Question

My partner and I have been raising horses for years. When we shop for hay, I have a preference for orchardgrass hay, and he heads to the stack of timothy. We know they're both grasses and both suitable for horses, of course, but is one "better" than the other, assuming they were harvested at the same stage of growth and both are good quality?

Answer

If timothy and orchardgrass hay are cut at the same maturity and harvested under the same conditions, there is little difference in their nutrient content, although orchardgrass has a tendency to be a little higher in protein.

The biggest difference between the two types of grass hay can be seen when the two are compared at different growth stages. Timothy is very low-yielding when cut at a young age, so it is rare to see pure timothy hay that is without seed heads. On the other hand, orchardgrass can be cut before the seed heads emerge with a fairly high yield, producing a leafy, non-stemmy hay.

While the quality of a young orchardgrass hay outshines timothy hay typically offered for sale, for some reason, young orchardgrass hay is not always palatable to some horses. Palatability of a hay often depends on what the horse is accustomed to. For example, if a horse has only been given timothy hay, it might reject orchardgrass when first exposed to it, even though it is good quality.