Hay Made Simple
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
Hay can make up the bulk of what most horses eat, so getting it right isn’t just a nutrition detail. It can be the foundation of their entire diet, especially when they are stabled, during drought, or during the height of summer and winter when it’s an important staple to supplement insufficient pasture.
When the forage is good (whether that’s pasture or hay, or a combination), everything else becomes easier: weight stays steadier, behaviour is calmer, digestion runs smoothly, and you’re not constantly chasing problems with extra feeds or supplements. But because hay varies so much between cuts, species, and even paddocks, choosing the right batch can feel like a moving target. That’s why a little knowledge goes a long way in helping you pick hay that truly suits your horse.
Start with a Simple 10‑second Hay Quality Check
Before you even think about nutrition, just look, smell, and feel the hay. You want something that smells clean and fresh, looks greenish rather than grey or yellow (grey generally means mold - yellow often means old and less nutrient dense), and bends rather than snaps. Leafy is always better than stalky, and anything dusty, musty, or mysterious is a hard no.
This quick scan won’t tell you everything, but it will stop you from feeding something that’s unsafe or wildly inconsistent.
What Does “First or Second Cut” Mean?
The “cut” is simply which growth cycle the hay came from.
First cut tends to be stalkier and lower in protein.
Second cut is the middle ground - softer, leafier, and usually more balanced in both energy and protein. Most horses do well on this.
Third cut is the lush stuff: soft, leafy, nutrient‑dense, and higher in protein. It’s brilliant for horses needing condition or in regular work, but it can be too rich for ponies or metabolic horses, and can cause loose manures.
Hay Type Made Simple
This is where sugar and protein really shift.
Here’s what the common Australian hays usually look like nutritionally. These are typical lab ranges, not absolutes, but they give you a good starting point. If you want to be more precise you can lab test hays (it's not as complicated as it sounds), or find growers who will provide you with an analysis.
You can find more detail in this article, which also has links to more comprehensive nutrient profile databases.
Lucerne (Alfalfa)
Lucerne is your high‑octane forage: lots of leaf, lots of protein, and a predictable sugar profile. Most batches sit around 16–22% protein and 8–12% sugars. It’s fantastic for topline, performance horses, and horses needing more calories, but it’s not the best choice as the sole forage for easy keepers or laminitic horses. Straight lucerne - especially freshly baled third cut - can cause loose manures. It's best with other feeds for a balanced diet.
Teff
Teff is popular for good reason. It’s usually soft, fine‑stemmed, and naturally lower in sugars when cut early. Most tests come back around 8–14% protein and 7–12% sugars. It’s a great option for metabolic horses, though sometimes a bit light on calcium and protein for horses in harder work. We can supplement calcium in other ways. A good source is beet pulp. Soy meal is a good source of dense protein.
Rhodes Grass
Rhodes is one of the more predictable grass hays. It usually lands around 6–12% protein and 8–15% sugars, depending on maturity. Early‑cut Rhodes is often a safe, steady choice for metabolic horses and a reliable base forage for most others. Please note that we have anecdotally seen stringhalt-like symptoms in horses and ponies fed solely on Rhodes (with no access to pasture).
Oaten Hay
Oaten is a wildcard. When it’s soft and leafy, it can be highly palatable. When it’s late‑cut with grain heads, it can be a laminitis trap. Protein is usually 6–10%, but sugars and starch together can range from 12–22%, sometimes higher if the grain is well‑developed. Always check for seed heads and hardness of stems. At Sound Advice we advise against oaten hay and white chaffs generally, simply because they tend to be too low in nutrients and too high in sugars compared to other options.
Imagine it like this - if a horse owner asks me about white chaffs or hays, it’s like a mother asking if her kid should eat Fruit Loops or Coco Pops for breakfast. I would say their kid should eat eggs.
Mixed Grass / Pasture Hay
This one varies the most because it depends on what was actually growing in the paddock. Protein usually sits around 6–12%, while sugars can range from 10–20% depending on species and weather, but this is very much a generalisation.
Early‑cut, leafy pasture hay can be excellent; late‑cut ryegrass‑heavy hay can be risky for metabolic horses, and may harbour endophytes. Grass hay will often contain weed seeds that will then be transferred to your pasture. We would advise against grass hays unless you know the grower and they can tell you exactly what’s in it.
How do you match hay to your horse?
Easy keepers and metabolic horses or horses who need “busy work” without excess calories usually do best on early‑cut Rhodes or teff.
Performance horses often need the extra protein and energy from a good second‑cut straight lucerne or grass/lucerne hay.
Horses needing topline, or older horses with poor teeth respond beautifully to second or third cut lucerne hay, supplemented with other feeds.
Once you know the cut, the type, and the likely sugar/protein range, choosing hay becomes a whole lot less stressful.
Your Hay Grower
Building a relationship with your hay grower is one of the smartest long‑term moves you can make as a horse owner. When a grower knows you, your horses, and the type of hay you prefer, they’ll often give you far more detail about each cut, each paddock, and any seasonal quirks that might affect quality. And when the tough years hit - drought, floods, late frosts, or sudden price spikes - loyal customers are the ones who get the call first. Instead of scrambling to find hay when everyone else is panic‑buying, you’re already on your grower’s priority list, with clearer information and more stable supply.
Buying from one trusted, quality grower is less stress for you, better planning for them, and far more consistent forage for your horses.
Storage?
If you’re buying hay in bulk, the way you store it matters almost as much as the hay you choose. The goal is simple: keep it dry, keep it ventilated, and keep it off the ground. Hay stacked straight onto concrete or dirt will wick up moisture and start to mold from the bottom bales upward, so always use pallets or timber slats to create airflow underneath. A roof is non‑negotiable - even a single leak can ruin a stack - and the sides of your storage area should allow air to move through rather than trapping humidity. Think “shed with good airflow,” not “sealed shipping container.”
If you’re storing round bales outside, wrap them or at least tarp them with the sides open so moisture can escape. And finally, rotate your stack: oldest hay gets fed first so nothing sits long enough to spoil or lose nutritional value.
Transitioning Between Batches
Whenever you switch from one batch of hay to the next - even if it’s the same type - it’s worth giving your horse a few days to adjust. Every load of hay is a little different in sugar, protein, texture, and maturity, and a sudden change can upset the gut or trigger behaviour shifts in sensitive horses. The easiest way to transition is to mix the old and new hay together, starting with mostly the old and gradually increasing the new. This gives the hindgut microbes time to adapt and helps you spot any changes in manure, appetite, or energy before they become problems. It’s a small step that makes a big difference in keeping your horse comfortable and their digestion steady.
Here at Sound Advice we try to reorder at the last eight bales, which gives us about 4 -5 days to incorporate the new batch. Hay for our young thoroughbreds is stored separately from hay for our geriatric and metabolically-compromised horses.
How much hay?
If you are supplying the majority of your horse’s calories in hay you’re looking at 1-2% of bodyweight per day. If your horse is becoming obese you should cut back, and/or increase work.
If it is good quality, yummy hay, they should finish it. You’re feeding too much if they wander away without eating it.
And if they start to urinate in it, they’re thinking of it more as bedding than dinner. Either raise it in a feeder or a net, or cut back.
What's generally missing in hay is trace minerals. Horses just on hay and pasture will usually need to be supplemented copper, zinc, iodine and selenium in order to avoid common chronic conditions that arise from deficiencies. The most obvious symptoms are a dull, rusty coat, and ongoing skin conditions, but there are many others. You can learn more about that here.
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