The How and Why of Soaking Hay

 content of water soluble carbohydrate in the hay.

What is the Best Way to Soak Hay?

Soaking hay is as simple as that. Before feeding, the hay is submerged in water for a prescribed period of time, then pulled out of the water and fed. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It actually is simple once you have a good routine down for doing it, but there are many questions about how best to do it, and plenty of misinformation out there about expected outcomes.

A research trial was conducted by Dr. Krishona Martinson, an equine forage specialist at the University of Minnesota, on how long hay needs to be soaked to remove significant levels of WSC. Her experiment included several different kinds of hay, including orchard grass at different maturities.

In her research, Dr. Martinson was able to establish good practical guidelines for soaking hays. She found that soaking for 60 minutes in cool water removed 30 to 40 percent of the WSC in the grass hays depending on the maturity of the hay, without removing significant amounts of other nutrients such as phosphorous, magnesium, and potassium. Soaking for longer than one hour removed more WSC, but it also removed more of the other nutrients we feed hay to provide. She found that protein was not significantly changed no matter how long the hay was soaked, and calcium was also somewhat resistant to loss by soaking.

What’s the Most Practical Way