Is alfalfa heathier for horses then normal grassy hay??

Question

ok erm the blister beetles are they easy to spot in alfalfa hay???? and how do u keep them away from the hay? would they stay away if u stored each bale in plastic bags? do the blisters kill your horse???

okay i think im gonna stick with the grassy hay mixed with a little alfalfa cause i dont want my horse getting any blister bugs so i might buy both and every so often mix it or ill just stick with the grassy hay and feed grain in the winter.

Answer 1

Depends, for HYPP horses, it can be lethal.

You need to see the analysis of alfalfa vs the different grass hay.

I feed only alfalfa, but thats all I can get here. We irrigate and its a noxious weed almost lol.

Alfalfa has a higher calcium content than grass. So for animals that are ulcer prone, its an excellent feed, IF they aren't HYPP

It also has the higher protein level, which isn't the best for longears. I don't feed near what I would feed on grass hay, and my guys stay huge. I ended up having to seriously evaluate my feeding program because I was getting fat mules. People would probably gawk at the amount of alfalfa I feed and think my mules were underfed.

I do not feed grain, my guys are solely on alfalfa alone and look amazing if I do say so myself lol

EDIT- on the blister beetle addition- no you can't spot them. They are small bugs that are already baled into the hay. It takes 3 blister beetles to kill a horse. They are more in the 2-3rd cuttings, rarely in the 1st. They aren't prevalent here in WY, so its rare that you see problems stemming from BB ingestion. But it would be good to ask around to see if they are common in your area. But there is nothing you can do to prevent it, your hay either has or doesn't have it.

Answer 2

Blister beetles are almost impossible to spot in hay as they are black. Have seen this color on them and no doubt there is another color. Be very careful and inquire where the hay came from. Hays from the desert areas, Texas, Oklahoma, southern California, New Mexico are prone to blister beetle habitation. Many of the halter horse trainers and rail horse trainers feed nothing but alfalfa. It puts a wonderful "finish" on a horse headed for the show pen. It rounds off all the corners on a horse. I have a horse here who cannot handle alfalfa so, I'm feeding our Central Oregon grass hay to both which is reknown for keeping horses at a good weight and in great condition. Both of horses eat this hay and they're in great shape.

Edit: Tommy Onions..I have to plead ignorance, what is Lucerne hay????

Answer 3

normal grass hay.... if it's fescue don't feed it to a mare in foal, it's mixed in a lot of other grass hays, the stuff is hard to get rid of in a hayfield and lowest quality grass hay imho. make sure no fescue is in pregnant mare diet.
other than that any well manage diet can use alfalfa or grass hays with equal success under normal conditions. horses worked hard should get the good stuff, timothy and orchard grass are what i look for first but that's just my opinion, lots of people make alfalfa work successfully. i've never witnessed a blister beetle problem but haven't fed any alfalfa in a few years it might be a problem here now for all i know. shipping hay across country has introduced some new weeds everywhere, bugs too probably but i hadn't thought of it. now i got that to worry about......... i'm not much help but did want to make the fescue pregnant mare warning.

Answer 4

Alfalfa is the predominant hay fed to horses in the USA. You find strange things in from time to time such as flattened rodents or foreign objects mixed in the hay bails. It is basically inevitable. Just be careful when feeding, horses are hardier than you think. Even though colicing can be common, they are not stupid and will not eat foreign objects. After all they are natural born grazers. As for the blister beetles. The kind we get in my area are large mint green in color and blackish and orangish kinds. We get a large swarm of them every summer, they get all over the weeds, and only last a few weeks. I have never personally experienced them getting in the hay though. But obviously do not let your horse graze on grassses or eat hay where there are blister beatles, because they can possibly hurt your horse. Whenever we do get blister beatles I start killing them off immedietly so they will not be able to reproduce. And it does seem to work.

Answer 5

You heard good advice in everything but blister beetles. Blister beetle can be spotted if you look for them, but you have to break the bale open to find them. They appear as little black pieces of beetles. A cluster is usually several hundred to a thousand strong, so they can be spotted. But look closely. They appear in legumous hay of all types and are also found on pigweeds and a few other weeds(that are rare in pastures).


EDIT There are several species The one that causes the most problems with horses because it is most often found in hay is the small black ones located as I described. Others could be found further north, I am not sure on that.

Blister bugs are common in a line ranging from Colorado Mid Kansas SOUTH to Texas and Mexico. North of this line they are rare to non existent. They do best in hot weather so are more often found in late hay than early hay since there numbers build over the summer.

Answer 6

Most people I know generally feed their horses Timothy or a Timothy- alfalfa mix. Alfalfa is rarely fed alone unless you are talking about someone who is feeding a lot of broodmares and young stock, and even then, they tend to mix it with at least a little bit of grass. The high protein content of alfalfa is one reason why people are often reluctant to feed it- feeding too much of it can cause horses to founder, and they also can become "hot" and hard to ride and train. Alfalfa is also rich in calcium, and with young horses, it's important not to feed so much of it that the ratio of calcium to phosphorus is upset, because this can cause developmental problems, especially with the bones and joints. There is some evidence, in fact, that the disorder called OCD may be linked to the consumption of too much protein and an disruption in the calcium/phosphorus ratio. The biggest reason why people are reluctant to feed alfalfa is largely because of cost, at least in my experience. The average bale of alfalfa hay can cost up to twice and in some cases, three times what a bale of grass hay would- and to make matters worse, it's often difficult to get high quality alfalfa in some parts of the country. We currently feed our horses a special type of high protein grass hay called Teff, and it costs about half what a bale of alfalfa would. Teff is a grass which is native to South America, and it has advantages which ordinary grass hays don't, such as drought resistance, for example. The horses love it, and the bales of it are light and easy to work with, which is normally NOT the case with most alfalfa bales. Alfalfa is a heavy hay, especially when you are talking about the second or third cutting in a year. We DO feed some alfalfa pellets- but the main source of hay for us is the Teff, and we like that just fine. As to which type of hay should be fed when, this depends entirely on the individual circumstances. Feeding alfalfa or grass hay is a personal choice- and many factors need to be considered when making such a decision. The ages of the horses involved, the amount of work they are doing, the climate, the temperatures, the time of year- these are just a few of the factors.

Answer 7

It depends on the type of work your horse does and how much exercise he gets. I just read an article about this and it seems that if your horse isnt doing much, then less is better, especially of the hugh nutrient hays. Even turning out to pasture is better in the morning or at night, because by midday the grass is at its highest in calories. If your horse is doing a lot, give it alfalfa mixed with timothy and it will be happy. If it is in active, or gets only limited exerise, then timothy would be your best bet and no one likes to see a fat horse. Be careful giving straight alfalfa as well. My horse used to get diarreha when we started him out on alfalfa only. Good luck.

Answer 8

alfalfa has allot of more junk in it...it will give your horse more energy and weight...but it can also make them sick.. if not given the right quantity....but if they are used to it, its not a problem... in kansas during the winter time..thats all they get is alfalfa...but they are also being used everyday too..... .. grass hay is mainly just a filler... and as far as the blister beetles.....i buy my hay in Kansas...i live in texas now...i will not buy any alfalfa from tx because of that reason... i dont even want to risk it...

blister beatles are also in only parts of the country not all over the u.s.....
edit--i lived in the southwest corner of kansas...and i didnt know what a blister beatle was until i moved to texas .....we had alfalfa field everywhere and nobody had any problem..... like i said...i lived there for 22yrs and never heard of them....if somebodies horse would have died from it-i would have known....

Answer 9

The way that I have always heard the reasoning for this is because the alfalfa hay is more nutritious than normal grassy hay. The best way to explain this would the equivalent of you eating iceberg lettuce with little nutritional value and you eating spinach with lots of nutrients....hope this helps.

Answer 10

Generally speaking, in my area of the country, alfalfa is not a good feed for horses. Good green grass hay is much to be prefered. In some areas of the country good grass hay is hard to get but here it's considered to be good only for dairy cows or dairy goats.