by Haley Ruffner
06 February 2025 | [email protected] | 307.205.6628
The decision to ship in a truckload of hay for livestock, whether it be horses or cattle, is often based largely on price and quality. If it’s more expensive than any available local options, then it must also be superior in quality commensurate with the higher price. Because of this, most buyers only look at straight alfalfa: the highest testing, most nutritionally dense option.
Higher feed value, however, doesn’t always come with higher palatability. A fine-stemmed, leafy alfalfa will ideally be soft enough to encourage livestock to clean it up and not waste any, but even at its softest, alfalfa will have tougher stems than most grass hay. For most feeding setups, animals can sort through available feed and may waste a significant portion if it’s not as palatable as they are used to, or if other options (like green pasture or grain) are available. Losing a portion of high protein alfalfa due to animals picking through it rather than cleaning it up can significantly decrease the cost effectiveness of the hay in terms of dollars per protein point.
One way to improve the palatability and softness of hay is to be open to an alfalfa/grass mix. Although grasses are not high in protein to the same degree as alfalfa, the small nutritional difference in alfalfa versus an alfalfa/grass mix may be negated by the increased palatability. Mixing an orchard, brome, or timothy in with an alfalfa crop can give a level of softness to the hay that makes it hold together better, retaining more leaf as it flakes off. Many customers who have tried a mix say they feel the slightly lessened protein value is offset by how much better their animals clean the hay up—they see increased body condition in both horses and cattle who are fed an alfalfa/grass mix as opposed to straight alfalfa. While these reports are purely anecdotal and don’t represent any kind of official study, the reasoning behind these observations is sound.
If a feed program combines cheaper grass hay with alfalfa, either by feeding flakes of both together or alternating based on availability, trying an alfalfa/grass mix can also provide more consistency. While the exact mix of alfalfa to grass will vary even between bales slightly, feeding a mixed hay will still safeguard against livestock being able to ignore one type of hay and waste it while gorging on the other.
If you are looking for a hay option that has a higher feed value than local grass hay but is more familiar and palatable to your livestock than straight alfalfa, consider trying an alfalfa/grass mix hay!
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Haley Ruffner is a sales broker for Aden Brook, a lifelong equestrian, and an accomplished writer.