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Posts: 27
| Who feeds alfalfa as their main source of hay? We are very limited on hay in our parts and needing to know some other options... |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 999
 
Location: Sunny So Cal | My 4 year old gets alfalfa and triple crown complete with THE supplements. |
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 Jr. Detective
  
Location: Beggs, OK | We feed Omnis Cubes only which are alfalfa, whole oats, and whole flax seed mini cubes. They're a consistent source of alfalfa without the worry of blister beetles and extreme fluxuations in protein content. Our horses don't have the crazy mood swings that you would expect from the typical alfalfa and oats diet. They stay really consistent behavior wise and we don't have EPM and ulcer issues like we did when were feeding grain and hoping that our hay was good enough to sustain them. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 516
| I feed all alfalfa with a ration balancer specifically made for horses on only alfalfa. Progressive makes one and so does Dr. Thornley's which I like a little better. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 288
| I feed good quality dryland straight alfalfa. Have for years and have never had a problem. |
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 Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| I just had a very interesting conversation with a lady from a hay supplier. I called originally to get pricing on timothy hay. She asked about my horses diets. They are on Bermuda roundbales majority of the day then come in at night for their grain and if I decide to keep them up (weather deterimines) I throw in about 2-3 flakes of Bermuda hay to keep them busy. She suggested I feed alfalfa instead... no grain needed just alfalfa twice a day and they can be turned out on roundbale in between both meals. She told me my current program is going to make my horses have an impaction colic, especially in this cold weather. The prices she gave me, the alfalfa is actually much cheaper than the timothy. I've fed alfalfa in the past and liked it, I started having issues getting quality hay though. Their hay is from California.
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Expert
Posts: 1432
| We feed straight alfalfa. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | WiscoRacer - 2017-01-03 8:15 PM
I feed all alfalfa with a ration balancer specifically made for horses on only alfalfa. Progressive makes one and so does Dr. Thornley's which I like a little better.
I can attest to the nutritional potency of alfalfa. I would like to politely disagree that a ration balancer is needed, and more specifically, that the ration balancers marketed are either all that appropriate to balance alfalfa or cost effective in the least. I find some of them to be near a scam nutritionally and cost wise.
The doctor Thornley's for instance (my opinions): the first ingredient is soybean meal and it is 20% protein. That is something absolutely not needed or appropriate for an alfalfa based diet. Secondly, it really doesn't balance alfalfa at all. It has calcium, which alfalfa doesn't need any added and doesn't reverse the Ca:Ph ratio at all. It merely doesn't add more Ca to the ratio. Next, I don't see any ingredient that really helps or adds to an alfalfa diet. Alfalfa is better in and of itself, compared to every food ingredient in the balancer. Finally, the cost is out of this world. It is higher per pound than fortified grains, yet has less nutrition, while still not exactly balancing anything.
Edited by Tdove 2017-01-06 5:04 PM
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Tdove - 2017-01-06 4:47 PM
want2chase3 - 2017-01-06 4:03 PM
I just had a very interesting conversation with a lady from a hay supplier. I called originally to get pricing on timothy hay. She asked about my horses diets. They are on Bermuda roundbales majority of the day then come in at night for their grain and if I decide to keep them up (weather deterimines) I throw in about 2-3 flakes of Bermuda hay to keep them busy. She suggested I feed alfalfa instead... no grain needed just alfalfa twice a day and they can be turned out on roundbale in between both meals. She told me my current program is going to make my horses have an impaction colic, especially in this cold weather. The prices she gave me, the alfalfa is actually much cheaper than the timothy. I've fed alfalfa in the past and liked it, I started having issues getting quality hay though. Their hay is from California.
Well, to say you are going to give impaction colic is not exactly true. I would agree that you could do the program she told you about and it is a really good one. I am also of the opinion that it would be better than Bermuda rounds and commercial concentrate. I, of course, feel that cubes would also fair quite favorably in that same format, and that even more can be achieved for the best nutrition possible with Omnis cubes in place of alfalfa or even alfalfa cubes. I do not see how California alfalfa is a cost effective option for Central Texas, compared to other alfalfa sources or cube sources.
All their hay comes from California, she explained. Years back she was picking up a load of alfalfa from Arizona supplier and saw blister beetles. Never looked back after that. I can get alfalfa close by for $17 for 3 strand roughly 110 lbs but I'm not exactly sure where he gets it. She quoted me $23 for 3 strand 116lb (current weight) since it varies by load. I'm not opposed to adding alfalfa hay into my program at all, I just want to make sure it's from a safe source. I'll admit, I'd feel really strange not mixing up their grain once a day and instead just giving them a few flakes of alfalfa hay instead twice a day. Probably be a bunch cheaper. |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Oh man I'm always worried about EPM. I feed grass hay from a local guy (central tx) so far so good (knock on wood) so you think Arizona alfalfa is safe ? I'm pretty sure that's where my other hay guy gets his alfalfa and I've fed it before, it's pretty decent. I'd be traveling about 3 hours to get the California stuff. I've got 1 horse on the omnis solely right now, except for when he's turned out, he eats the roundbale. I'm too scared to try my horse again on the cubes because of his awful choke problem. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 516
| Tdove - 2017-01-06 5:02 PM
WiscoRacer - 2017-01-03 8:15 PM
I feed all alfalfa with a ration balancer specifically made for horses on only alfalfa. Progressive makes one and so does Dr. Thornley's which I like a little better.
I can attest to the nutritional potency of alfalfa. I would like to politely disagree that a ration balancer is needed, and more specifically, that the ration balancers marketed are either all that appropriate to balance alfalfa or cost effective in the least. I find some of them to be near a scam nutritionally and cost wise.
The doctor Thornley's for instance (my opinions ): the first ingredient is soybean meal and it is 20% protein. That is something absolutely not needed or appropriate for an alfalfa based diet. Secondly, it really doesn't balance alfalfa at all. It has calcium, which alfalfa doesn't need any added and doesn't reverse the Ca:Ph ratio at all. It merely doesn't add more Ca to the ratio. Next, I don't see any ingredient that really helps or adds to an alfalfa diet. Alfalfa is better in and of itself, compared to every food ingredient in the balancer. Finally, the cost is out of this world. It is higher per pound than fortified grains, yet has less nutrition, while still not exactly balancing anything.
Depends on your alfalfa. It's not all created equal. Feeding the ration balancer, I KNOW my horses are getting what they need if the alfalfa is lacking in some way. And if they don't need it, well then their body will get rid of it. Either way, my horses are set.
As far as pricing alfalfa, it was $7 per bale while the grass was $12. Can't go wrong there. |
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 Lived to tell about it and will never do it again
Posts: 5409
| We feed straight alfalfa from a friend of ours. We get the 1000 lb squares and feed roughly 20lbs per horse per day. I trust him on the blister beatles, but of course as with any feed there is always a chance of something going wrong. I know of several horses that died from mixed feed from our Co-op so you just never know. Our horses look better then ever. |
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Expert
Posts: 1226
| I live in AZ and have always fed alfalfa. We grow it year round here and always really nice cuts available. Also I've never heard of blister beetles being in the hay down here. Only in Hay that has come from Colorado. |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| euchee - 2017-01-07 8:11 AM
We feed straight alfalfa from a friend of ours. We get the 1000 lb squares and feed roughly 20lbs per horse per day. I trust him on the blister beatles, but of course as with any feed there is always a chance of something going wrong. I know of several horses that died from mixed feed from our Co-op so you just never know. Our horses look better then ever.
You only feed alfalfa? No grains or other hay? |
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| heidiinaz - 2017-01-07 8:46 AM
I live in AZ and have always fed alfalfa. We grow it year round here and always really nice cuts available. Also I've never heard of blister beetles being in the hay down here. Only in Hay that has come from Colorado.
That gives me some peace of mind. I picked up 6 big bales today of Arizona alfalfa. Looks great and they are heavy |
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Lived to tell about it and will never do it again
Posts: 5409
| want2chase3 - 2017-01-07 11:56 AM euchee - 2017-01-07 8:11 AM We feed straight alfalfa from a friend of ours. We get the 1000 lb squares and feed roughly 20lbs per horse per day. I trust him on the blister beatles, but of course as with any feed there is always a chance of something going wrong. I know of several horses that died from mixed feed from our Co-op so you just never know. Our horses look better then ever. You only feed alfalfa? No grains or other hay?
Yep, going on about 10 years now. It is very good quality alfalfa |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | Horses fed straight alfalfa as roughage are at increased risk for developing enteroliths...and horses fed straight coastal are at risk for impactions. No ideal scenario either way and I'm not sure its a high enough risk to scare me from feeding only alfalfa. The cost is what limits us on buying it! |
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Lived to tell about it and will never do it again
Posts: 5409
| It cost us less to feed the big 1 ton squares then it did when buying grain. We were surprised when we put pencil to paper when thinking about doing it. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1612
Location: Cocoa, Florida | I get ridiculed all the time for only feeding straight alfalfa. I feed some coastle for busy work in the stall but I do alfalfa cubes and straight alfalfa hay, everyon says I'm making my horses "hotter" |
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