Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Timothy vs Orchard in NE:

 

Usually the weather is not right for making decent Orchard grass hay in the NE, as it matures a couple of weeks earlier than Timothy.  Mixed hays have hypermature, i.e. less palatable & less nutritious, Orchard component.

 

Quentin

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 8:50 PM
To: 'Karla Watson'; 'RIDECAMP'
Subject: RE: [RC] Timothy

 

>Does anyone know about feeding Timothy hay? I feed free choice Eastern OR grass hay but >added a little nice looking Timothy (as a treat) and my boys gobbled it up and are insisting >on more.

>------Karla Watson/Portland, Oregon

 

We?re starting to get a lot more of the PNW grown grass hays down here in So Cal and I love the stuff.  It?s still pretty pricey--- $15 for a 120-lb bale of orchardgrass and $18-20 for timothy---but I?d rather see horses get either of those over most of the grain hays we get down here.  The digestibility is higher, they don?t waste nearly as much and the overall nutritive profile is better IMO.

 

As far as timothy versus orchardgrass, if the quality is comparable, than they?re pretty similar nutrition wise.  Orchardgrass sometimes has a very slightly inverted calcium-phosphorus ratio, so I feed it with a few pounds of alfalfa, along with a good vitamin-mineral supplement.  Anyway, as a forage source, I like orchardgrass and timothy about the same.  My guys prefer orchardgrass, and since it?s slightly more cost effective, that?s what they get.  Digestibility of either hay is superior to bermuda, and although I fed bermuda for years, I still prefer the temperate grass hays (orchard and timothy) over the tropical grasses (Bermuda) any day.

 

Coming from the PNW, they also get supplemented with selenium yeast, but even if I were feeding only locally grown hays, I?d still supplement with some selenium.

 

JMO.

 

Susan Garlinghouse, DVM