# Thistley, prickley stems in hay



## lyndz (Oct 21, 2009)

Let me say I am new to buying my own hay. I've always boarded my horses but now I've got them at home for the first time. I got 30 bales of 2nd cutting grass/alfalfa hay last week from a local hay supplier and I thought it was really great, horses love it, gobble it up. I've been mixing it in with some 1st cutting timothy that I got from the former owners of my property that doesn't look so good. Mixing in the alfalfa mix makes them more interested in the timothy. Anyway, the past few days I've been wearing gloves when I break apart the flakes but today when my hands were bare and I was breaking it up I was startled and concerned that I was getting poked by tiny little prickley hairs on the stems in the hay. They weren't large thorns or anything but they definately hurt my fingers and I started to think that it it hurt me it might be uncomfortable for my horses to eat this, although I haven't seen them hesitating to eat it...they get in the hay cart before I can get it out there.

Is this common for hay? Could the thistley stems be from weeds? Should I be concerned to be feeding this to my horse? The hay supplier is a respected horseman and runs a farm and boarding operation of his own so I wouldn't think that his hay would be "bad". Am I making too much of this?

Please help me figure this out.

Thanks,

Lyndz


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## sedurbin (May 30, 2009)

Probably nothing to worry about as horses are very sensitive around the mouth and will rarely eat something that hurts their mouth. (I did say Rarely) I have one that will pick Oats out of a mixed ration. I figure that if they can do that, then they probably have enough feel to pick around a few stickers. The weeds just give the horses something to talk about while they are standing around the feeder. ;-)
When my hay Customers say something about weeds, I ask them if they rather I spray chemicals or have a few weeds. Most of the time they would rather have the weeds than the spray.


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## nwfarmer (Jun 16, 2009)

When thistle gets mowed the leaves break off when dried. May not even know it is thistle after it is in the bale. I carry a couple of plastic bags in my swather and in my tractor. If I see it when I am mowing or baling I stop and pick it out. If it is a large bad patch I flag it with the small flags on the wires. That hay is given away not sold.

Alll that said, I have gotten bad slivers from hay when I move bales around. Sometimes I wonder how the horses eat it.


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