Understanding a Hay or Pasture Test

Forage data is essential to truly be able to balance a horse’s intake. Forage whether that be grass or hay or a combination is usually (should be) the largest portion of the intake. To understand the levels of nutrients provided by the forage, a laboratory test is the best approach. The best diet for a horse is a balanced diet based on data.

Symptoms like a dull coat, poor hoof quality, less than optimal performance and a weak immune system are the more obvious signs.

A balanced diet is essential for performance and in preventing health issues. So what is a mineral balanced diet?

A balanced diet is one where all the nutrients are more than adequate to avoid deficiencies and the amount of minerals avoid competition with another. One example is copper and zinc, too much zinc in the diet has been found to interfere with the uptake of copper. Another is calcium and phosphorus, too much calcium can interfere with phosphorus and vice versa. There are many other examples. More on what is a balanced diet.

The cheapest, easiest and most accurate way to find out the level of nutrients in your horse’s diet is to test the main forage whether that be hay or pasture.

To determine whether nutrient levels are sufficient and balanced in a horse’s diet, the amounts consumed from forage, feeds and supplements can be compared with the amounts recommended in the 2007 Nutrient Requirements of Horses, 6th Edition by the National Research Council (NRC), the reference for equine nutritionists. Providing an insurance buffer by using at least 150% of NRC target minimums and keeping mineral ratios in a tight range will protect the horse from suboptimal intakes of trace minerals.

Manufacturers of feeds and supplements should supply a nutrient profile of their products when requested. With pasture or hay, the nutrient levels cannot be guessed by simply looking at it or comparing it with similar looking examples. Improved pastures tend to be higher in protein compared to native pastures but the levels of minerals do not fit a pattern. Previous land use, fertiliser history, plant species, soil type and acidity/pH will influence mineral levels. The cheapest, easiest and most accurate way to find out the level of nutrients in your horse’s forage is to send a representative sample to a laboratory for testing.

Testing a pasture or hay sample

The best and most affordable laboratory is Equi-Analytical in the USA as they can do the highest quality testing. Choose the test called 601 Equi-Tech NIR (near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy testing method) for either pasture or hay but if you want the most accurate results for all the carbohydrate fractions (for hay), then choose 603 Trainer or 604 Equine Complete (wet chemistry testing method). This is essential for any horse that is laminitis prone (insulin resistant, IR/EMS that needs low sugar and starch hay).

NIR ‘predicts’ levels based on the near-infrared spectrum of the sample. Wet chemistry actually tests for each nutrient using chemical reactions. NIR has to be calibrated to each specific type of hay and each growth stage for best accuracy and each lab has their own set of calibrations. If the sample deviates significantly from those used to calibrate (ideally many thousand samples), the estimates will be off.

Note: There is little value in testing carbohydrate levels in grass/pasture as the results will not be an accurate reflection. The sugar and starch levels change depending on factors such as the time of day, weather conditions, how stressed the grass is and so forth. Grass continues to metabolise after it’s picked so if the grass isn’t snap frozen or quickly dried, the numbers will be lower than actual levels.

There are a number of excellent laboratories in Australia but generally they don’t have the equipment to do the more accurate wet chemistry type of testing for ESC, including the NSW DPI laboratory at Wagga Wagga, NSW. An Australian lab that can offer wet chemistry for all the carbohydrate fractions including the very important ESC is Feed Central in Toowoomba, Queensland (via Equi-Analytical lab). Their Equi-Tech NIR test is ideal for pasture and hay where accurate testing of carbohydrate fractions is not needed. If you do want the most accurate testing of carbohydrate fractions, choose Equi-Trainer or Equi-Complete.

To learn more about how to collect a representative pasture sample, see the article on pasture testing – Case study: 3 pasture tests

Following is a short description of how a pasture or hay test can be used, space doesn’t allow for a full analysis.

Grass hay test results containing a range of native grasses

A representative sample of a grass hay was sent to Equi-Analytical.

The ‘Dry Matter’ column is used for pasture and ‘As Fed’ column for hay.

Terms explained:

% Moisture
This percentage refers to the amount of moisture in the sample when it was received by the lab. All moisture is removed for testing.

% Dry Matter
This portion of the sample contains carbohydrates, protein, fat and minerals.

Digestible Energy (DE)
Digestible energy gives the energy value of the feed, expressed as Mcal/kg. This mixed grass has an energy value of 1.93 Mcal/kg or 8.1 MJ/kg. To give an idea of what this means, a 500 kg horse in no work would need to consume 8.6 kg in dry matter to maintain a good weight, better known as body condition score. A horse in heavy work such as endurance or eventing would need to consume almost 14 kg in dry matter if no other feed was provided. If a test gives Metabolisable Energy (ME) it’s for ruminants like cattle and is not applicable for horses.

Crude Protein (CP)
Rather than protein itself this measures the level of nitrogen and nitrates. Protein contains nitrogen so it’s a useful indicator of protein, when the level of CP is considered high by a nutritionist then it’s advised to get the sample tested for nitrates as high nitrate levels can cause health issues in horses. This grass hay indicates 88.6 grams per kg. 8.6 kg contains about 762 grams, enough protein to support a 500 kg horse in no work.

Estimated Lysine
Lysine is an essential amino acid which means it must come from the diet. It’s often called the limiting amino acid, if there is a lysine deficiency then the proteins that require lysine cannot be manufactured by the cells and the unused protein will be excreted, causing muscle building issues. This hay is estimated to have 3.1 grams per kg which is borderline for meeting the lysine requirement. Supplementation of key essential amino acids including lysine would be recommended to avoid topline and muscle building issues.

The fibre fractions; Acid Detergent Fibre (ADF) and Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF) are very useful for evaluating the quality of hay. The total dietary fibre includes cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, pectin and other soluble fibres such as gums and mucilages.

Acid Detergent Fibre (ADF)
This gives a measure of two of the complex carbohydrates that make up the cell walls lignin and cellulose as well as acid detergent insoluble nitrogen, acid insoluble ash and silica. Cellulose is broken down by micro organisms (fermented) in the hind gut but lignin is virtually nonfermentable. Lignin is a key component of wood. The lower the number, the more fermentable the fibre and the easier for nutrients to be extracted from the plant material.

Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF)
This includes lignin and cellulose but also hemicellulose, another cell wall component. The lower the ADF and the higher the difference between ADF and NDF, the more fermentable the fibre. In this example, ADF is 38.9% and NDF 59.8% indicating it’s not the greatest quality of hay for horses.

WSC, ESC and starch can only be reliably tested in hay. When researchers test sugars and starch in pasture they immediately freeze the sample in liquid nitrogen to stop the sugars from metabolising further. Grass will continue to metabolise after it has been cut.

WSC (Water Soluble Carbohydrates)
These carbohydrates will dissolve to some extent in water and includes digestible sugars such as fructose, glucose, sucrose and indigestible plant sugars and some fructan (complex carbohydrate). WSC includes components like fructan which doesn’t cause insulin to rise so it’s not the best measure of safer hay for insulin resistant IR/EMS horses. The better measure for working out how safe your hay is likely to be is ESC (and starch).

ESC (Ethanol Soluble Carbohydrates)
ESC is a subset of WSC and includes sugars that are soluble in ethanol. ESC is important as this is the component that causes insulin to rise.

Starch
Starch is a complex carbohydrate made up of glucose sugars, it’s how plants store glucose. In animals glucose is stored as glycogen. For insulin resistant horses, glucose causes insulin to rise that may trigger the chain of steps resulting in laminitis. Dr Eleanor Kellon VMD advises to keep ESC + starch below 10% for the overall diet and individual feed ingredients. In this example, sugar + starch is 6.4% ‘As Fed’.

Non Fibre Carbohydrates (NFC)
This is calculated from adding starch to WSC and soluble fibres and plant sugars other than the simple digestible sugars. It includes all the carbohydrates that are not part of the cell wall of plants.

Major minerals
Calcium, phosphorus and magnesium are needed in gram amounts in the diet compared to the trace minerals which are only needed in small amount in miligrams. Many nutritionists aim for a calcium to phosphorus ratio between 1.2:1 to 2:1 though a higher ratio is considered to be okay, a ratio of 5:1 or higher is better to be temporary. A calcium to magnesium ratio is recommended to be between 1.5:1 and 2:1. This hay is fine for calcium up to a light workload for a 500 kg horse but phosphorus too low. Supplementation of phosphorus will also improve the calcium to phosphorus ratio. The test indicates that magnesium levels are quite generous and will support a horse up to moderate work.

The levels of electrolytes; potassium and sodium are included. Chloride is usually an additional request. Sodium is very low and cannot support a 500 kg horse’s maintenance needs, this is not looking at losses in sweat. It can be supplemented with salt allowing for a generous buffer, especially if the horse is in a hot climate and sweats easily. 2 to 4 tablespoons per day is appropriate, the excess is easily and efficiently excreted. Potassium vastly exceeds a horse’s requirements which is the norm for pasture and hay so never needs supplementing for horses in no work unless the horse has been exercised for more than 2 hours (and unable to eat). It’s recommended to supplementary feed your horse salt.

Trace minerals
Smaller amounts are required but trace minerals are no less important than the major minerals and includes iron, copper, zinc and manganese. Many nutritionists support the ideal ratio of 1:3 for copper to zinc. In this grass sample the ratio of copper to zinc is close to 1:3 but both copper and zinc are highly deficient for no work and requirements rise with increasing workload so must be supplemented. Molybdenum is a trace mineral that needs to be noted, at high levels it can interfere with copper uptake. Both iron and manganese vastly exceed needs, and in this example, the higher manganese than iron can potentially worsen the problems with too much iron.

Ash
You may have a total for ash on your test result. Ash is the total mineral content including those not on the analysis.

The results from a pasture or hay test can be used to select the best feeds and supplements to correct any deficiencies and optimise the mineral ratios.

Article originally published in the April – May 2010 (Vol 31 No 6) issue of Hoofbeats magazine, updated and added to.

Understanding a Hay or Pasture Test

Testing a pasture or hay sample

Grass hay test results containing a range of native grasses

Terms explained:

Further reading

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