Hay questions

[goodhors]

Foggybok and candyappy I was bringing up the wetted hay when well dried, is still a good nutritional option for horses. Might not be perfect looking “Fair competition” or magazine picture pretty, but still good for the horses. Sometime you can’t get “the best hay” so you settle for good hay.

Or the prices are too high for the best stuff. Horses will still do well on “good” hay, aRe energetic, shiny.

Hay is still what I think is high, though nothing compared to Florida prices! Small squares, 40-50#s, are $6 to $8 the bale. Few folks sell by the ton unless they are dealers, most are farmers. This is last year hay, not much lower cost than last year prices! Not many places test hay, plus it cost more. There is very little wait time to go thru testing, then accepting or refusing what is offered. Buy it now or someone else will! Cost goes up if they put it in the barn and then pulled out again.

I shudder to think what 99.5% weed free Timothy would cost!!! Not sure I could afford enough for one horse, not the 9 we feed now!

[foggybok]

@goodhors

Foggybok and candyappy I was bringing up the wetted hay when well dried, is still a good nutritional option for horses. Might not be perfect looking “Fair competition” or magazine picture pretty, but still good for the horses. Sometime you can’t get “the best hay” so you settle for good hay.

Oh yes, I was in absolute agreement there

One thing a lot of horse people don’t seem to get is that good hay can be exactly what you need. Most horses don’t need beautiful third cutting orchard grass, but around here you will see the horse people fight over that stuff like it’s gold. Most horses are better served with a lesser quality hay and access to it 24/7.

[Scribbler]

Around here our local grass hay is crazy high in sugar, 25% NSC, even when it’s low protein and very stemmy. People get into trouble free feeding it, as “good low nutrition pony hay.” My horse has done much better on quality Timothy imported from the dry belt.

[foggybok]

@Scribbler

Around here our local grass hay is crazy high in sugar, 25% NSC, even when it’s low protein and very stemmy. People get into trouble free feeding it, as “good low nutrition pony hay.” My horse has done much better on quality Timothy imported from the dry belt.

Are you in Western WA? I found a lot of the local hay was problematic out there. Very high sugar. I had a great supplier though.

Yeah, you don’t want the low protein/high sugar stemmy stuff for any horse! That wasn’t what I meant by lesser quality hay. In your case it’s smart to buy the imported timothy

[Scribbler]

I’m in Canada but basically the exact same ecosystem as Western WA, the rainy springs and the mild winter!!!

[lenapesadie]

@goodhors

Hay is still what I think is high, though nothing compared to Florida prices! Small squares, 40-50#s, are $6 to $8 the bale. Few folks sell by the ton unless they are dealers, most are farmers. This is last year hay, not much lower cost than last year prices!

Hay is a right PITA. I’m in FL I can get last year’s leftovers Bermuda, last year’s perennial peanut or this year’s ryegrass for $8 to $12 per small bale (the peanut is the higher range). My horses are on strike against the Bermuda hay, the rye grass hay every third bale is garbage (dusty or dangerous damp) and the peanut hay is already yellow (folks always talk how it’s the south’s alfalfa but IME it doesn’t keep nearly as well as alfalfa, messy too).

I’m paying 16-19 for small bales of Timothy, Orchard or alfalfa. The second cut Timothy is higher than the dang Alfalfa but I’ve got to have some hay that isn’t alfalfa that the horses will eat! I get a wee bit of Orchard for my skinny Senior horse with bad teeth.

[candyappy]

@foggybok

Oh yes, I was in absolute agreement there

One thing a lot of horse people don’t seem to get is that good hay can be exactly what you need. Most horses don’t need beautiful third cutting orchard grass, but around here you will see the horse people fight over that stuff like it’s gold. Most horses are better served with a lesser quality hay and access to it 24/7.

My horses get the hay left over from the goats feeders this time of year and they clean it up. In the Winter they get the goats reject hay in the morning and hay off the actual bale in the evening and eat them equally well.

My horses always get first cutting unless the goats leave some second cutting behind, which is rare. They just don’t need it.

[OTTBs]

@SusanO

The 3x3x8 bales ( usually 750-850 lbs) are pretty easy to pull flakes off of. The 3x4x8 bales are a little more challenging. I have been buying them too because I get better value than buying regular small square bales.
I don’t know how these compare to the “big blocks”.

I thought 3x4s were a PITA, the flakes would fall over but the bottom would remain “stuck.” The flakes seemed to be 20 lb each. I would like to try 3x3s sometime, there seem to be nice ones in my area. Oh, I just had an idea: if you stacked large squares on a series of 4x4 wood going crossways, as you used the bale you could remove the 4x4s so the bottom of the bale could fall free easier. That doesn’t help if they’re stored stacked though.

@goodhors

Just wondering if those changing to big bales have vaccinated for Botulism? At times wild animals get baled up, carcasses spoil, to contaminate the bales. Not as quick to find such animals in the big bales set out to consume, as when using small bales broken up into measured flakes for feeding. Germs can also live in the soil, get lively under certain weather conditions. So it can be best if horses are kept vaccinated every year.

I did not vaccinate, but I did not “set out bales” I fed about one flake a feeding to my 3 horses. The only interesting things in my bales were 2 antlers in different bales.

[SusanO]

I had that problem with the tops of the flakes falling over and the bottoms stuck. So I took two hay hooks and baling twine and would hook them at the top of the remainder of the bale as I peeled a flake to use. I tied them so the tops didn’t fall over and that way I could remove the bottom of the flake as I peeled them off. All of the hay was baled at low moisture ( I was buying western hay) so the flakes didn’t stick together like hay baled at a higher moisture level. But the 3x3’s were a lot easier - I could just fold the flake in two and deal with it that way.

I feed mine off my flat bed trailer which is parked under the barn. That was the easiest way to deal with them since my tractor is not big enough to move them. And no - I do not put them out for free choice eating. Ha - I would go broke with the wastage. I peel off flakes and feed them like small square bales. I do not vaccinate. No dead animals in them. I have found dead snakes in the small square bales but not in these.

[lenapesadie]

@SusanO

I feed mine off my flat bed trailer which is parked under the barn.

That’s a great idea!

[OTTBs]

@SusanO

So I took two hay hooks and baling twine and would hook them at the top of the remainder of the bale as I peeled a flake to use. I tied them so the tops didn’t fall over and that way I could remove the bottom of the flake as I peeled them off.

I just saw this. I can’t picture it, is one hook at the far end of the bale and one where you are peeling hay off? Or maybe the twine is anchored to the far end of your trailer with both hooks near you? I kept trying to come up with a way to make removing entire flakes work… My hay was also from out west.

[Mouse_amp_Bay]

Don’t tell this to the folks in the UK/across the pond. They make and feed beautiful haylage, of different types for various activity levels. Green, bright, dust free - no mold. I wish we could buy haylage here.

A good article on the benefits here.

With climate change leading to more erratic weather patterns, I would not be surprised if we start getting some haylage on the market. I wish I could buy it already, heck of a lot easier than soaking hay to remove dust and try to soak out sugars.

[goodhors]

Again, I firmly believe we are using “haylage” to describe two totally different products. Seems to happen often with UK folks. There is “American English” and “UK English” which can make it hard to truly communicate!!

[SusanO]

I am going to try and post pictures which is easier than trying to explain it. I only have one hook in the picture because I can’t find the other

hooks and one hook on each end would be better.

I have a hay string attached to the hook and it can be tied to the big bale behind this bale, the trailer or I have attached it to a strap that is still holding the bale on the trailer. Just something in back of the open bale to keep more flakes of the hay to fall forward.