Original Research
Acceptability of Teff Hay by Horses

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2011.11.008Get rights and content

Abstract

Teff (Eragrostis tef) is a productive warm season annual grass. Because teff is relatively new to the horse industry in the United States, horses unaccustomed to teff hay were used in two sets of two-choice preference tests comparing teff with alfalfa hay or teff with timothy hay. A second experiment used mature mares to compare voluntary dry matter intake (VDMI) of teff hay and timothy hay. In the two-choice preference tests, horses preferred alfalfa hay and timothy hay to teff hay (P < .05). Horses preferred teff hay that was cut at an earlier stage of maturity and had lower concentrations of neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber than teff hay cut at a later stage of maturity. In the VDMI experiment, four mares were fed teff hay and four mares were fed timothy hay for 17 days. Both hays had been harvested in the head stage of maturity. VDMI was measured during the last 10 days and was not different between the two groups of horses (P > .05). It was concluded that horses that are unfamiliar with teff may discriminate against it when it is offered simultaneously with alfalfa or timothy; however, if not given a choice, horses will consume approximately the same amount of mature teff as mature timothy. Additional studies are needed to compare VDMI of early maturity teff hay with other common hays.

Introduction

Teff (Eragrostis tef) is a warm season annual grass that originated in Africa where it is used primarily for grain production. Recently, nongrain varieties of teff that can be grazed or harvested for hay have become available in the United States [1]. Under good growing conditions, several cuttings of teff can be harvested from one planting, and annual dry matter yields in excess of 4 tons/acre have been reported [2], [3]. Because teff can produce relatively large yields in a short growing season, it can be an appealing crop for hay producers. When harvested in early maturity, teff hay has been reported to have a nutrient composition similar to timothy hay [1] or full bloom alfalfa hay [4]. However, no feeding experiments have been reported that compare teff with other common horse hays.

If horses discriminate against a novel feed when it is first offered, horse owners may be reluctant to continue using it in their feeding programs. Horses appear to prefer legumes and some cool season grasses to most warm season grasses [5], [6], [7]. Because teff is a warm season grass, it may have lower palatability than legume or cool season grass hays. Similarly, lower voluntary dry matter intakes (VDMI) have been reported for warm season grasses than for legumes and some cool season grasses [5], [8], [9]. If intake is reduced when teff is fed to horses, then daily nutrient intakes may be reduced as well. Depending on nutrient composition and nutrient availability, limited VDMI of teff could result in marginal or deficient nutrient intakes by horses [10].

Because studies comparing teff with common horse hays have not been reported, we conducted two experiments. In experiment 1, we used two sets of two-choice preference tests to determine whether horses accepted teff as readily as timothy hay or alfalfa hay. Preference tests were conducted without adapting horses to teff hay to simulate a situation in which a horse owner would offer the hay for the first time. In experiment 2, we compared VDMI of mature horses offered either timothy hay or teff hay for a longer period.

Section snippets

Experiment 1: Palatability Comparison for Teff, Alfalfa, and Timothy Hays

Two sets of two-choice preference tests were conducted to compare the palatability of teff hay with timothy hay and alfalfa hay. Two lots of teff hay, one lot of timothy hay, and one lot of alfalfa hay were used. The two teff hays used in this experiment included a small lot that had been harvested in the early heading stage (E-Teff; E tef, var “Tiffany”) approximately 1 year before the study and a larger lot that had been harvested at the late heading stage (L-Teff; E tef, var. “Horse Candy”)

Experiment 1: Palatability Comparison for Teff, Alfalfa, and Timothy Hays

In the two-choice preference tests, horses exhibited a strong preference (P < .05) for alfalfa over teff (Fig. 1). Alfalfa comprised more than 85% of the hay consumed during the time that horses had access to either alfalfa-teff combination. Previous reports have suggested that alfalfa hay is highly preferred to grass hay [5], [7], and therefore these results were not unexpected. It has been suggested that teff hay is similar in acceptability to timothy hay [1] but in the second set of

Summary

In two-choice preference tests, horses showed a preference for teff hay that was harvested in the early heading stage compared with teff hay harvested in late heading stage. However, when horses were offered a choice between teff hay and alfalfa hay or teff hay and timothy hay, they discriminated against the teff hay. In this study, horses that were unfamiliar with teff hay were used in order to simulate a practical situation in which teff would be offered for the first time. It is possible

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station and is published as KAES 10-07-139.

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