Is there a difference nutritionally between the two? As in, if you had the choice of an hours grazing on good grass on and hour with howevermuch hay, does it matter? I am talking about grassy hay here, not prime lucene/alfalfa.
Nutritional Difference between grass and hay
- Thread starter Ladyknight
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I would say it very much depends on time of year etc as to the quality of either!
Grass varies seasonally, in the winter there's not a lot in it but come the spring it's often a bit too rich. Hay is similar in that the quality will affect it's nutritional content as well as whether it's soaked or when it was cut and things.
Not very helpful sorry
but it's not a straight answer.
Grass varies seasonally, in the winter there's not a lot in it but come the spring it's often a bit too rich. Hay is similar in that the quality will affect it's nutritional content as well as whether it's soaked or when it was cut and things.
Not very helpful sorry
but it's not a straight answer.
Like already said, the quality varies, but overall grass has more nutrients etc than hay/haylage. BUT, you also have to think about the fact that grass has lot more water in it, so you have to feed A LOT more of it compared to hay.
Well hay is made from grass, only it is dried hich enevitably means that the hay will not be as rich as the grass, with a lower moisture, nutrient and energy (sugar) content.
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Hi,
I'm subscribed to a great program called 'FeedXL' which is a diet/nutrition analysis & advisory program/service & forum with qualified nutritionists. I'm pretty sure that there's not that much difference, excepting a couple of nutrients which are depleted with drying. Of course, that's assuming the hay is the same quality/value as the grass in the first place. Pretty sure also that sugar isn't hugely lower either, but that also depends on the time of day the hay was cut/grass was eaten.
Can't find the relevant articles tho, so now I'll go ask your question there & check my facts... get back to you soon.
I'm subscribed to a great program called 'FeedXL' which is a diet/nutrition analysis & advisory program/service & forum with qualified nutritionists. I'm pretty sure that there's not that much difference, excepting a couple of nutrients which are depleted with drying. Of course, that's assuming the hay is the same quality/value as the grass in the first place. Pretty sure also that sugar isn't hugely lower either, but that also depends on the time of day the hay was cut/grass was eaten.
Can't find the relevant articles tho, so now I'll go ask your question there & check my facts... get back to you soon.
No, it seems my memory was a little faulty... here's the reply from the nutritionist, Nerida from FeedXL...
"As you have mentioned, the difference between grass (pasture) and hay depends on so many different things, species of plant, time it was cut, how well the hay was made and if it was wet during the time it was on the ground drying out etc. Also what stage of maturity the pasture is at (so if the pasture is in its young, highly nutritious vegetative growth phase where it is growing a lot of leaf and very little tough stem or see head material, or if it has gone into or beyond its reproductive phase where it starts to get tough and stemmy and loses much of its nutrient value) has a big impact on the nutrient value of grass.
So in some situations hay is going to contain more nutrients than pasture, and in others, pasture is going to contain more nutrients than hay.
BUT lets compare apples with apples. Imagine you had a paddock full of lovely grass, you cut half of the paddock to make hay on on the same day, and at the same time as you cut it you took a pasture sample from the other half of the paddock. Lets assume you immediately dried the pasture sample to stop the grass from degrading and then once you had made the hay you took a representative sample of the hay and sent both the hay and the grass (pasture) off for analysis. What you would find is that the fresh sample you took of the pasture will be higher in nutrients including energy and protein than the hay sample. So if compared side by side, grass has a higher nutrient content than hay. This is because:
1. When you cut grass (or lucerne) to make hay, the plant will attempt to keep itself alive for as long as it can, so it burns up some of its supply of carbohydrates just trying to stay alive. So effectively it uses up a source of energy and lowers it energy value for the animal eating it. COmpare this to fresh grass where the animal is able to utilise ALL of the carbohydrates present. Thus fresh will high a higher energy value than hay made from the same pasture.
2. During the hay making process their is often quite a bit of leaf loss from the plant, especially if it is baled too dry. Because leaves contain the high level of protein and digestible energy, losing them in the baling process means again that hay will have a lower nutrient content than the same grass if it had been eaten fresh.
It is hard to give you a figure for how much the nutrient value varies between grass and hay because it really depends on how well the hay is made, but it will be somewhere in the vicinity of hay having 10% less nutrients than grass - but that is only IF the hay and the grass are taken from the same paddock at the same time. As I said before sometimes hay will have more nutrients than the pasture you have on hand.
There are also some exceptions to the rule. FOr example, sun cured hay (hay left to dry in the sun) will have a higher Vitamin D content than fresh grass."
"As you have mentioned, the difference between grass (pasture) and hay depends on so many different things, species of plant, time it was cut, how well the hay was made and if it was wet during the time it was on the ground drying out etc. Also what stage of maturity the pasture is at (so if the pasture is in its young, highly nutritious vegetative growth phase where it is growing a lot of leaf and very little tough stem or see head material, or if it has gone into or beyond its reproductive phase where it starts to get tough and stemmy and loses much of its nutrient value) has a big impact on the nutrient value of grass.
So in some situations hay is going to contain more nutrients than pasture, and in others, pasture is going to contain more nutrients than hay.
BUT lets compare apples with apples. Imagine you had a paddock full of lovely grass, you cut half of the paddock to make hay on on the same day, and at the same time as you cut it you took a pasture sample from the other half of the paddock. Lets assume you immediately dried the pasture sample to stop the grass from degrading and then once you had made the hay you took a representative sample of the hay and sent both the hay and the grass (pasture) off for analysis. What you would find is that the fresh sample you took of the pasture will be higher in nutrients including energy and protein than the hay sample. So if compared side by side, grass has a higher nutrient content than hay. This is because:
1. When you cut grass (or lucerne) to make hay, the plant will attempt to keep itself alive for as long as it can, so it burns up some of its supply of carbohydrates just trying to stay alive. So effectively it uses up a source of energy and lowers it energy value for the animal eating it. COmpare this to fresh grass where the animal is able to utilise ALL of the carbohydrates present. Thus fresh will high a higher energy value than hay made from the same pasture.
2. During the hay making process their is often quite a bit of leaf loss from the plant, especially if it is baled too dry. Because leaves contain the high level of protein and digestible energy, losing them in the baling process means again that hay will have a lower nutrient content than the same grass if it had been eaten fresh.
It is hard to give you a figure for how much the nutrient value varies between grass and hay because it really depends on how well the hay is made, but it will be somewhere in the vicinity of hay having 10% less nutrients than grass - but that is only IF the hay and the grass are taken from the same paddock at the same time. As I said before sometimes hay will have more nutrients than the pasture you have on hand.
There are also some exceptions to the rule. FOr example, sun cured hay (hay left to dry in the sun) will have a higher Vitamin D content than fresh grass."
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