What is this in our hay?

[Leeana]

We purchased around 85 bales of alfalfa / orchard grass mix hay from a local farmer towards the end of last year and just got around to feeding it, all of the horses (ALL of them!) pick this out and literally toss it out of their stall or push it into the corner of their stall and bunch it all together...it is actually laying in the isle every evening / morning when i go down to the barn after tossing hay into them.

This is a photo ... there is a lot of it in the hay but i just grabbed this stray piece.

It is not pokey like it looks...its semi soft semi hard, but not pokey...just kind of stiff like alfalfa would be.

 

[Alisha514]

We have that in our hay to. Have no idea what it is. Our horses pick around it and dont eat it. I dont think it would hurt them I just think they dont like the texture of it. Would be interesting to find out what it is, hopefully someone on here may know.

Alisha

 

[Leeana]

We have that in our hay to. Have no idea what it is. Our horses pick around it and dont eat it. I dont think it would hurt them I just think they dont like the texture of it. Would be interesting to find out what it is, hopefully someone on here may know.

Alisha

Maybe it is possibly we are using the same hay guy? We got this bunch of hay from a farmer on the other side of Rt 4 heading towards Sandusky. They do a real good job at picking it out, but i want to know what it is exactly.

 

[MinisOutWest]

looks like a type of tumble weed thing we have around here, will ask my plant specialist/ range biologist husband when he gets home, might not understand the name, will ask him to explain it in English, ha ha

Believe me, we have tumble weeds here too. some bigger than the minis, but there are several species of tumbles, just because I say tumble weed does not mean it is the full blown tumble weed, just a side kick of one.

 

[Magic]

It looks like a tumbleweed. We get them here quite a bit, usually along the roadways where they aren't mowed. They can easily blow into a hayfield. Or they could be growing in the hayfields where you are buying your hay.

 

[Keri]

I thought tumbleweed too, but its pretty brittle once its blowing around (and you said this was soft and its green). So maybe just a nasty tasting weed. If the horses pick through it, I wouldn't be bothered. Guess they know what they want.

 

[Katiean]

I third that. Tumble weed. We have it all over here.

 

[MinisOutWest]

OK READY - Sisymbrium Altissimum or in english 'Tumbling Mustard'. totally harmless

 

[Margo_C-T]

Clearly, you guys don't live in the land of 'tumbling tumbleweeds'!

Interesting that it is considered a mustard; out here, we have a number of varieties of mustard...Tansy tends to contaminate alfalfa fields, for instance...but never saw anything quite like the one pictured... perhaps it is more 'regional' in distribution?

What is widely known as the tumbleweed, common name Russian thistle, because it was a 'gift' to us from Russia, doesn't look anything like that...believe me, as one who has spent a lifetime fighting them, as they are endemic to this part of the SW.

Sorry, I have no pics to post of one(though any given day at this time of year I could walk out and pick one off my fenceline to photograph!), but it would be easy enough, I'm sure to google them and find some good pics! Mature tumbleweeds are WICKEDLY thorny, tend to take over any disturbed soil, can grow to IMMENSE sizes(up to 4' or more tall, and that big around)-they tend to be round in shape, the better to roll across the country spreading seeds after they mature, die and turn brown and brittle, so that the stem snaps under pressure of wind, and away they go!

Be glad you don't really have them! That said, I've returned hay with any signigicant kind of ANY sort of weeds in it; I pay for quality, and I expect to get it.

Margo

 

[Minimor]

I was going to say it's what we call wild mustard here, or it could be canola--hard to tell just from the photo.

We too get the real big, round tumbling tumbleweeds, but not so many here as we had in western North Dakota when I was a kid. Down there you could watch them roll past one day tomorrow, then tomorrow the wind would switch and you'd watch them all come rolling back the other way! Very tiresome. Here, we see just the odd one rolling through the pasture, or we'll find a couple stuck in the fence--thankfully they aren't around in any great numbers!

 

[Margo_C-T]

Minimor-

Your description of 'tumbleweed behavior' is all too accurate!

Here, because our prevailing winds are SO prevailing(out of the SW in spring; NW in winter), ours usually travel only one direction, but in a lifetime in the SW US, I've seen plenty of 'back and forth tumbleweed travel!!) Of course, they are distributing seeds as they go--a big reason they 'show up' so many places now, esp. on the plains, where there's lots of wind...

True tumbleweeds are a REAL plant pest. They pile up along fencelines,sometimes even causing the fence to be pushed over when the wind 'pushes' the tumblers-- and 'fill' culverts/bar-ditches, creating a HECK of a fire hazard(dry tumbleweeds burn like tinder). They 'take over' disturbed soil areas, driving out other more useful plants that might 'try' to grow there. Some horses may nibble on them when they are young and 'soft',but later on, they become so 'thorny' that most don't want them--and you can't blame them! Not sure about cattle, but I do believe even they aren't interested unless there is no other choice (i.e., overgrazed land).

Truthfully, I HATE tumbleweeds; fight them constantly. Coming 29 years ago, when I moved up here to this colder, higher NM elevation, you almost never saw tumbleweeds around where I live...yet they've established themselves, thanks largely to increased human activity. Same with Koshia, which was another pest of the Rio Grande river valley, where I lived before--and, of Tansy and other pesky mustard varieties. When you live where there is so much wind, and you are considerate of the land, you want to keep the 'good' plants alive and holding onto the soil, keep the 'garbage' OUT!

Margo

 

[Keri]

I can't tell you how many times I hit a tumbleweed with my car!

At our last house, we'd have tumble weeds galore (and it was always blowing there!). Think we finally moved out of that area into a nicer farming community up north.

Hmm...but a tumbleweed mustard?? Is that the same as the tumbleweeds we have blowing around or just a different/softer version??

 

[Minimor]

The mature tumbleweeds sure do burn like tinder. If I'm burning old straw/hay/manure I like to find a tumbleweed to put on top when I'm first lighting the pile...love to watch the old weed go WHOOOSH...

no pyromaniac here, I assure you

I don't, of course, light one--or any fire--if there's much wind or it's tinder dry; sure wouldn't need any burning tumbleweed to go rolling away across the pasture, even if it wouldn't go far before it disintegrated into ash!

 

[Alisha514]

We may have gotten the same hay. The farmer we get it from is on rt.6. If not it may be close enough they have the same type of hay.

Alisha