Hi everyone,
I’m thinking of switching over from bales and handing out flakes of hay with hard feed to putting a 5"x4" bale of oaten in the paddock.
I’ll put a 4cmx4cm slow feeder hay net over it and sit it on top of a wooden pallet to minimise waste and rot.
For reference it’s for 1 2yo TB approximately 15hh and she has a lush paddock full of grass available and gets 1 hard feed a day of 500g copra (dry weight before soaking), 500g hygain balanced, 1/2 cup linseed oil and a scoop of Lucerne chaff (haven’t weighed it sorry but it’s the size of those scoops from Europa saddlery). Anyone have comparable diets for their horses and have a rough idea of how long the roll will last? I’m trying to economise both time wise and financially.
Thanks in advance!!
Mine are kept in dry lots. I have two horses (a QH and a WB/draft x) in one pen and one (senior draft x) in the other pen. My rounds are about the same dimension, They are about 800 lbs of grass hay.
The round lasts the pair about 11-12 days They share a coffee can of hay pellets with supplements once a day. It lasts my old guy about a month - he gets about 1/2 coffee can of hay pellets with supplements daily.
I tried the hay net. It only bought an extra day for the pair. They shred it. Brand is Tough One. After three uses, its useless.
Guess that you are not in the US?
Not knowing what your grass has and what the other feeds may be, I would not know.
That 2 year old age is critical to some development, so it is very important that the nutrition is as ideal as possible.
She needs ample protein of an excellent source with the right complete complement of aminoacids for a horse, to keep building muscle.
She needs the proper combination of vitamins and minerals, like calcium and phosphorus for skeletal growth and the ongoing development of the growth plates that are closing at that age, especially knees.
That is not the time to economize or be wrong, of under or overfeeding, but finding the right balance of nutrients for her growth stage.
What kind of grasses do you have, is there legumes in them also?
Is your commercial grain ration for young developing horses?
The lucerne is a very good source of complete protein and calcium for horses, if fed at the right amount, but there should be a good source of phosphorus also, an oat based ration would provide that, or a fortified one with that important mineral.
What matters is that the proper ration of both is observed:
https://kppusa.com/tips-and-topics/r…t-horses-diet/
What to feed really is a question your veterinarian and/or a breeder right there, familiar with your kinds of products, should be helping you with.
You are doing the most important part, asking to be sure your nutrition is correct, the first step for proper nutrition.
Given the feed description I gather you are also in Australia. A 5x4 round bale lasts my boy 4 - 6 weeks. He is a 16.3 solid 13 year old WB.
The round bale is in a feeder with a slow feeder net over the top. He has very little pick in his paddock and he gets 2 scoops of combo chaff (probably the same size as your scoop if Europa does the same as Horseland) and literally 1 cup of Coprice Cool Conditioner pellets twice a day. So not much hard feed.
The round bale bale makes life much simpler and he can eat when he likes. I have a farmer with a ready supply for me so he just gets a new bale as needed. It is also much cheaper than small squares.
PS, if you go to Europa Saddlery I am assuming you might be in WA - even if not google Liberty Horse Supplies for hay feeders. Best and safest hay feeder I have found in Aus. Even with freight to NSW I saved the purchase price in hay not being ground into the dirt very quickly.
If “oaten” means oat hay, I would not feed it. Look for a grass variety…
A 5x4 bale last my one 3 year old 16.3 hand gelding 4 weeks. That in a feeder no net.
As with all bales, it is the weight of the hay that dictates how much you feed, and how long a bale will last. Depending on your horses, and how much other feed you are using, figure on between 20 to 30 lbs per day, per horse. Keep in mind that just because you are using a round bale, that does not mean that you MUST supply the entire bale at once. If you only have a few horses feeding off it, you can unroll it in the barn over a number of days, peel off how much you need, and load that into a wheelbarrow, and deliver it just like flakes off a small bale. With a few horses, there is less waste this way, and you retain full control of how much is available at a time.
My round bales are about 550 lbs each. At 25 lbs of hay each, that works out to 22 horse X days. Your mileage may vary.
It all depends on how tightly packed the bale is, meaning, how much does it weigh. Loosely packed weighs less, so does’t last as long.
My bales roughly that size last 4-5 days for a total of about 5000lb of horse (4 horses). It lasts occasionally 6 days if it was a heavy, tightly packed bale or if it’s warmer (or the beginning or end of the season).
Find out how much the bales weigh (or are supposed to) and then figure 20-30lb per horse per day IF there is little to no grass. But with your “lush grass”, it’s going to last a lot longer, so it definitely needs to be well-covered, and off the ground. Depending on how humid your weather is right now, it may not be a good idea to put a whole round out in that situation.
Round bales are definitely more economical than small squares. I pay about 1/4 the cost for my rounds as I would for comparable quality small squares.
Hygain Balanced is an Australian diet/ration balancer, so high nutrition, but I would double what you’re feeding. At her age she’s still in a higher growth and nutrient need phase, more equivalent to an adult horse in medium work.
On average a 5x4 round bale weighs 1000 lbs,bales i have weigh closer to 1,200lbs very tightly wrapped. Have very little waste even with bale out in paddock. What does get wasted is just raked up and put in burn pile. I prefer my horse has hay all the time then run out and be hungry. Peeling it to feed is deceiving on how much you really have. Loose hay is fluffy and you endup feeding less because you think there’s a lot of hay.
I put out rounds year round, there are feeders that have roofs over them keeps bale dry. Never have had a bale go moldy with roofed feeder.
Oh wow, im in Aus and I buy 5ft rolls too, I have 2 horses on them and they last 10-12 days, WITH a haynet thats got 4cm holes. They also get hard fed and there is grass in the paddock even if it isnt a lot
Its meadow too
I would not put one out and expect it to be good quality unless you get a feeder with a cover on it. Put that bale out and let the sun beat on it and the rain pound it and your horse will probably not touch it. Especially if you have pasture and it sits in the field for weeks.
With your set up I would just continue to feed square bales.
We bale 4x5’s for ourselves and they are tight and weigh around 900 pounds . I hand feed and 1 lasts me on average a little over 2 weeks feeding 2 horses ( 15, 14 hands). I feed 2x daily but I feed enough that they get plenty. Mine just don’t need it round the clock.
A lot depends on what type of hay it is as to how long it will last you.
It doesnt really rain in Australia
And my horses get a new bale every 14 days, thats not much sun beating on it.
Depends where the OP is in Australia, but in WA there is basically no pasture this time of year. Its desert basically afterall.
