What is the nutritional difference in brome, clover, fescue and bermuda grasses when feeding it to horses?

Question

Never really have fed any hay over the winter, my horses have always had enough pasture to graze all winter long. I'm now being told to feed brome over the winter.

Answer 1

It really depends on where it's grown and how it's managed. I've always heard that grass hays are very similar (except not to feed fescue to pregnant mares/lactating mares/yearlings). I would get a hay analysis report to tell you exactly what your hay has in it and if you need to switch. You might be surprised by what your hay contains!

Answer 2

The quality of any of these completely depend on how and when they are harvested and stored. The more mature the plant is when cut, the less feed value. Rain and sun can leach out nutrients. And stack spoilage can ruin it all.



Warnings an each of them though.



Brome can be splintery and the seeds can cause sores if the grass is left too long standing in the field before cutting and gets mature.



Clover is a scary choice as it can cause hemorrhaging if fed very long. It contains a natural blood thinner and if a horse is kicked or injured it can bleed to death if it has been eating clover. Found this out the hard way. A small kick resulted in weeks and weeks of intense therapy and surgery trying to stop the bleeding and heal the resulting blood-separated tissues. I can send pictures if you'd like.



Don't feed fescue to mares within 30 days of foaling. There is an endophyte in most fescue grass that prevents lactation and results in the foal starving.



Bermuda is a colic risk. It is naturally stringy and hard to digest. It is a leading cause of impaction colic when undigested "strings" lodge sideways in the intestines and everything balls up.



So, if your horses are in good shape on pasture and they have access to a trace mineral block, I wouldn't spend my money on hay I didn't need. I might have enough on hand to feed for a couple weeks in case of a series of really bad storms, but that's all I'd do.

Answer 3

We used to pass mushroom identifying on in a cow pasture on Sunday mornings, does that count selection? And the cow pasture became into around the line from a church which made us seem much greater sinner-y.