What do you do when you can't find hay, or if you do the quality is very questionable. This year appears to be as bad as any when it comes to hay problems. Don't get discouraged because there are some answers. Consider feeding fiber alternatives to either stretch your hay resources or improve the quality of what you have. The concept of “fiber supplementation” isn't necessarily new but there are some new options.

When looking at fiber supplements, the following considerations should be made.

• Fiber length of 1” to 1 _” - The fiber length is important to assure good gut motility and to avoid the need for the horse to look for fiber by chewing on trees, fences, stalls, etc. Research has proven that proper fiber length will also help reduce the chance of colic over ground or pelleted fiber.
• How digestible is the fiber - The digestibility of fiber can be measured by measuring the amount of lignin in the fiber source. The older the plant fiber, the higher in lignin and the less digestible. Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) is a measurement of the amount of lignin in the fiber. Poor to average hay will have an ADF of 38 or higher. Look for fiber sources with ADF values of 32 or less.
• Watch protein balance - Don't feed a high protein fiber source to horses not requiring an elevated protein level and don't feed low protein to horses with higher needs. You may need to alter the protein levels on grain rations to balance the fiber available.
• Fiber consistency - Every horse owner knows that you change a grain diet slowly. The same caution should be considered when feeding fiber. Don't change fiber sources over night and fiber supplements should be the same from bag to bag.

One of the best new options are chopped forage products. The hay goes through much of the same processing as hay cubes, but are never cubed. These products usually have molasses added to retain the leaf that is shattered during the processing, but be careful of the molasses levels in some products. Too much molasses can cause storage and shelf life problems. One advantage over cubes is that you can get products that are all grass hay which allows you to better meet your protein requirements or match your current hay feeding program. The chopped forages also tend to be more user friendly than cubes for older horses who are starting to have trouble chewing hay or grazing.

Chopped forages can be fed at a rate of about 5 pounds per day. Regular long stem hay can then be reduced by about 8 pounds if your goal is to extend your hay or fed at the same amount if hay improvement is your goal. If you want to use chopped forages as a complete hay replacement, feed at a rate of 1% to 1 _% of body weight.

In the past, you could either supplement or replace your hay with alfalfa cubes or “complete” feed diets. For cubes, alfalfa is chopped to a length of 1” to 2” and then compressed into cubes about 1 _” in diameter and about 2” to 3” long. Complete feed diets are manufactured feeds that contain enough fiber to meet your horse's nutritional needs. These diets also typically used alfalfa as the fiber base. These old options are also the basis for some new variations.

Some cube companies are now offering some blended products other than the standard 100% alfalfa product. Blends with timothy grass lowers both the protein and energy. There is also a blend with the whole corn plant that lowers protein but raises the digestible energy for thin or active horses. Cubes also offer the advantages if fiber length that alfalfa pellets do not offer. However, cubes will always contain at least 50% alfalfa or the cube will not stay together. Also, the ADF values of some cubes may not be ideal. Use the feeding guides listed above for chopped forages as the same guide for cubes.

Senior diets may not just be for senior horses. Formula feeds for geriatric horses are complete diets that contain all the fiber a horse needs if he is unable to graze or eat hay. They may also serve a purpose to provide extra fiber in diets where hay or pasture is questionable for horses of all ages. Some senior diets offer fiber sources that are more digestible than others.

Beet pulp is also widely used as a fiber source and is highly digestible, but is a management challenge and has some poor mineral and vitamin qualities. Alfalfa pellets offer a relatively low cost fiber alternative, but the ground alfalfa fiber does not give you any protein options. Also the lack of fiber length has been proven to cause higher incidence of colic and chewing problems over options with longer fiber length.

Always remember that fiber is the main diet for horses and that fiber quality is directly related to the overall health and thriftiness of your horse. Therefore, fiber quality should be a prime consideration when making feeding decisions and short cuts should be avoided. There are more options than ever to help with your hay shortage and quality problems.

Eric Haydt
General Manager
Equine Specialty Feed Company, L.C.
800-267-7198