Grass growth rates are above the 5 year average in the UK! Great news for hay crop and prices, not so great for laminitis and EMS horse owners. After a difficult winter in the UK and hay shortages meaning huge price rises, the team at DrDavidMarlin.com decided that we needed to support horse owners by helping you prepare for a hay shortage or ensure that everyone knows that there won’t be a hay shortage and there might be the opportunity to shop around for the best price! With that in mind, we have been delivering you a weekly #ForageForecast so that we can track grass growth and hay production this year! We also hosted some webinars to support you further, Laminitis/EMS and Forage covering hay, haylage, and silage and feeding for specific types. Details below.
Health warning
If you have horses or ponies prone to colic, obesity, EMS, laminitis, adverse behaviour etc, this is the time to limit grass intake. If you do, then ensure that you provide additional forage in the form of hay, preferably soaked or soaked and steamed.
Watch our Laminitis and EMS webinar, click here
Watch our Forage 4 Knowledge webinars with two leading experts:
Dr Helen Warren: Feeding forage in practical terms: Click here
Dr David Davies: Hay, Haylage and Silage: Click here
The last week’s grass growth:
- Average daily growth rates are up 4.3 kg DM/ha, to 63 kg DM/ha
- Average growth rates are ahead compared to the growth rated at the same time this time last year and ahead of the 5-year average, 51.26 kg DM/ha
- Highest regional average daily growth rates are seen in Wales, 89.67 kg DM/ha
Reference:
The information on grass growth has come from the Forage For Knowledge page on the AHDB website: click here
