Evaluating hay quality

[M5farms]

Looks can be deceiving , ALot of hay jockies will let hay mature to increase yield and the simple truth is it will look perfect but have very little nutritional value . A hay sample sent to the lab will tell you the honest truth about what you are buying. If the seller balks at you running the test then move on.

 

[TheMan419]

Yeah I am thinking a sample sent off is in my future. Just want to be sure of what I am paying for.

Out here first cutting is usually around Memorial Day and second cutting 4th of July. This year we have had so much rain a lot of folks are just doing their first cutting now. So who knows what that will mean for second cutting.

I think I have my bales locked in for the year now though so that is a relief.

 

[Bigfoot62]

. . . We sell a lot of horse hay. . . But its really the horse owner that is picky about hay, not the horse. . . An old timer down the road buys my dad's 3 year old cow hay all the time and feeds it to his 10 - 15 horses. I don't think they have ever ate "horse hay"

I was thinking exactly what he said.
Other than sending a sample to the State Univ. for analysis, you can:
A. ask the producer if he had the soil tested, and then applied fertilizer and minerals as needed. (down here, it's lime also)
and B. ask the producer to give you the names of other people that are using his hay. Talk to the people that feed it.