Tuesday, April 6, 2010

HAY Information !

Lorrie, here is a note from Bob Buckley, my contact with Standlee. There is some good info. in this email that would pertain to the hay and/or the hay pellets - it's all basically the same - sun-cured Idaho hay, with nothing else added. Anyone can call Standlee direct and ask specific questions, if they'd like, or I would be happy to get answers to questions. Here is some info. not listed on their bags: NSC (Non Structure Carbs) 8% to 10% (never goes over 10%) Starch 2.3% to 2.5%, Simple Sugar - 5.9% to 6.4%, and Crude Fat - 2.3% to 2.5%.

Good to hear from you and glad to see that you tried some of our half cut compressed bales of hay.

Important things to know about timothy hay, western style.

1. Western Hay is not like Eastern hay, regardless of the type or forage variety. Due to the moisture out east, all eastern hay have a tremendous amount of mould spores in it. Western hay is totally sun cured and has very little if any, mould spores.

2. Western Timothy grass hay is highly sought after, for many reasons. The analysis of this hay does not change much from any cutting, regardless if it is 1st, 2nd or 3rd. There is a preserved control factor here.

3. Half cut compressed bales are not for everybody. Because of the nature of these bales being cut from large bales into small bales, the unique size is ideal for transporting, storage and for ease of handling due to the weight factor of 50 lbs. A pallet of this hay weighs nearly a ton, where can you store a ton of hay on a 4’ x 4’ x 6’4” high pallet like this? Usually, all hay gets consumed, meaning the animals slick it up because of the stabilized quality factor. You know the quality from our pellets, batch after batch, load after load. Your horses never waste any of the timothy pellets either.

4. The true training of your customers come into play. These bales are easy to overfeed and your customers need to feed by weight and not be volume. Train your customers to break the bands on the hay they are going to feed ahead of time, allowing the hay to expand. This will help your customers not to give too large of flake and over feed.

5. My personal preference on timothy is 2nd cutting. The stems are smaller, the hay is softer, and the protein level is just a little bit higher. (1% to 2%) Some people like to feed 1st cutting because of the coarser stems, perhaps thinking more fiber content. I have not seen that to be true on any analysis test.

6. Again, my opinion, I would recommend baled hay and pellets. Horses are grazing animals and the long stem hay is needed in their digestive system.

7. This bale of hay can be used for small animals as well. Rabbits, hamsters etc.



Thanks again Vicki for contacting me. I look forward to your response.



Bob Buckley

Sales Manager




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