 Next generation of hayburner, he's one week old here. I suppose it can almost be comical, when it comes to hay selection and variety's offered, in regards to the equine world. The difference in preferences certainly makes it interesting for someone supplying hay. I've observed this phenomenon, since I was a kid. At our place we try to keep it simple and work with what we can get. The best quality we consider to be the early or later cuttings, less stalky, more leafy (more blades of grass) green and dry, not baled tight as a brick, but not falling out of the twine. The aroma of hay like this speaks for itself. While there seems to be plenty of well kept fields that can produce hay like this, the weather around here always makes it difficult to get it in when the time is right. Ideally if we were baling it ( which we did for years) it would seem best to to take multiple cuttings, instead of what many used to do and seemed to be the norm of the 1 cutting of the tall stalky, long topped out, starting to tan hay grasses in July. I have one small field next to my house, that I've kept mowed, but have not baled, loaded with orchard grass, it's getting a bit stalky, just topped out, but still has another foot or so to grow, it would seem that this would make some good hay if cut and baled right now, that is if it would stop raining and my neighbor would do it. Little small, but seems like good stuff not to let it go to waste when I use the brush hog on it. Some of the best you can find locally is comprised of whatever the typical hay grasses are and timothy, but in a well kept/managed field. I'd have to go to the co-op site, forget the grass names. West of here, there are some big hay suppliers, their fields look really nice. When I see a lot of weeds and garbage in the bales, I know that the fields are not taken care of, and we had a guy who thought that was good hay. I'm sure if it were to be analyzed it would speak for itself, he also baled them real tight and heavy, could care less about the moisture, so mold/dust was a real problem, you really had to check for that everytime you opened a bale, we had 2-3 mild cases of colic in that time period we were dealing with him and none since. Because good hay can be hard to find, we do get stuck with a lot of undesirable hay, so you try to work with it as best can be done, MOLD and dust is the worst problem, and concern, but nutrition is also high on the list. The horses pick through bad hay and leave the rest, so they can get thin, you have to feed a lot more of it, and also chokes up the bedding/manure, taking longer to clean a stall and loads up the manure (which I compost and sell) with carbon, it takes longer to break down, the weed seed has to be cooked so it is dead. If you look at every aspect of poor quality hay, it does add up in real costs when it comes to horses, especially if your dealing with more than a dozen. I think the best thing you can do is to work with your supplier, let them know what your preference is, use samples, work something out, and hope the weather cooperates. We deal with a lot of different suppliers, my farmer neighbor still bales, and plants one field at the place where I live. I started buying hay from him last year, as I became more involved with the other place where the horses are and did not like the hay I saw. The hay he put up last year was the best, first cut in June, so it was a little stalky, green broad blades of grass, fair amount of timothty mixed in, and he got quite a bit in without being rained on, even the one section that did get wet, he turned it once, it was still better than the weedy brick like bales they were getting, ( about 3000 bales worth). He only charged us $2.75-$3.00 for 200 bales delivered 30 miles away, whereas the feed supplier where we buy our grain, next to the famous Saratoga track would have gotten $8.00/bale for their best, and the weedy brick bales I had to load up and unload for $3.00/ bale. Most other is delivered around $3.00-$4.00 per bale. We buy the best that can be afforded, don't recall anyone on our end ever haggling a supplier, we used to bale and know how it goes.
I can't thank my neighbor enough for the deal he gave us. The horses did not leave much if any in the stall, they really enjoyed this kind of hay. One of his 20 acre fields has some alfalfa mixed in, just the right amount it seems, was all alfalfa at one time, so we would seperate those bales and feed accordingly. The best thing we could do is let the suppliers know what we like and let them do there best to get it in. If we had the storage space, we would stock up on the best we can find and as much as we can afford at the time. When the horses are getting thin at the onset of winter and the hay is poor quality, it just makes things more difficult, but sometimes it has to do, which I don't like, it would be great to stock up ahead of time. I'd have to ask, but I don't see a lot of alfalfa being fed, I know you have to be careful with feeding it, because it is so rich. The bales we got with partial amounts of alfalfa in it were ok to feed, and would be great during the winter, but 100% I think you need to regulate carefully. For years we kept one field with alfalfa, a low lying bottom field, always moist, was 5 acres, it grew great, we used to get up to 500 bales per cutting if I remember what I read on the counter, and that used to get fed, can't recall how much, but it went in our barn and we used it every year.
It might be a good idea to see what people are looking for, use samples, and see if you can produce it, both parties have to be reasonable for this to work, but if you can grow something that makes good hay, have a return customer for it every year, and if the weather / equipment cooperates, and you can get a fair price for it, it ought to work somehow. There are people around here who kind of partner on this, but then you also have people who buy the best from Colorado and ship to Florida in the winter when all the horses are there, money is no concern here though !
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