Hay testing

Hay testing – Can you detect 11 different minerals with your nose?

Does the usual forage test of sight and smell really work?

Consider the delicate mineral balance that must exist within your horse and it doesn’t seem enough.

Is your horse’s forage delivering the right mineral balance? Are supplements aiding or harming your horse? How much of your money is wasted on supplements?

Quite frankly you’ll only answer these questions with a laboratory analysis. Hay is too unpredictable for anything else – for all sorts of reasons.

Its nutritional values depend on the amount of fertilization, whether it has grown in a high or low-lying area, and even the time of cutting (not just the time of year, but also the time of day). Hay cut in the morning contains less sugar than hay cut in the afternoon.

To deal with this horse forage expert Katy Watts suggests mixing samples from at least 15 different bales in your stack. Take your samples from the centre of the bale using a hay corer.

These measures may seem drastic. But remember, you’re searching for your hay’s content of crude protein, sugar, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorous, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, molybdenum and sulphur. Too many factors can throw off your accuracy.

You may also wonder how beneficial such a test is to your horse’s health and your finances. Just see the sensible approach to supplements. You’ll soon wonder why so many are spending hundreds and thousands, blindly stocking up on mineral supplements – especially when laboratory tests are so affordable.

The UK’s Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute offer a hay analysis for £20.98. The value is astounding when weighed against the benefits. You’ll only ever give your horse the supplements it actually needs.