What hay should I choose?

Types of Hay

When shopping for hay, it can be difficult to know which type to choose. Is there an advantage over one compared to the other?

Well, the answer to this question comes down to the horse you have and their daily nutrient needs. For example, an overweight pony not in work still needs hay for gut health but won’t need a high-calorie type. Whereas a young working horse could benefit from something with far more calories to maintain a higher workload.

So, let’s look at the common hay types and the pros and cons.

Lucerne

Lucerne generally has a higher nutritional value than other hays and so is more often used for horses with higher nutritional demands.

Typically, the level of energy/calories in lucerne is higher than traditional hays making it a great gut-friendly option for weight gain. It also makes it ideal for those unable to have grains or large amounts of concentrate feeds. Lucerne typically has a higher protein value and has good levels of the amino acid lysine, which can be an advantage when looking at improving muscle tone or for lactating or younger horses that need higher levels of quality protein sources. Lucerne is also highly digestible with good levels of fibre.

One concern with lucerne is that it is high in calcium but tends to be low in phosphorus. This needs to be kept in mind to ensure the balance of these minerals which are vital to every horse.  However, this higher calcium provision does provide a gastric acid buffering effect and research has shown that it is highly useful for horses prone to gastric ulcers.

It is often thought that lucerne is high in sugars and starch and is not suitable for horses prone to issues such as laminitis, Cushings etc. However generally this is not the case, and lucerne is typically lower in NSC (non-structural carbohydrates -sugar and starch). However, these types of horses tend to be overweight and are often on calorie-restricted diets. Due to the high-calorie level of lucerne, this is the main reason for not using in these situations.

Lucerne often gets bad rep for making horses ‘’hot’’ due to its higher protein level. However, it’s not the protein level but the energy level that can create this effect. Keep in mind however that adding any high-energy feed source to a diet already covering 100% of your horse’s daily needs, will either mean the horse puts on weight or becomes hot. However, if you reduced the level of overall feed, and/or replaced some of the daily energy value with lucerne, the horse would not receive this excess energy and thus not show signs of any unwanted behaviours. The same would also apply to protein within the diet. If you are already covering the horse’s protein needs adding lucerne could over-provide and cause issues for your horse, so ensuring balance is key.

Generally, no horse should receive more than 50% of its daily roughage from lucerne due to the higher levels of protein and calcium and should be mixed with other forage sources.

Oat Hay

Good quality oat hay certainly has its place and is often known for assisting with weight gain. This is often the case due to the starch levels within oat hay. Starch is easily utilized by the body and can be used for energy or stored as fat.

However, these high starch levels mean that good quality oat hay tends to be extremely high in NSC. This makes it unsuitable for horses with metabolic conditions or sensitives. More mature cut oat hays have the advantage of being lower in NSC however they do become less palatable and less digestible by the horse, which can pose other concerns. If you are thinking of introducing oat hay into your horse’s diet, do it gradually over at least 7-10 days to reduce the risk of digestive upset.

There have also been studies to show that horses fed exclusively oat hay can develop an increased risk for dental cavities.

Oat hay quality, like all hays, is dependent on the stage of cute. Good quality oat hay which has been cut at an immature age, is generally more palatable to horses than at other stages. A good quality cut contains an adequate level of nutrients for those in maintenance to light work, but in general oat hay tends to be lower in protein and energy than grass hays.

Teff and Eragrostis 

Teff and eragrostis are perhaps two of the more widely used hay varieties in South Africa. They are often very palatable and provide a good amount of fibre without providing too high an energy value. This makes them suitable for most horses.

The major disadvantage of these hay’s is that the nutritional value can range hugely from good to extremely poor quality. The quality will ultimately depend upon the stage of growth when cut, fertilization, and environmental factors. Always select these types of hay carefully, looking for the optimum harvesting stage, colour, and leaf-to-stem ratio.

Studies have shown teff hay can have a low NSC (non-structural carbohydrates) averaging around 10% or less. This makes it a suitable grass for those with issues such as laminitis, Cushing’s, and insulin resistance. However, these values should never be taken as absolute for these horses as the NSC level can vary. If you can’t have your hay tested then ensure it is soaked, and fully submerged in water for 60 minutes to help reduce the NSC content, without reducing other nutrients or contaminating from leached elements such as mold or dust particles.

With teff hay generally, there is better intake and higher digestibility than other grasses, but ultimately with any hay, it will all come down to the cut and quality.

Rhodes

Rhodes grass is often not as widely used in South Africa as a roughage source for horses. However, with good management, rhodes grass provides a good level of nutrients for any horse.

When cut at an early stage, it has a high digestibility making it more useable, as well as having medium levels of energy. Rhodes hay can range in protein value from 7-13%. It has the advantage of being highly palatable roughage and horses really do seem to love it. Rhodes grass could most certainly be used as an alternative roughage for teff and Eragrostis.

Table 1: Breakdown of typical nutrient values for each hay type.