High quality hay will be hard to find this winter

Summer of 2013 was not a good year for producing horse quality hay.  The severe wet weather pattern that Southeastern NC experienced this summer resulted in a widely spread poor crop of hay. Hay is an easy crop to grow, but tricky to harvest correctly. The problem with producing high quality hay is that the farmer is completely at the mercy of Mother Nature when it comes time to bale. Once grass has reached the appropriate stage of maturity, you have to have a minimum of three (and preferably four) rain-free days, with the sun shining, to give the grass time to uniformly dry (reduce moisture through time and bleaching in the sun), then raked, baled and removed from the field.  It’s hard to get this done when rain is constant.

Why don’t they just wait for better weather in a few weeks and bale it then?  They do, but there’s a catch. Grass will only stay at peak maturity for 2-3 weeks before the nutritional value, appearance and overall quality starts to decline rapidly. Once that happens, the farmer’s only choice is to cut the hay, sell it as lower quality (usually referred to as “cow” hay) and wait for the next crop of grass to regrow.  This takes 3-4 weeks to get the next round of “pretty” grass ready to harvest. With Bermuda hay season only lasting for roughly four months per year, and 2 ½ months were quite literally “a wash”, many farmers only put up one good cutting of hay this past year.

You may have to settle for some “older” hay this winter. Because such a small amount of hay was baled at the proper stage, many horse owners will be forced to buy more mature hay than they’re used to feeding.  Fortunately, there is an easy solution to help you tell what quality your hay is.

Have a hay sample sent off for proper nutritional analysis. This is the best way by far to get a proper idea of what energy and protein levels your hay has. Contact your local Extension office for help with this. The cost is $10 per sample and takes a lot of the guesswork out of what your hay is giving your horses every day.

Written by Randy Wood, Scotland County Extension Director and Livestock Agent