Various Types of Hay

Naturally, where your story is set has a bearing on which kind of hay you would us but here's a short list of some of the types.

Clover hay has a higher feeding value ton for ton than meadow hay or corn-fodder. It is so much superior that I must be pardoned for illustrating it from Stewart's tables.
Source: The Breeder's Gazette ©1895
(I didn't include the table for this tidbit.)

Timothy hay is almost universally considered as the best of the long foods for horses. yet many hays from mixed grasses are used. and is some sections alfalfa hay. In recent years in some sections cut and shredded corn fodder has become very popular. and for many years corn blades have been preferred. in the South. by the keepers of race horses.

I prefer Orchard grass hay to timothy hay as it has more blades, timothy dies out in the course of a few years, while an Orchard grass sod will continue to get better each year for many years. One acre of Orchard grass will afford as much pasture as two of clover and timothy. I believe timothy to be an impoverisher of the land, while Orchard grass forms such an immense sod that for plowing under it is equal to a clover one.
Source Henderson's Handbook ©18 quote came from a man in VA.

Alfalfa hay is preferable to either clover or timothy for farm animals, and especially for swine, one acre being worth three of clover for hogs. It is also good for horses, and for oatile it is worth three times as much as red clover.
Source: Report of Kansas State Board of Agriculture ©1893

Oat Hay The results of the experiments indicate that the nutrients of oat hay are in the most digestible form when the heads are in milk. If cut in bloom there is a less yield of poorer composition and digestibility than when cut in milk. If the cutting is delayed till the oats are in the dough stage, the slightly larger yield is more than offset by the poor quality and lessened digestibility of the hay.
Source: Annual Report of Maine ©1898

Below is a list without descriptions of various hays:
Meadow Fescue Hay
Mountain Rye Grass Hay
Canary Reed Grass Hay
Salt Grass Hay
Lupine
White Lupine
Wild Oats Hay
Wheat Hay
Red Top Hay

Cows

If you lived in the 19th Century and worked outside of a city more than likely you knew and had experience with cows. Below are some pictures and brief info to help the writer identify the type of cow that might be in their books.

Short Horned Cows

It has heen frequently asserted, that short-horn cows are had milkers, indeed that no kind of cattle are so deficient in milk. Those who say so do not know the still greater deficiencies of the Herefords, a species of cattle quite unknown in Scotland. The higher hred stocks of the Messrs. Collings, Mr. Mason, and Mr. Rohertson, yielded little milk. Indeed, Mr. Rohertson's cows could not supply milk sufficient for their own calves, at least not in the quantity which it was desired hy him they should receive. Cows were kept for the purpose of supplying the deficiency of milk of the high-hred cows. But this deficiency of milk did not altogether proceed from the circumstance of the cows heing of the short-horn hreed : hecause those eminent hreeders devoted their whole attention to the developement of flesh, and not at all to the developement of milk. Had the flesh heen neglected as much as the milk, and the property of giving milk as much cherished as the developement of flesh, their short-horn Coats would have heen deep milkers. As it is, the generality of shorthorn cows are not had milkers.
Source: The Farmers' Magazine Click link for the rest of the article.

Sussex Cow "Elsa"

Winner of the Champion Prize given by the Sussex Herd Book Society for the best female in the Sussex classes, and of the Gold Medal presented by Her Majesty the Queen for the best animal in the Sussex classes, at the Jubilee Show of the Royal Agricultural Siicicty of England, Windsor, 1889. Bred and exhibited by Mr. W. B. Waterlow, of High Trees, Redhill, Surrey.
Source: The Complete Grazier and Farmers' and Cattle=Breeders Assistant Click link for the entire book.

Ayrshire Cow

The Ayrshire cow, removed to England, is said not to maintain her dairy qualities at the best; there is tendency to flesh. The American-bred Jersey shows more horn, larger bone, and a less deer-like form than the Jersey-born.
The Ayrshire is exceptionally hardy. Though you may not expect to freeze her blood in the yard, and at the succeeding thaw find her milk flow unimpaired, her coat sleek, and her back straight, yet she will be as profitable with those who expect all this from a cow as any other.
Source: The Dairy Cow Click link for the entire book.

Jersey Cow

Though it is rapidly being proved that cows of the Jersey and Guernsey breeds rank as first-rate for richness of milk and cream, for quantity and high quality of butter, for easy keeping qualities and for delicacy of meat, there yet seemed a want of a work which proves all these excellent qualities to be possessed by these breeds, and, by bringing them more prominently into notice, to advance the interests of the agricultural community, particularly that portion of it residing in the vicinity of large cities and towns; though by the constantly increasing advantages offered by most of the railways distant portions of the country are brought more nearly and advantageously together.
Source: The Jersey, Alderney and Guernsey Cow Click the link for the entire book.

Devon Cattle

Various breeds of cattle is not a revelation for the writer or the historical writer, however, these tidbits about the Devon Cattle breed might be helpful to you as a writer.

This race of cattle has been bred in England for a couple of centuries, and greatly admired for their many good qualities. They were imported from that country into the United States at the beginning of the present century; and are already increasing in numbers without any effort being made by the breeders to introduce them. For a large portion of our country they are better adapted than any other, being just the cattle for the hills. They are not excelled for their hardiness by any other breed; thriving where other cattle would starve, and yet showing care and good feed as much as any. For the yoke they have long been considered excellent; being docile, strong and quick in their motions. The quality of their beef is well attested by the price it brings at Smithfield market in London. When bred for milk, they equal any; as numerous cases of their producing from fourteen to nineteen pounds of butter per week will show.
They vary in color from a light to a dark red, with flesh-colored muzzles, with same around the eyes, the tip of the tail white, and sometimes their udders are white, but it should be nowhere else. Some breeders seem to prefer the light red color, while others prefer the dark red, but it is best to avoid either extreme. They are called by many the "little Devons," but it is not at all uncommon to find cows weighing from thirteen to fifteen hundred pounds, the bulls from fifteen to twenty-one hundred pounds, and thesteers often forty-five hundred per yoke. Duke of Hampden 832, at 36 months old weighed 2,030 pounds.
As for their milk and butter qualities, Mr. Wainwright, of Rhinebeck, N. Y., says he made 14 lbs. of butter per week from Helena 1712 (774 E); F. P. Holcomb, of New Castle, Del., 19 1-2 a week from Lady; Hon. H. Capron, formerly of Robin's Nest, 1l1., 21 lbs. in nine days, from Flora 2d, 120; C. P. Holcomb, New Castle, Del., in the summer of 1843, in twelve weeks, made from one cow 174 3-4 lbs. of butter, or an average of 14 lbs. and 9 oz. per week; during one week she made 19 lbs., and in three days 9 1-2 lbs. W. L. Cowles, Farmington, Conn., 16 1-2 lbs. in ten days. J. Buckingham, Duncan's Falls, O., in three months, summer of 1856, from four cows, an average of 44 1-2 lbs. per week, besides using the cream and milk in a family of seven persons. L. G. Collins, Newark, Mo., from the dam of Red Jacket, 98, 16 3-4 lbs. per week. Mr. Coleman, 21 lbs. per week for several weeks in succession. Mr. Hurlbut, of Connecticut, from Beauty (523 E), averaged 16 lbs. per week during June, 1850, when she was 16 years old. This is but a small portion of, those on my list as famous for butter.

What I also found interesting in this book was the names for the calves listed along with the year they were born. Helpful little tidbit if you want to name the family cow something other then Bessy.
The American Devon Herd Book

Here is a link from the Breeds of Livestock Web Page about the Devon Breed.