fully matured and over matured hay

Question

fully matured and over   hello ma'am, i have attached 2 images in single image. which one is the fully matured hay and which one is over matured hay? may i know why not to feed over matured hay?

Answer
Hello Rohit,

Thank you for your question.  The more mature a forage is at the time it is cut, the less nutrients it contains and the more difficult it may be for the horse to digest.  The shortage of nutrients in mature hay will not necessarily harm your horse and you can easily supplement the horse's diet to ensure a good plane of nutrition.  However, the volume of indigestible (or unfermentable) fiber can pose a risk for the horse developing impaction colic.  The fiber can not be fermented and accumulates in the cecum, sometimes blocking the juncture between the cecum and large intestine (cecal-ileal valve).  Supplementing the diet of a horse consuming very mature forages with yeast culture or live yeast will maximize the efficiency of the cecal bacteria at fermenting moderately mature forages, and cut down (although not completely eliminate)the risk of impactions.

Thanks, Corlena