Difference between hay and hay

We have got a question from a reader:

“What is the difference between hay and hay. Know that there is horse hay, but can’t quite find what I’m looking for on the internet. What is it in horse hay that they need? And shouldn’t you give horses and sheep the same hay for example?”

Answer: It is correct that hay and hay, we can also say forage and forage, is not the same thing. It is mainly due to that when grass and legumes grow the plant matures and becomes more and more lignified. This means that the nutritive value decreases, the content of available energy and protein decreases gradually as the plant develops. Since there are many different types of horses that does different amounts of exercise the energy requirements of horses can vary greatly. However, since forage and forage is not the same thing, e.g. the nutritive value decreases with the plant’s developmental stage, it is possible to harvest at different dates to produce different forages suitable for different types of horses. Read more about this here and here! More reading about harvest dates you find here and here!

The right forage can at large cover the horse’s nutritional requirements, read here about calculating feed rations and in “Archive feeding” there are several texts for those who wants to read more.

When formulating the horse’s feed ration the best thing to start with is to find the right forage for your horse. To be able to do this more easily forage should be classified after nutritive content into forage classes with names that hints which horses they are suitable for. This has been made and you can read about the forage classes here!

Why is it so important with forage for our horses? Read more about the large grass eating animal here!

Sara Muhonen, AgrD