Hay and Haylage analysis

[harveydales]

I decided to send in a sample of our hay and also the haylage I sometimes use for analysis - I'd seen Dengie were offering to do ot for £3 per sample via Horse magazine. With Quest being prone to lami, Harvey being on the fat side and old Winnie on the skinny side I thought it might be useful to have a better idea of exactly what I'm feeding them.

The results came back in just over a week and came with a full report which was interesting and suprising. The hay is our own, from a old meadow which, from old parish records, we know has been grazed for the last 300 years. It contains all sorts of grasses and flowers but not much ryegrass so I would have thought it would be ideal for our Natives and of low feed value. We don't fertilize it but some years muckspread. The horses graze it through the winter.

The hay came out at quite high feed value (higher energy value than the average range for hay) and higher sugars than average! Higher than the Haylage sample which really suprised me. Also much higher digestible fibre than the average range.

The protein was on the lower end of the average range which I guess you would expect as we don't fertilise

Clearly my hay is far more nutritious than I realised so deffinately worth testing your hay. No wonder my lot get fat on our hay and I'm probably safer feeding Quest the haylage thatn the hay from the lami point of view! I think our hay is too good for Harvey!

A good service from Dengie though.

[SuzieP]

That's so interesting, Pam and what a useful service. At least you can make informed decisions about the grazing and hay feeding now.

Interesting about your land as well. Do you have other historical information about your house and its surroundings?

[harveydales]

Sue - yes, we've got information from old wills dating from when the house was built in 1820 plus parrish record info predating that, when the land was just used for grazing. Some really funny stories about how the original owner raised the money to build our house and passed the debt on down the generations! He sounds to have been quite a character.

[SuzieP]

I find this sort of thing fascinating, Pam. Do you remember a programme called House Detectives? It was about researching the history of ordinary people's homes - old ones of course - and I really enjoyed it.

[AliandDolly]

oh thats interesting i would have thoght the oposite about the hay :S

alixx

[harveydales]

I know Ali, I was really suprised.

Sue - yes, we watched those programmes also and found them fascinating. We also enjoy those old cine-films shown recently of ordinary people's lives earlier last centuary - can't remember what it was called though.

[knight]

That's really facinating Pam, to find out so much about your land & house. Isn't it amazing how much information has been kept? Such an interesting glimse into the lives of ordinary people of another time. We found out alot about our old house this way too, like the previous owner's will having a complete inventory of what was in the house when she died.

So interesting, & a bit scary about your hay. I know what you mean, I think my hay may have more nutrition that I think. But what a bargain to get it tested for that price.

[DalesLady]

I think this is a good thing to do, getting feed analysed for its nutritional content.

[loopylou]

Wow, that is amazing really if you think about it.