Horse hay?

[jerbear]

I asked at my feed store if they had bales of timothy hay and was told they have special order timothy hay. I asked what cut it was and he just said it's very soft and clean hay that is usually fed to horses. Is this also good for pigs?

 

[WEAVER]

Pretty sad the grain store does not even know the type of hay they are selling. You may want to pass that one up just for that simple reason. Kind of scarry. More than likely it is Bermuda. . .but who knows.

Before you buy any hay, I would check it out in person first. Grain stores are the cheapest places to buy hay, but many times their hay has no green in it at all. You want the hay to be soft, smell fresh, not have lots of dust, no signs of mold and have some color in it---yellow and brown hay is not good for pigs.

 

[jerbear]

Is Bermuda a type of hay or grass? (They told me it was Timothy hay.) Also the pellet food I get here is very dusty, in that it breaks down easily when I buy a big bag. Their higher quality food has colored pieces in it and costs twice as much, so I figured I am supposed to stay away from those orange-colored disk type foods.

 

[aqh88]

Bermuda hay is fine to feed to pigs so that wouldn't really matter. Some don't really like the taste but they get used to it. The cut of hay also isn't that important unless you want to get the maximum life out of your hay. So long as you don't keep the hay more than 6months it will remain fresh no matter which cutting it is provided it's been stored right. What you do need to watch for is that the hay is green, fresh smelling, not moldy, and soft or not stemmy. Check it out yourself and if it meets those good hay requirements there's no reason not to use it so long as it's a form of grass hay. Stay away from legume hays like alfalfa or clover and only feed grain hays like oats, wheat, barley as a treat. Most legume hays are extremely stemmy and most grain hays turn a golden straw color so generally they wouldn't look like good hay anyways.