How Well Do You Know Your Hay?
Youve just bucked a couple of months supply of hay into your barnor maybe an entire seasons worthand now its time to get acquainted with it. You made sure it was green and attractive freshsmelling and free of mold. Youve stored it under cover and away from the incursion of any damaging moisture. Now youre ready to find out what it offers your horse in the way of nutritional value.
Keep in mind that when you take fresh healthy pasture and you cut it dry it and store it to make hay it loses most of its vitamin content as well as its omega 3s and omega 6s fatty acids. It no longer has vitamins E C D or beta carotene which is used to make vitamin A. Therefore if the horse is getting predominantly hay and is not getting a commercial feed fed according to directions then you really need to supplement the diet with a good vitaminmineral supplement. But youll want to know whats in your hay before you start making up for whats not.
Crude protein CP an estimation of total protein based on the amount of nitrogen in the hay. It does not tell you anything about the amino acid composition or the protein quality. To create a high quality protein one that will help your horse maintain and repair tissue combine a grass hay with a lesser amount of a legume typically alfalfa. Most grass hay contains 8 to 10 CP whereas legumes e g. alfalfa clover perennial peanut can range from 1720. Grain hays oat rye generally have a lower CP than grass hay.
Acid detergent fiber ADF and Neutral Detergent fiber NDF both measure fibers there are 5 types. Since fibers are digested
