Judge a hay by it's colour?

I recently ran a quick Facebook poll to see which of these two hays people though contained higher nutrition (defined as digestible energy and/or sugars and starch). Over 600 people voted for Hay A (a Rhodes/kikuyu grass mix), while almost 400 voted for Hay B (teff hay), but many people commented that it was not possible to tell just by looking - and they were 100% correct! In fact, the two hays were actually quite similar in digestible energy and sugars, however did differ in some other areas - so I put together a graph comparing some key nutrients.

Things to note

• Much lower protein in Hay A, a diet based on this hay may need protein supplementation, especially for hard working, growing or reproducing horses.
• Neutral detergent fibre measures the structural fibre of the hay, some of which is indigestible to the horse (lignin). Both of these hays are at or close to the 65% threshold where indigestible fibre content starts to make the feed less palatable.
  
• For sugar sensitive horses we aim to keep ESC and starch combined below 10% - both of these hays fall under this, so would be safe.
• Mineral levels vary widely and generally have more to do with the soil that the hay was grown in, however these iron/zinc/copper levels are typical in most forages. High iron and low zinc/copper requires balancing with additional zinc and minerals to achieve the optimal 4:3:1 ratio.

If you would like help in getting your hay or pasture tested, interpreting results of tests, or in balancing your horses diet, please feel free to contact me!