Canola Hay

Canola hay is made from canola (Brassica napus), an oilseed crop that is cut and baled before it reaches full maturity. Rather than letting the crop go through to grain harvest, producers who make canola hay cut the plant while it still has green leaf and stem material and bale it for use as a livestock feed.

Canola is not a traditional hay crop in the way that oats or lucerne are. Canola hay is typically an opportunistic product - it is made when a canola crop is damaged by frost, hail, disease, or dry conditions and will not produce a viable grain yield, or when hay prices are strong enough to make cutting the crop for fodder more profitable than taking it through to harvest.

This means canola hay supply is irregular and unpredictable compared to the main cereal and legume hays. It tends to appear on the market in larger quantities following difficult seasons in canola-growing regions, and in limited supply in years when conditions favour a full grain harvest.

It is predominantly a cattle feed. Canola hay has some useful nutritional characteristics but also some management considerations that buyers need to understand before feeding it, particularly for horses and sheep.

Browse hay and fodder listings on LocalAg to see what is currently available. If you cannot find canola hay listed near you, post a free Wanted Ad and our team will find a verified supplier.

Yes, canola hay can be a useful feed for cattle and is most commonly used for beef cattle in southern Australia when it is available.

For beef cattle on maintenance and growing rations, canola hay provides a reasonable combination of energy, protein, and fibre. The protein content of canola hay, typically sitting between 10 and 16% crude protein depending on cutting stage and variety, is higher than most cereal hays, which gives it some nutritional advantages over oaten or wheaten hay for cattle that need more than a basic maintenance ration.

For cows in late pregnancy or lactating, canola hay can support condition reasonably well. It is not in the same league as lucerne hay for protein, but it sits above the cereal hays and can reduce the amount of protein supplementation needed alongside a base hay ration.

For dairy cattle, canola hay can work as a component of a total mixed ration, contributing both fibre and moderate protein. It would not typically replace lucerne as the primary protein hay in a dairy TMR but can supplement it or reduce the quantity needed.

A few practical management points for feeding canola hay to cattle. Introduce it gradually rather than offering it freely to animals that have not eaten it before.

Brassica feeds including canola can cause digestive upsets when introduced too quickly to livestock not accustomed to them. Also ensure cattle have access to other roughage alongside canola hay, as it is lower in fibre than the main cereal hays and benefits from being paired with a higher-fibre feed.

This is an area where caution is warranted. Canola hay is generally not recommended as a feed for horses and most equine nutritionists advise against it.

The primary concern is the glucosinolate content of canola plants. Glucosinolates are compounds naturally present in all brassica plants including canola. When consumed and broken down during digestion, glucosinolates can interfere with thyroid function, affect iodine metabolism, and in larger quantities cause digestive and metabolic issues.

Cattle and sheep have rumen microflora that can process and detoxify glucosinolates more effectively than horses. The equine digestive system is less equipped to handle these compounds, which makes horses more susceptible to adverse effects.

In addition, canola hay can have a strong smell and flavour that many horses find unpalatable, which may limit voluntary intake. However, hungry horses will eat most things available to them, so palatability is not a reliable safety mechanism.

For horses, the well-established and safer options include oaten hay, wheaten hay, lucerne, and for metabolic horses specifically, teff hay. If you are in a situation where canola hay is the only available feed option, consult your veterinarian before feeding it to horses and keep quantities limited.

Canola hay can be fed to sheep with care, but there are management considerations that make it a feed that needs to be handled thoughtfully rather than simply offered freely.

Glucosinolates are the primary concern. As with cattle, sheep can process glucosinolates through rumen fermentation more effectively than horses, but high inclusion rates of canola hay over extended periods can still cause problems including thyroid disruption and reduced iodine availability. Canola varieties bred for low glucosinolate content, sometimes described as double-zero or 00 varieties, have a significantly better safety profile than older high-glucosinolate varieties.

Practical management for feeding canola hay to sheep:

1. Introduce gradually over one to two weeks rather than switching abruptly
2. Do not feed canola hay as the sole roughage source. Use it alongside cereal hays to dilute the glucosinolate load
3. Ensure adequate iodine in the diet, particularly for pregnant ewes, as glucosinolates interfere with iodine availability
4. Avoid feeding large quantities to ewes in late pregnancy or to lambs where glucosinolate sensitivity is higher
5. If possible, ask the seller whether the canola variety is low glucosinolate

At moderate inclusion rates alongside other feeds, canola hay can be a useful supplementary roughage and protein source for sheep. It becomes a problem when fed in large quantities as the primary or sole feed over extended periods.

Canola hay sits above the main cereal hays on protein and in a comparable range on energy, which gives it some nutritional advantages, though it comes with the management considerations around glucosinolates described above.

Protein: Canola hay typically runs between 10 and 16% crude protein on a dry matter basis, depending on variety, cutting stage, and season. This is meaningfully higher than oaten hay, wheaten hay, and barley hay, which typically sit between 7 and 12% CP. The protein advantage makes canola hay more useful than straight cereal hay for livestock at moderate production stages.

Energy: Canola hay is broadly comparable to the main cereal hays in metabolisable energy, around 8 to 10 MJ/kg DM. It is not a high-energy feed but provides adequate energy for maintenance and moderate production.

Fibre: Canola hay is lower in fibre (NDF) than cereal hays. This is one reason it is recommended to pair it with a higher-fibre roughage source rather than feeding it as the sole hay. Adequate fibre intake is important for rumen health in cattle and sheep.

Glucosinolates: This is where cereal hays have the clear advantage. Oaten, wheaten, and barley hay carry none of the glucosinolate management considerations associated with canola hay. For producers who want a straightforward, lower-risk feed without specific management requirements, cereal hays are the simpler choice.

Cost and availability: Canola hay is an opportunistic product that appears on the market irregularly. When it is available it can be competitively priced because it is often produced from crops that cannot be taken through to grain. Cereal hays are more consistently available year-round.

Canola is a winter oilseed crop grown across southern Australia, which means its growing season and the window for cutting it as hay follows the same broad timing as winter cereal crops.

Canola is typically sown from April to June across Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and southern NSW. The crop reaches the stage where it could be cut for hay from around August to October, depending on sowing date, variety, and seasonal conditions.

Unlike cereal hays where cutting for hay is the planned outcome, canola hay is usually cut when something has gone wrong with the grain crop. This means availability is not predictable in the way that oaten or wheaten hay supply is.

Canola hay tends to appear on the market in larger volumes in years when:

1. Late frost damages the flowering crop and reduces grain set
2. Dry conditions during grain fill mean a full harvest will not be viable
3. Hail or storm damage at a critical growth stage makes cutting for hay more economical than harvesting

In good seasons where the canola crop performs well through to grain, very little canola hay is produced because growers are better off taking the crop to harvest.

New-season canola hay, when it is produced, typically comes onto the market from September to November. Because availability is irregular, if you are planning to use canola hay as part of your feeding program it pays to watch listings closely through spring and move quickly when good-quality stock becomes available.

Canola hay production follows the distribution of winter canola cropping, which is concentrated in southern Australia.

Western Australia is Australia's largest canola-producing state overall, with significant production in the wheatbelt and south-west. When seasons are difficult in WA, canola hay production can be substantial. WA canola hay often moves into South Australia and Victoria when prices are competitive after freight.

South Australia is a significant canola-growing state, particularly across the upper and lower Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, and the mid-north. SA has produced canola hay in years following frost or dry finishes to the growing season.

Victoria produces canola across the Wimmera, Mallee, and western districts. Victorian canola hay production occurs in difficult seasons and can be an important supplementary fodder source for livestock producers in those regions.

New South Wales grows canola in the central and southern cropping zones. NSW canola hay production is smaller in volume than WA, SA, and VIC but contributes to supply in the eastern states.

Queensland grows very little winter canola as the climate in most of the state is not suited to the crop.

Because production is regional and opportunistic, buyers in states other than where the hay was produced will need to factor in interstate freight. Browse current listings on LocalAg to see what is available and where it is located, and use the location filter to find the closest available supply to minimise freight cost.

Browse canola hay listings on LocalAg and use the location filter to search within a practical distance from your property. Every listing shows bale type, quantity, ex-farm price, and an indicative delivered price so you can compare the true cost before contacting a seller. All sellers are verified and transactions go through CheckVault escrow.

Because canola hay is an opportunistic product that does not appear consistently every season, availability can be limited in some years. If there are no canola hay listings near you right now, post a free Wanted Ad on LocalAg. Tell us what you need including quantity, bale type, and what livestock you are feeding it to, and our team will find a verified supplier. In years when canola hay is produced in volume, we regularly connect buyers in eastern states with WA and SA producers who can arrange interstate freight.