 We had our bottom field in alfalfa for years, small field, like 7 acres worth, maybe 500-600 bales per cut, 3 times a year, and another 20 acres in grass hay, orchard grass mix I think, 11 acres of which, was thick and no weeds, used to get some nice green hay, and the weather seemed to cooperate more then, just the equipment was more of a problem. We would feed both, just more grass hay than the alfalfa, these were thoroughbred hunter/jumper horses, never had any trouble. The discerning horse people may not feed it, but each to their own. If you feed em a bunch of it and let em suck down a lot of water after, well that might be a problem with colic, but at this time of year, some alfalfa in the mix won't hurt at all. A lot of the hay available around here is not very green, almost tan, I'd grab that alfalfa no questions asked, then feed it accordingly, only problem is they might just pick the alfalfa out and mash the rest into the bedding, but at least they are getting nutrients and not get thin. I bought a 1000 bales from our neighbor last year, off his best fields, one of which was alfalfa mix, alfalfa was starting to thin on that field, they sure did like that stuff, let it sit for 2 weeks then started feeding it, just told them to be careful with the bales that were straight alfalfa, just mix it up a little, no problem at all. We had a stallion up there that really needed to be sold, no one was doing anything with him and he was like 3 years old, little wild and still a bit playful, one of the hired jerks was handling him like they do on the race track, twisting his ear, I escorted his arse off the place, boy it took me forever to make friends with this guy, be able to touch his ears again, little handful of alfalfa helped there ! Here's the guy, was a favorite of mine, had to win his trust though, they sold him, he's livin down south now:
|
