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Oat Hay?

8K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  MangoRoX87 
#1 ·
I am considering feeding my horse oat hay for the winter, as it is cheaper and I hear is a little fattier.

I have a Thoroughbred mare, with a hyper speed metabolism. Impossible to keep weight on and keep calm!
I understand Oat hay has a lot of sugar, but it will be winter and I won't be riding as much anyway. But there is a lot of nitrate? What is that and how is too much harmful?

What are your guys' opinions on it?
 
#2 ·
I'm feeding oat/alfalfa, about half and half. The alfalfa is very low in sugars so that way I offset the high sugars in the oathay. I'd love to feed just plain grasshay, but nowhere to be found here.
Oathay is actually a pretty good horse hay and mine like it. They leave the coarser stems usually, which I use for bedding.
Now, how good it is depends on when it was cut. Mine is closer to straw, the oats all fall out.
The nitrate problem I heard of but haven't found anything anywhere about it.
Maybe somebody here can help?
I'd suggest you start out slow with it, mixing a little with the old hay first then gradually go to the full ration. For keep weight on and to up the protein content, since oat hay is very low, you might mix it with alfalfa or give alfalfa pellets.
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#3 ·
You want your nitrite levels to be around or less than .1%. Typically it will fall well below that but if the crop has been stressed by drought or heavily fertilized, it could become an issue. Oat hay is higher in fat but it's insignificant. 3% vs 2%. What matters is it's lower in calories than most all grasses. If you buy it at the dough stage where it's immature with a green cast to it, it will be lowest in sugar but it's also lower in protein and calories. It is higher in fiber so it will keep her busy and warm in the winter. If she has weight issues, I'd keep her on a higher percentage alfalfa but give her about 1/3 in oat hay to give her chew time and to give your wallet a break.
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#4 ·
Last year my hay supplier gave me couple bales of oat/clover/english rye mix. My horses love it. And did incredibly well on it. They go out at night where they had a roll of tifton 85. And 2 flakes of the oat mix when they came in the barn in the morning. Even my hard keeping mare kept a good weight over the winter.
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#7 ·
Good oat hay (no weeds, "nice" smell and texture) is excellent feed imo. we use to grow it for a cover crop when we planted a new stand of grass hay. It is difficult to get here b/c it is ordinarily only grown as cover. When available, I feed it at lunch - alfalfa breakfast and dinner. They tend to eat it slower, but clean it up.
 
#12 ·
That is a good question. I am guessing that different areas sell different varieties of "oat hay" seed. Whenever it is grown as a cover crop for horse hay, the grower first and foremost wants it to "cover" seedlings, and if possible, cut it while it has a green/gold color and fine texture. Its nutritional value and texture depends on when it was cut. Whereas "straw" used for bedding is the "stalk" of crops that are grown for the oats...not for livestock "hay".
 
#9 ·
Where I live, Oaten Hay is the most used hay. It is also the most expensive.
It's good for old geezers, because something in it (don't know exactly) helps with joints.
The Grass Hay that is mentioned, is probably similar to our Meadow Hay? That has little to no nutrition. Just grass, no extra's.

My big boy goes straight to the oats that fall to the bottom of his tub and then starts eating the Hay :) He loves it greatly.
 
#10 ·
We bought oat hay this year since it was only $3.50 a bale (vs. $6-8 for grass or alfalfa). We did try 2 bales first since I've heard that some horses won't eat it all due to the harder stems and I wanted to see just how much wastage we were looking at.... nada. They ate it ALL. So we'll see how it goes. I will be using beet pulp this year as well though.
 
#11 ·
We used to feed my friend's feisty little TB good oaten hay (a biscuit a day, she also got grass hay, alfalfa chaff and wheaten chaff, plus other stuff). She was never hot on it despite being stabled 24/7 - there was no oaten hay one month and had to replace it with grass hay instead, didn't make any difference to her temperament. Oats, on the other hand...
 
#13 ·
Anybody know the nutritional differences? My oat hay is definitely cut late. All oats fall out, it is still light green-yellowish. I have seen VERY green oat hay with no kernels visible.
Some bales of mine are softer, finer stemmed, others more coarse. My horses prefer the coarse.
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#14 ·
Anybody know the nutritional differences? My oat hay is definitely cut late. All oats fall out, it is still light green-yellowish. I have seen VERY green oat hay with no kernels visible.
Some bales of mine are softer, finer stemmed, others more coarse. My horses prefer the coarse.
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I don't think one can tell w/o having it tested. It is often a "one shot" deal for cover, and the "time at which it was cut" values aren't as well documented or reliable as its alfalfa counterpart. We ordinarily cut it before the oat heads were dry b/c it usually had served its purpose at that point and I prefer it cut while it is still greenish. It always sold before it hit the ground. I fed it to my own horses w little to nothing else, until the subsequent grass hay was ready - they always did very well on it.
 
#15 ·
Thanks MissyMay.
I know the farmer planted it for hay, not as cover crop. He has no harvesting equipment, so somebody else baled it for him, who also happens to offer oat hay....so my guess is that mine was cut and baled last. It's somewhere between hay and straw. So I guess I check both for values and take the medium:)
 
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