 
Grass that has gone to seed may be in the 7% CP range and then the customer must purchase another more costly feed to take up the slack.

The energy needed for a horse is dependent on the amount of work that horse is doing.


----------



## suhrj (Oct 23, 2008)

In my humble opinion, I don't care what color the hay is. The RFV is the only
accurate and consistent indicator of hay quality. Some of the best hay I ever fed was baled with just enough moisture content that it actually ensiled a
little and was more of a brown color. If your bales are tight and the moisture content is good, this is possible
and much better hay


----------

