NEWS & VIEWS Drought to Damp, Mud & Mold... Another Hay Crisis?
by Les Vough, Forage Crops Extension Specialist Emeritus, University of Maryland
We have had fi ve years of limited supplies of good quality hay but a more than adequate supply of lower quality hay. T is year is diff er- ent; we facing short supplies of all types of hay. Finding suitable quality hay this winter is going to be a greater challenge.
Local Supply
Across the region, there is probably an ad- equate supply of the lower quality hay. In some areas, particularly western Maryland and southwestern Pennsylvania, there was some carryover of lower quality hay from 2010. While most areas in Maryland and surround-
ing areas had good rainfall to grow their fi rst- cutting hay crops this year, they once again faced real challenges to get it put up in a timely man- ner. T ey experienced a lot of cloudy weather and nuisance rain showers during the early part of summer. T us a lot of hay in those areas is either rain-damaged, overmature due to delayed har-
HOLY COW-MOLDY MOWS! Is there a Colic Connection?
T e Equiery has had numerous reports of mows full of hay which, in this prolonged dampness, have suddenly become moldy. Horse owners that thought they had put up adequate reserves of hay are now faced with not only having to clear out lofts and other storage areas, but they are faced with the challenge of trying to fi nd replacement hay. Not fun. Of course, the initial “rush to judgment” of most folks is that the horse owner or farm owner obviously didn’t store the hay correctly to begin with. So, we asked Maryland’s foremost hay expert, Les Vough (Forage Crops Extension Specialist Emeritus, University of Maryland and a hay farmer himself), about this.
“I’m fi nding this to be a common problem this year as a result of the
damp weather conditions, especially the last month or so. T e problem is not limited to this area. I talked to my brother yesterday (mid-September) in southwestern Pennsylvania, and he has a partially fi lled mow that he walked across the other day and he raised a cloud of dust with every step. I delivered hay to a customer on Saturday (mid-September) who is temporarily storing hay in a dirt fl oor box stall on pallets. T e few bales left in there were the same. T ey were not musty when I put them in there a month or so ago. T e box stall has no air fl ow even with the top door open, plus in this case (with the ongoing rain and the ground satu- rated) water had run right up to the door and possibly even under some of the pallets. Within the last couple of days a faculty member from Penn State has
reported the same thing happening in central PA. I have seen this in past years on our home farm in Pennsylvania, but
attributed it primarily to not having suffi cient airfl ow when the hay went through the sweat. But that was obviously not the entire case this year. T e hay in the partially fi lled mow was not suffi ciently dry when it was put in the barn but it has been there for over a month, has long since gone through the sweat, and only recently developed the musty dust on the surface. What is now obvious this year is that the dry hay on exposed surfaces of the mow or stack is picking up moisture from the air as a result of all of the rain and damp weather that we have had within the last month. T ere is either not enough airfl ow to redry the hay, or what air fl ow we had was damp, and thus the surface of the bales stayed damp and got musty.
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vest, or both. Some hay growers are still trying to fi nish up a second cutting when they should now be doing third and fourth cuttings. After a challenging fi rst cutting it turned ex-
tremely dry in some areas so the mid-summer cuttings were very short or in some cases nothing at all. So the supply of the midsummer cuttings, which is usually the higher quality hay, is down. As we approach the end of the 2011 haymak- ing season, the weather does not look promising for making suffi cient supplies of good quality horse hay this winter. With all of the rain that we have had in the last month or so, there is now a lot of grass in our hay fi elds that could be made into good hay if we only had haymaking weather. Instead we have rain. To compound this problem, we are quickly running out of daylight hours; we need the intense sunshine to dry hay at this point, so unless weather condi- tions change soon we are not going to put up much more hay this year. It has been another diffi cult year for hay growers. If all of this weren’t bad enough, we are also experiencing losses of hay in storage from all
of the damp weather the last month or so (see accompanying box for specifi cs). While not a major factor in the overall supply situation, it can be a factor in reducing the quality of hay already in storage, whether it started off as high or low quality hay when it went into storage. It can also factor into demand, as those who thought they had put up suffi cient quantities of hay earlier in the season are now faced with the same scramble of fi nding enough hay to last through this winter. (Not to mention that it factors into the wallets of those who have to buy hay twice.)
National Supply
USDA reports that the U.S. hay acreage is the smallest it’s been in more than a century, the low- est on records going back to 1909. Compound fewer acres available for hay with on-and-off wet weather in parts of the Midwest, Upper Great Plains and the Mid-Atlantic Region, historic drought in Texas, Oklahoma and parts of the Southwest and extremely dry weather in some
continued on page 12
After a period of damp, rainy weather I would suggest opening the slid- ing doors on both ends, even the windows, to get as much airfl ow through the storage area as possible. T e vents are not suffi cient. Leave the doors and windows open for at least a week as long as it is not raining. If you are willing to go to the extra eff ort, even open during the day, close at night now that we are having high humidity, and maybe fog, at night. If the hay is a loss and you can’t use it, but you have a neighbor with
cattle, you might be able to sell the damaged hay at a reduced price. Usu- ally it doesn’t aff ect the entire bale, only a couple of inches in from the exposed side or end. Is there a colic connection? T e Equiery started receiving reports of various gut problems, including
colic, that many were attributing to moldy hay. We put the question before the Maryland Equine Health Advisory Committee, which is made up of leading equine vets in Maryland, research scientists from various Maryland institu- tions, and several members of the general equestrian community, including licensed stable owners and racetrack reps. T ough possible, I think it is unlikely that mold is the cause of the colic. It is more likely that there is contamination in the hay with bacterial growth with or without production of toxins, and the mold just happens to be present as well. If the mold has been identifi ed, fi nding an expert to give an opinion on toxicity would be a logical step. T at said, the recent rain has caused rapid pasture growth, which is
more likely to cause colic, and with adequate sugar intake severe colic can be the result.” - Nathaniel A. White II, DVM, MS Diplomate ACVS; Jean Ellen Shehan Professor and Director, Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center
“ Rather than throw away thousands of dollars of potentially good hay, the owners may want to consider sending their hay off for mycotoxin testing. T e cost is $65 if they send it to Equi-Analytical (http://www.equi-ana-
lytical.com/default.htm), but it might tell them whether they have mold spores growing in their hay or not. T at might be something the vet would like to do anyway if colic associated with hay mold is suspected. We are seeing some mild diarrhea in our pastured horses, which is likely due to the high water content of the pasture given all of the rain we had.” - Amy O. Burk, PhD, Associate Professor & Extension Horse Specialist, University of Maryland
OCTOBER 2011 | THE EQUIERY | 9
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