Alfalfa Hay VS Pellets?

[Renie]

Hi there, I can’t answer your question but as for me, I feed soaked alfalfa cubes because I believe the cubes provide more roughage than the pellets do. I also sprinkle the SBM on top of it. She really likes it, and seems to be very satisfied. I also of course feed grass hay but I soak that as well to lower the sugar content🤠

[Lancette]

Renie,

Thank you for your response. I agree, the difference is in the roughage. It does seem like horses need the roughage that actual hay or hay cubes provide. For years I fed a Bermuda/Alfalfa fortified pellets. My horses did not thrive like they are now. One of them had severe ulcers. Is the difference between now and then just due to the addition of the soybean meal or switching from the pelleted alfalfa to real alfalfa hay, I wonder.

[Kathy]

I personally prefer the hay form because it’s less processed than pellets or cubes but nutritionally I think it’s pretty similar by weight other than the fiber length.

[Lancette]

Kathy,

Thank you for your response to my question. I also prefer hay but I have several friends who have their horses on the no grain diet who feed pellets in place of alfalfa. From my past experience, I believe hay is better than pellets. I would love to hear what Doc T thinks about this? Is there a big difference between feeding hay verses pellets or cubes.

[Doc-t]

In human nutrition, processing has been associated with increased uptake in carbohydrates due to the faster transit times. While everyone is looking at “roughage,” processing the alfalfa shouldn’t affect the composition of starch and cellulose but it will affect the transit time. This is why in humans eating starch from vegetables has a lower glycemic index (degree in which the amount of glucose is seen in the blood after consuming the food) than processed sugar (table sugar, cookies, etc).

While I’m not sure if there is data on this, I would assume that if any hay is ground into a pellet, the starch would become more available raising its glycemic index. However, without data we also don’t know if the colonic bacteria would also have greater access to the ground cellulose – or even if the bioavailability of the protein increases. All of these factors are reasonable.

When feeding pellets there is an increased chance of choke. This is why I only recommend a handful of hay pellets and why I don’t recommend more than this unless they are added to water. The reason I would add more pellets would be for a horse unable to chew or for another medical reason. I believe pasture is number one followed in order by hay, cubes and finally pellets. This said, my wife adds a handful of hay pellets to the soybean meal with no other reason than the horse likes it.