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 Veteran
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| I bought a load of hay that was supposed to be 75 small bales grass and and 75 small bales alfalfa. It turned out to be 25 grass and 125 alfalfa.
My horses are off for the winter...is there any downside to slowly transitioning them to solely alfalfa? I have slow feeders, so they could conceivably still munch all day :)
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 Famous for Not Complaining
Posts: 8848
   
Location: Broxton, Ga | Skeetersmom - 2016-12-04 7:16 PM
I bought a load of hay that was supposed to be 75 small bales grass and and 75 small bales alfalfa. It turned out to be 25 grass and 125 alfalfa.
My horses are off for the winter...is there any downside to slowly transitioning them to solely alfalfa? I have slow feeders, so they could conceivably still munch all day :)
I have several friends that is all they feed is alfalfa..... |
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 Saint Stacey
| You really need to balance the calcium/phosphorus ratio. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 516
| I feed all alfalfa with a ration balancer made specifically for horses on all alfalfa. No issues and they look great. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 618
| WiscoRacer - 2016-12-06 12:37 AM
I feed all alfalfa with a ration balancer made specifically for horses on all alfalfa. No issues and they look great.
What ration balancer do you use? |
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Expert
Posts: 1695
Location: Willows, CA | Much like other types of roughages, not all alfalfa is the same. Dairy quality alfalfa that is very fine stemmed and very high in protein (often 25%) is not ideal horse hay by itself. Though a little fed with low protein grass hay can be a nice program. Alfalfa that is in the 12%-14% range can work OK by itself for most horses, and requires very little supplementation. Most ration balancers are high in protein and may not be a good fit to add to straight alfalfa that is already higher in protein that your horse needs. As to Cal/phos ratios, alfalfa is pretty high in calcium. This imbalance is less critical than high Phos levels, but should still be considered, especially in young growing horses. I have worked with a lot of horses that were fed straight alfalfa for years with no ill effects. As long as it is the right alfalfa. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 516
| iloveequine40 - 2016-12-06 5:35 AM
WiscoRacer - 2016-12-06 12:37 AM
I feed all alfalfa with a ration balancer made specifically for horses on all alfalfa. No issues and they look great.
What ration balancer do you use?
The one by Progressive |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
Location: Duvall, WA | winwillows - 2016-12-06 2:38 PM
Much like other types of roughages, not all alfalfa is the same. Dairy quality alfalfa that is very fine stemmed and very high in protein (often 25%) is not ideal horse hay by itself. Though a little fed with low protein grass hay can be a nice program. Alfalfa that is in the 12%-14% range can work OK by itself for most horses, and requires very little supplementation. Most ration balancers are high in protein and may not be a good fit to add to straight alfalfa that is already higher in protein that your horse needs. As to Cal/phos ratios, alfalfa is pretty high in calcium. This imbalance is less critical than high Phos levels, but should still be considered, especially in young growing horses. I have worked with a lot of horses that were fed straight alfalfa for years with no ill effects. As long as it is the right alfalfa.
So would a two year old on second cutting alfalfa and one or 1 1/2 lb of RG a day be OK? I throw her a flake of timothy occasionally, too, but that tends to give her looser stools. She seems to do better on straight alfalfa. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2604
Location: Texas | I don't know how people that feed 100% alfalfa do it. I have tried and my horses will go thru 10 lbs of alfalfa in about 1.5 hours. If I fed them 1.5% of their body weight that would be 18 lbs per day for a 1200 lb horse. That would mean they wouldn't have any other roughage going thru their digestive systems for the remainder 20 hours of the day. Horses are grazers by design and their digestive systems need roughage continuously. And I have yet to find a slow feed hay net/bag that works with alfalfa. So I feed about 10 lbs of alfalfa at night along with free choice coastal hay in slow feed hay nets whenever they want it.
Edited by TBone 2016-12-07 7:50 AM
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| NipntuckLR - 2016-12-06 6:48 PM
winwillows - 2016-12-06 2:38 PM
Much like other types of roughages, not all alfalfa is the same. Dairy quality alfalfa that is very fine stemmed and very high in protein (often 25%) is not ideal horse hay by itself. Though a little fed with low protein grass hay can be a nice program. Alfalfa that is in the 12%-14% range can work OK by itself for most horses, and requires very little supplementation. Most ration balancers are high in protein and may not be a good fit to add to straight alfalfa that is already higher in protein that your horse needs. As to Cal/phos ratios, alfalfa is pretty high in calcium. This imbalance is less critical than high Phos levels, but should still be considered, especially in young growing horses. I have worked with a lot of horses that were fed straight alfalfa for years with no ill effects. As long as it is the right alfalfa.
So would a two year old on second cutting alfalfa and one or 1 1/2 lb of RG a day be OK? I throw her a flake of timothy occasionally, too, but that tends to give her looser stools. She seems to do better on straight alfalfa.
Depends on the alfalfa. Location and growing conditions as well as the stage it was cut at will all make a difference in protein.
We have ours on an alfalfa/grass mix free choice in slow feed chix bale nets. We go through 2 bales a day with 4 head. Bales are 50-60 lbs so we are a little high on the 1.7-2% rule but given that it's winter I'm okay with it. When the worst of the weather is over we'll go back to flaking it to them and then they'll get kicked out on pasture for the summer. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | I think alfalfa is about the perfect feed. For free choice, I do love Canadian grass/alfalfa mixes. There are more healthy horses on straight alfalfa than straight grass hay, I guarantee you that. I don't really like ration balancers. In large they are too expensive and offer little benefit for the cost. Naturally trying to balance a ration is great (and if you are way off on something, it is necessary), but today's feeding practices are obsessed with convincing you to balance this and that. In reality, natural diets are never balanced. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | NipntuckLR - 2016-12-06 6:48 PM
winwillows - 2016-12-06 2:38 PM
Much like other types of roughages, not all alfalfa is the same. Dairy quality alfalfa that is very fine stemmed and very high in protein (often 25%) is not ideal horse hay by itself. Though a little fed with low protein grass hay can be a nice program. Alfalfa that is in the 12%-14% range can work OK by itself for most horses, and requires very little supplementation. Most ration balancers are high in protein and may not be a good fit to add to straight alfalfa that is already higher in protein that your horse needs. As to Cal/phos ratios, alfalfa is pretty high in calcium. This imbalance is less critical than high Phos levels, but should still be considered, especially in young growing horses. I have worked with a lot of horses that were fed straight alfalfa for years with no ill effects. As long as it is the right alfalfa.
So would a two year old on second cutting alfalfa and one or 1 1/2 lb of RG a day be OK? I throw her a flake of timothy occasionally, too, but that tends to give her looser stools. She seems to do better on straight alfalfa.
Yes, definitely so. |
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Expert
Posts: 1695
Location: Willows, CA | TDove makes a good point here on the "Ration Balancer" products. This is a relatively new term in the feed business. Like many terms designed to make a sales point, there is an element of smoke and mirrors here. In the past, companies made high protein supplements that were used to boost the overall protein level of the diets that were using very poor quality hay or pasture as the roughage source. One of the first of it's kind was the 30% protein +/- "Show Boost" from Moorman's. This type of product has it's place for the original intended purpose, as do the copies that followed using the same formula format, and marketed as Ration Balancers. In general though, they really do not "balance" a diet that uses quality roughages and minimal grains to begin with. Instead, they can be used to boost protein in a very low protein diet without adding a lot of NSC. The word Balance however, is pretty misleading. In my opinion, If you need more overall protein in your horses diet, the most effective way to get that in the horse, and get it used by that horse, is better quality roughage. That is the "real" Ration Balancer. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1302
Location: California | I love alfalfa. My horses look great on it, don't waste anything, and love to eat it. I do sometimes throw grass hay with one feeding or during the day because I do like them munching. I have never seen it free fed and can't imagine that working out too well as my horses eat every last bite like it is candy. I will say I recently had all my horses on alfalfa and switched them all to grass due to what I could get and noticed a huge difference in energy levels. My colts on straight alfalfa are a lot more to handle than they are on grass hay lol. I switched to alfalfa once a day and grass once a day for the high energy/younger colts and am liking it so far. |
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