Differences between Analysis per party and Average analysis / News

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Analyzing hay is currently more popular than ever. The demand for hay with specific properties has grown. Horse owners are consciously engaged in the nutrition of their animals. And thus, the search for the 'golden' hay also began. Hay to you is the first organization that has all batches of hay analyzed before it is sold. Only in this way do customers know exactly what they are feeding their animal. A solution for many horse owners! To really make a good choice, it is important to know how hay is analyzed, what different methods exist, and what to pay attention to. Robin explains it.

Average hay analysis explained

There are many sellers of hay with an analysis. By far the most providers work with an “average analysis.” An average analysis is all the values from various batches thrown together. And then they take the average value from that. The values that are communicated do not say anything about the batch you receive. This can be higher or lower on various points. This is not a problem if you are not a critical buyer, if your animals do not have specific nutritional needs. But when you do have a horse with a certain need, an allergy, or for example insulin resistance, a horse that does not tolerate sugar well, then you want to be sure in advance that you are getting low-sugar hay. If you then buy a batch of hay with an average analysis, you are never sure that you are actually feeding your horse roughage that is low in sugar. You still do not know what your animal is eating.

Roughage with analysis per batch

Do you want to know what your animal is eating? Then choose a batch with an analysis specific to that batch. The supply of analyzed hay is not that large. And the analyzed batches are often quite expensive. Especially if it is low-sugar hay. This has various causes: low-sugar hay is scarce and it is also a challenge for the seller to be able to offer it.

Why is low-sugar hay scarce?

We are all looking for something that is so rare: low-sugar hay. How come there is so little low-sugar hay? We see more and more hay with a high sugar content due to climate change, over-fertilization, and numerous other reasons. Sellers of analyzed hay do not offer batches with such a high sugar content. That makes no sense, as no one is looking for that; it is undesirable. Sellers who sell hay at average values include such a batch in the large pile. And if you receive that batch, you simply have bad luck.

Unsellable batches of hay with analysis

At Hay to You, we analyze each batch separately. And then it often turns out after analysis that many batches are not suitable for horses. Why can we still organize this well? The big advantage of Hay to You is that we are part of a large parent company that trades a lot of batches of hay and straw. For Hay to You, we are allowed to sift out the best batches. Only the gems make it to our webshop.

Logistical challenge of analyzed hay

Selling hay with analysis per batch also has important logistical considerations. It starts with collecting the different batches, which all need to be stored separately. That is of course very inefficient. The batches are all analyzed separately, and when we receive the results of the analyses, the hay has often already been in storage for a week. Then we see that 70 to 80% of the batches are not interesting for our customers. We remove those from storage, having stood there for nothing. So before we put 1 batch in the webshop, we have already retrieved, analyzed, and removed many batches. After that, we still have to keep the batch separate for quite some time, until everything is delivered. This is a logistical challenge, especially if you do this on a large scale. And this also directly explains why hay with an analysis per batch is more expensive than hay with an average analysis.

Is it necessary to know what your animal is eating?

Ultimately, you as a consumer determine what suits you best; there is no right or wrong. If you have been feeding hay with average or no analysis for years without any problems, then there is no reason to panic. Does your animal experience nutrition-related problems such as overweight, thick legs, a hard mane crest, or insulin resistance? Then it is good to take a look at analyzed hay. You can then feed hay that fits your animal much better. 

Do you have questions about this story? Or about our products? Then contact us. We are always happy to think along with your question.