I can´t get grass hay pellets where I live, but I can get alfalfa/Bermuda cubes. So–I wondered whether I could break them down in a food processor, with or without water.
Anybody ever try that? Did it work?
I think that would be horrible to do in any horse-sized quantity. I would just soak them.
If your goal is to ruin your food processor, I think that will work GREAT :lol:
You’d be better off picking up a small feed grinder for livestock if you want to breakdown cubes. 
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Equines need long stem forage… chopping them to powder would not be a good idea
[QUOTE=melhorse;8537429]
Equines need long stem forage… chopping them to powder would not be a good idea[/QUOTE]
Unless you have a horse that for one of many reasons can not chew them, then a powder is a great thing.
In other words, it is great to point out that they might be better in the traditional form, but no reason to jump to that fact that it is not a good thing.
I have very good luck simply soaking mine, but I admit I have no idea what I would do if my mare that thinks wet foods are poisonous ever had any problem chewing.
What is your reason for wanting to OP ?
I’ll be watching answers on this one, because I have been wondering the exact same thing recently. My mare thinks that anything wet in her food is poison and those cubes can be hard to crumble by hand. I hate to give them whole, because I did see a horse choke on them years ago, so I always try to at least break them into smaller chunks.
Could you maybe get your paws on some bagged forage, like the stuff from Lucerne?
http://lucernefarms.com/feedingchoppedforage/
I feed soaked cubes with grain twice a day, and have for many years, but I’ve never yet found a brand that isn’t hard as rocks in its dry state.
Hunterkid–The reasons I am considering this are: #1. I live in an area in which alfalfa and grain hays are nearly all that´s available, and I want to add some type of grass hay to their diets; don´t want grain hays at all because of metabolic issues with a couple of the horses & somebody would surely screw up and give the grain hays to the metabolic horses when I´m not there. #2. I like to give soaked pellets as a base for meds/supplements/specialty feeds, and cubes don´t really cut it. #3. It takes forever to soak cubes to a semi-soft state. #4. Just to see if it would work. #5. I never use the food processor for anything else, so. . .why not?
Red Barn–I´m on the left coast–no Lucerne Farms products, although I wish there were.
Poltroon–I give the ¨porridge¨ once a day–anywhere from two to four quarts per horse, so it´s not that much trouble. In addition, they get hay twice a day.
Simke–where do you find food grinders (small) for livestock?
[QUOTE=Red Barn;8537834]
Could you maybe get your paws on some bagged forage, like the stuff from Lucerne?
http://lucernefarms.com/feedingchoppedforage/
I feed soaked cubes with grain twice a day, and have for many years, but I’ve never yet found a brand that isn’t hard as rocks in its dry state.[/QUOTE]
Just want to say I had very good luck with their products, they produce several different mixes. My allergy prone pony lived on their “Totally Timothy” for quite some time and did very well on it.
Yikes, Hermein. I can’t even imagine what I’d do without access to grass hay.
How about low NSC hay stretcher pellets? Do your stores have anything like this?
http://www.poulingrain.com/product_details.php?product_id=66&category_id=3
I use these to trick the fat mini into thinking he’s got mountains of supper. Works a treat.
And I like the Lucerne products too, Cayuse. Not cheap, but all horses do seem to love them. Maybe the OP could beg/wheedle/con/seduce her local supplier into carrying them?
[QUOTE=Hermein;8537840 It takes forever to soak cubes to a semi-soft state. [/QUOTE]
15 minutes is forever? There are a lot of men out there who are a lot closer to satisfying women than those women will ever know! :lol:
Perhaps you need it soupier than soup? Or don’t have access to hot water? Or she won’t eat soup? Or soup is too much trouble for barn workers to make in your absence?
It doesn’t really matter, I’m sure you have your reasons, I just had to point out the forever/15 minutes thing lol
I had a friend who’s horse required a specific kind of cube, soaked, due to choking and metabolic issues. They were often ROCK HARD and would still have hard, dry centers even after hours of soaking…so it’s really unfair to assume all cubes soak down to nothing in 15 minutes!
She’s the one that used a small grinder for livestock feed. I think she picked it up off of craigslist, but don’t know for sure.
Something like this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/221269377571?ul_noapp=true&chn=ps&lpid=82
Here are some more ideas:
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I don’t think that will work, at all.
Might have better luck bashing them with a hammer.
Do you have any chain stores? Because I know that our local Rural King gets Standlee brand, I bet you could get someone to order you the pellets.
What makes your cubes take forever to soak is what would kill your food processor right quick!
¨ East is east and West is west and Never the twain shall meet¨ when it comes to available feed, I´m sorry to say. The nearest thing we have locally to a national feed supplier is Tractor Supply, and they´re somewhat intransigent about branching out from Purina and Nutrena.
In California there is Elk Grove Milling, near Sacramento, that makes a complete feed pellet sold in sacks or 250# barrels. I´ve used this in the past, but have the feeling that the pellets are made from whatever is cheapest at the time. (I doubt their claim of consistently being 15% nsc.)
Ime, the feeds produced here are generally alfalfa-based specialty products. Ordering from the Midwest or East means a second mortgage to pay for shipping alone.
Your TS doesn’t sell Standlee Timothy pellets?
They sell timothy/alfalfa cubes. I´ve asked for plain timothy. They´re ¨working on it.¨
Just like most chain stores, some of them are great, others are not so great.
Just some ideas you may be able to request at your TSC:
My local TSCs sell Standlee compressed bales of timothy hay. It’s pricey, but not much pricier than buying Standlee brand cubes or pellets. They also occasionally stock chopped forage (both Lucerne Farms and Dumor brand) that’s an alfalfa/timothy blend.
The Standlee timothy/alfalfa cubes soak A LOT faster than the FSI alfalfa/bermuda cubes. The FSI brand cubes are so incredibly hard… they do indeed take forever to soak. Yet the Standlee timothy/alfalfa cubes are soft enough you can flake them apart with your hands.
I’m in northern California and I can get grass hay pellets from my local feed store. My guess is that they come from Farmers Warehouse in Keyes:
http://farmerswarehouse.com/products.html
They sell a lot of feeds and are in central CA, so it seems pretty likely that some feed store in your area buys from them and could get you the grass hay pellets.
My vet says, by the way, that the grass hay pellets aren’t always considered tasty and that the senior horses she works with sometimes won’t eat them when they will eat alfalfa pellets.
Also look at Bar Ale feeds out of Williams - http://www.baraleinc.com - and King Brand http://king-brand.com out of King City. Both seem to be interested in thoughtful and high quality feeds.
The problem with the food processor is that it will probably handle only a cup at a time or so, so even doing two quarts on a daily basis would be very tedious until the day the motor blew.
