Some horse owners in drought-affected states have been searching high and low for affordable forage for their horses. To that end, one research team recently completed a study evaluating an alternative type of grass hay that could be a viable option for some equids: teff hay.

Teff is a relatively new type of warm season grass in the United States and is capable of producing large hay yields in a short period of time, making it an attractive option for horse owners in need of forage. To date, however, no researchers had compared its acceptability versus that of legumes and cool season grass hays. Thus, Laurie Lawrence, PhD, professor in the department of animal and food sciences at the University of Kentucky, led a two-part study aimed at a) determining if horses would consume teff hay as readily as timothy or alfalfa, and b) comparing intake levels of teff and timothy hay.

In the first part of the study, the research team evaluated eight adult mares’ preference for two different teff hay maturities and comparable alfalfa and timothy maturities. Researchers provided the horses with approximately 4 kg (just shy of 9 lbs) of two different hays–teff and either alfalfa or timothy–in separate hay nets for one hour. Then, the researchers measured the remaining hay to determine how much of each the horse had consumed.

The team found that horses showed a preference for the alfalfa and timothy hays over teff hay offered. Of the two varieties of teff offered, horses preferred less mature opposed to more mature