Home › Blog › Hay Quality Testing Guide
By Schneider Saddlery • May 26, 2026 • 8 min read
You can build the most detailed horse feeding plan possible, but if you do not know the nutritional value of your hay, you are still making educated guesses.
Hay often makes up 50-100% of a horse's diet, and its nutritional content can vary dramatically depending on grass species, maturity at harvest, growing conditions, fertilization, storage, and weather. Two bales that look nearly identical may have completely different protein, sugar, and calorie levels.
A hay analysis is one of the most valuable tools horse owners can use to improve feeding accuracy. For roughly $15-30, a forage test can help you balance your horse's diet, avoid nutritional deficiencies, and better manage conditions like obesity, insulin resistance, and laminitis.
Hay testing matters because two bales of "grass hay" from different farms can have dramatically different nutritional profiles
Without testing, you're making feeding decisions based on assumptions. With testing, you know exactly what your horse is getting.
Hay testing allows you to make informed feeding decisions instead of relying on visual appearance alone.
What Does a Hay Test Tell You?
A forage analysis measures the nutritional composition of your hay so you can better match it to your horse's needs.
A typical hay test may evaluate
For horse owners managing metabolic horses, NSC levels are often one of the most important numbers on the report.
NSC stands for Non-Structural Carbohydrates, which includes sugar and starch content in forage.
High-NSC hay may increase the risk of:
For many horses with insulin resistance, Equine Metabolic Syndrome, or laminitis history, nutritionists often recommend hay with NSC levels below 10-12%.
Since sugar levels cannot be accurately determined by appearance alone, forage testing is the best way to identify whether hay is appropriate for metabolic horses.
Collecting a representative sample is critical for accurate results.
Taking a single handful from one bale does not provide enough information to accurately reflect an entire hay batch.
A hay corer collects samples from the center of the bale, where nutrients and moisture are more evenly represented.
Many county extension offices, feed stores, or agricultural programs offer hay probes for loan.
Collect samples from approximately 12-20 bales from the same cutting or hay lot.
Sampling multiple bales helps create an average nutritional profile for the entire batch.
Place all hay cores into a clean bucket and mix thoroughly.
Then transfer approximately one quart of the mixed sample into a sealed plastic bag.
Include
Keep samples dry and out of direct sunlight before shipping to the lab.
Fresh, properly stored samples provide the most accurate analysis.
Recommended forage analysis labs:
Request the Equine-specific panel which includes NSC (Non-Structural Carbohydrates). Standard dairy panels often don't include NSC.
Once your forage report arrives, several key values help determine whether the hay is appropriate for your horse.
Once you understand your hay quality, you can make more accurate feeding adjustments.
If protein levels are low, your horse may benefit from:
If hay sugar levels are too high for metabolic horses:
Hay soaking may help reduce sugar content by approximately 20–30%.
Lower-energy hay may work well for easy keepers, horses on weight-loss programs, and horses at maintenance. Performance horses or hard keepers may require additional calories beyond low-energy forage alone.
If calcium or phosphorus levels are unbalanced, targeted vitamin and mineral supplementation may help correct deficiencies.
Hay should ideally be tested:
Even hay from the same farm can vary significantly between spring, summer, and fall cuttings.
Knowing your hay quality makes it much easier to determine daily hay intake, feeding amounts by workload, easy-keeper adjustments, and concentrate recommendations. Use your hay analysis results alongside the calculator to create a more precise feeding program tailored to your horse.
