Question regarding Hay?

[breezy]

Can anyone explain to me the differences between kinds of Hay. I was just reading the bunny thread and was wondering what the differences are between timothy,alfalfa,grass,oat? I never realized how many different kinds of hay there are. How are they different and whats the best use for each? Sorry if this is a dumb question. I never stopped to think about it till today.

 

[Teach97]

You have different types of hay because you have different types of grass (or whatever you are cutting)

the different types will have different types of nutrients

legume hay (alfalfa, peanut, soybean...etc.) tend to have higher amounts of protein in them as they are not grasses

the others kinda depend on location and how the person raises and what they are doing for fertilizers...

no matter what type of hay you look at you want lots of leaf and not much stem..more stem and you have straw not hay...but that is someting else...

does that help?

 

[arabianequine]

My vet said that first cutting is better for your animal it is stemier and the animal does not like it as much but it is better for the animal.They will it if it is all they have and they are hungry.

Animals get spoiled and will only eat the leafy stuff and pick out the best stuff and fight for the best if pastured with other animals.

Works with kids too.

As far as they will eat what you provide.

 

[breezy]

Yes it does. Thank you. I just never really thought about it before reading that thread and while I have fed hay to animals they were always owned by someone else so I never thought to learn about it. I feed alfalfa to my chickens occasionally. Is there a better choice for chickens than alfalfa or does it really matter since its more of a treat and something to do for them than an actual steady food source?

 

[sklr112]

this sure helped me, thanks!

 

[savingdogs]

I was told that timothy and grass hay were better choices for bunnies than alfalfa. That alfalfa is already in their pellets, and timothy or grass hay would help wear down their teeth better.

 

[Teach97]

I do not feed hay to chickens so i don't really have any opinion on that....which is probably a first...

That is usually the thoughts with regards to rabbits although in all reality the pellets should wear them down enough...I still give mine wood and such to chew on...mainly cuz they like it but also cuz it wears teeth down.

later cutting of hay tend to have less nutrients and most horse folks will have bought up most of the early cuttings and the later ones can sometimes be bought cheaper but don't bet on that in rough years...which will also make for less quality hay...another important thing is to smell it...you shouldn't smell any mold...should smell fairly fresh cut inside. Also watch out for sloppy bales. I picked-up some one time and the bales were all sizes and badly wrapped...I figure a guy that doesn't take care of his equipment probably isn't so great about his grass either...we never bought from there again...besides it didn't stack worth a hoot!

 

[breezy]

I drop flakes of alfalfa into the run for the girls to scratch and dig apart and they love eating the greens off it. I only do this in the winter time when they are confined in the run for long periods due to bad weather. Is this a bad idea? It was something my grandma did and so I do it too.

 

[arabianequine]

Quote:
They are probably actually looking for bugs and eating them out of the alfalfa. Turkeys love alfalfa and eat it for sure. My chickens don't seem to really eat alfalfa.

 

[Teach97]

not a bad idea...just not something i do...I put rabbit pellets in their feed plus they pick through stuff from the rabbits drop. lots of the older folks did it because it kept a nice dark color to the yolks...comes from the...darn...I even teach this...well...It will come to me tomorrow! this is why i took a sick day!

I know what you mean about falling the advice of grandmas and others like that...they might not have known the whys but they knew it worked. i was told by my pigeon buddies not to feed cracked corn to my pigeons because of crop issues...thus...there is no cracked corn on my place!