Many people grow their own hay. If you, like most horse owners, cannot grow and harvest your own hay, how do you ensure that the hay you are buying is of good quality with the proper nutrition for your animals?
Traditionally good hay is green and leafy, smells and tastes sweet and should be without mold, dust, weeds, bugs or rain damage.
Looks can be deceiving! A proven method of evaluating forages without an agronomy degree is to obtain the RFV number. RFV (Relative Feed Value) measures digestibility and the amount of energy potential available to the animal.
RFV is measured in a six tiered scale with a range between zero and 150. A value of 100 represents average good quality hay. The tiers are as follows: Prime – over 150; Premium – 125-150; Good – 103-124; Fair – 87-102; Poor – 75-86; Reject – under 74. The higher the RFV, the better the digestibility of whichever hay you purchase.