How to estimate how much hay to buy

[KCSLK]

Thank you in advance for your help. I will have 2 horses with one 1/2 acre pasture starting next month, so I am not planning for the grass to support much, if any, of their forage needs. How much hay should I be planning to buy to last until next hay season and how much space will I need to store it?

So far my rough math looks like this.
(2 horses) * (20 pounds per horse per day) * (30 days per month) * (10 months – mid August to mid June) = 12,000 pounds hay
(12,000 pounds) / (~35 pounds per small square bale) = 343 bales
I’m thinking I should be able to stack these ~350 bales in a 20x20x10 area.

Does this seem reasonable? I’m not sure yet how much space will be left for hay storage, or if I should even buy enough hay for the entire year given some other variables. But I’m doing my best to plan so that when I know the answers to those questions, I have a good estimate on how much hay I need!

[Zu_Zu]

I always plan on 150 square bales (35# or slightly heavier)
per horse for the year …
then I add 100 extra bales to offset poor quality ones or snake baked in one or dog peed on one :lol:

• never have regretted having a little extra

You’re on target in my book

I also stack a few bales in an empty stall In the stall barn … for Easy Access during Snow events or running late days. The big stack is in a different Insulated shed.

Good Luck ! Enjoy your horses !

[ClassyJumper]

Your space might be a touch limited, I can fit about 100 bales in a space half that size (20x10x10)… although our bales are 50-60 lbs.

[clanter]

our hay is heavier than 35 pounds but using cubic foot measurements your 20x20x10 (4,000 cubic feet) area could house 592 bales (using 18 inch by 18 inch by 3 feet as a bale size =6.75 cu/ft per bale)

personally whatever I thought I needed I would add 10% as a safety margin in case spring rains do not come or come to the point of flooding the hay fields or winter is 200 times worse than expected … if I could afford the hay I would want closer to 400 bales… we donate extra hay to local horse rescues who often are in need of even year old hay

(of course “having the extra hay” might lead to adding that extra horse, after-all you have the hay in the barn… it is nearly as bad as building that extra stall as horse will find it and claim it as its own)

[Bluey]

We get 60+ alfalfa bales and figure 150 per horse also, plus extra for some neighbor that runs out of hay, an extra horse, etc.

Our hay comes now in bundles of 21 bales and is stacked in the barn two high with a skid loader.

Whatever you figure, make it so you can use hay in any kind it comes, have if possible an easy way to stack it mechanically, good access to where you store it, no matter what size bales, bundles or eventually big round bales maybe.

[2DogsFarm]

In my 16yrs of having horses at home, I have always put up a year’s worth of small squares (avg 40-50#) from 1st cutting.
My horses don’t need anything richer than mixed orchard grass & have access to my fair-to-middling pastures 24/7, year round.

Having this amount gives me peace of mind when Winter weather makes hay delivery difficult or even impossible.

Your math sounds close to what I figure.
Presently 300 bales feeds 1 horse, 1 pony & 1 mini. None in hard work.
But, like @clanter, I always like having extra “just in case”.
Leftover gets fed when new hay gets delivered & becomes “outside” hay before grass comes up in pastures.

I store all of this on pallets in a space that measures 24’WX12’DX10’H.

[SLW]

You will never regret having a years worth of hay stacked in your barn. ☺️ Your numbers seem pretty on target but you don’t mention where you live. Make sure you have allowed enough bales for winter rations if you live where it gets cold.

Im down to one horse and one standard donkey. Hay is fed year round and I buy 260 bales (60# bales) which gives me a narrow buffer.

[walkinthewalk]

I agree to buy more than less and don’t try to crunch numbers to where you end up short at the end and of the season.

You essentially do not have pasture. I would plan on a bale per day for two horses if they weigh in the 40# category.

I have 20 acres but three of my four were easy keepers (RIP Duke & Streeter) so pasture time was limited, I could push and shove 330 bales of ~45# bales of hay into 336 SqFt, stacking 10-11 feet high.

I still have two of those easy keepers (one is IR/Cushings) and their pasture time is still limited. I live in the SE where pasture lasts a long time and I still start a season with 200 bales of hay. It is so hot/humid now (dew points in the 70’s), they choose to stay in the barn in front of the barrel fans, eating hay.

Don’t stack your hay tight, so air can get thru and also sprinkle Kosher salt on every layer before starting another layer. Humidity plays heck with the driest of new hay, Kosher salt will help wick moisture and is safe for horses - I’ve been using it for years.

[horsepoor]

You guys with your tiny bales make me very envious! Here, I am lucky if I can find bales that are “only” 100 lbs. each, and sometimes we get the occasional batch of 140 lb. bales that are especially fun to wrestle with.

I pretty much do what the OP is doing, calculate based on how many pounds per horse per day, and I will bump that up a fair amount to account for loss from bad bales or just in case next year’s hay season is late (like this year with all the rain we’ve had). I actually have a spreadsheet I set up now to monitor how much hay I have and how long it will last as otherwise I got worried whenever the hay area wasn’t near capacity!

[walkinthewalk]

@horsepoor

You guys with your tiny bales make me very envious! Here, I am lucky if I can find bales that are “only” 100 lbs. each, and sometimes we get the occasional batch of 140 lb. bales that are especially fun to wrestle with.
!

Yes, folks on the Pacific coast bale a lot bigger than folks East of the Mississippi, lollol. Although there is such a critter called a “large square bale” but it takes forks on a tractor to lift one. Those are seen mostly on dairy farms in my area:)

I lived in SoCal five years and “small” squares ranged from 115# - 135#. I bought hay hooks to wrangle them after I tore the cartilage in one elbow. That was a big owie”‹”‹”‹, lol

[Goforward]

I’m trying to wrap my head around buying an entire year’s worth of hay at once. Is that really a thing?
There must be better weather conditions where you live. If I bought a year of hay, a quarter of it would be moldy in 6 months here in Florida. And at $680-$700/ton, that’s a big chunk of money to lay out all at once.
I never buy more than I’ll use in about 10 days for the 7-9 horses in my barn.

[walkinthewalk]

@Goforward

I’m trying to wrap my head around buying an entire year’s worth of hay at once. Is that really a thing?
There must be better weather conditions where you live. If I bought a year of hay, a quarter of it would be moldy in 6 months here in Florida. And at $680-$700/ton, that’s a big chunk of money to lay out all at once.
I never buy more than I’ll use in about 10 days for the 7-9 horses in my barn.

Yes it is a thing. Except for the five years in lived in SoCal, buying hay for a year has always been the way we have put hay up:). When I was on the farm, one of our barns had a five thousand bale capacity on the second floor - it was one of those glorious old bank barns.

When I retired to southern Middle Tennessee, it didn’t take me long to discover I needed to find a way to keep new hay from becoming moldy.

1. If there are questionable bales (those are typically heavier with moisture than the rest of the load), they get set aside to stack last, so they get used first.

2. I layer each row with Kosher salt to help wick moisture.

3. I have 36” & 42” floor model barrel fans aimed at the hay during the summer months. The fans are on heavy duty outdoor timers. They run about 16 hours/day total. I’ll pay the electric bill before I will see the hay ruined or not put up enough and run out during the cold months, when hay often goes up in price anyway:)

4. I also learned to never ever stack hay beside a window, in this humid environment. I once lost about 20 bales of expensive/tested grass hay and never did that again.

5. I bought way more hay than I needed in 2019 because it was such great hay and the NSC was low. There’s still 60-70 bales in that bay that are perfectly fine. My IR horse loves that hay, so it’s all his, lollol. The other horse likes the new hay better, so that’s his. I have enough to get both horses thru to the 2021 cutting season. If my supplier happens to cut again, it’s still fluffy, and my third hay bay is open, I will buy some more.

[candyappy]

You always want more hay than you figure on. You may end up having some left over but that is a good thing. 20 pounds per horse per day is just a guesstimate they may need more of the hay you have to keep weighty on, or your pasture may dry up etc…

[buck22]

Your math is solid, but as others have said, add on another 10% at least, if not 20% for “what if’s”.

Way better to have more hay than you need than to be getting nervous watching the supply dwindle in February. And when foul weather abounds, its such a nice feeling to have your horses tucked away with hay up to their knees — because you can.

You guys must be better at stacking than I am though. I can only get about 210 40# bales in my 20x12x11 storage, but mine is a shelter logic tent that traps moisture despite venting if I stack more than 5 high, though I have the height for 7.

And yes, putting up for the year is definitely a thing, especially in the expensive east. Hay doubles in price come December, and if it has been a bad year, like 2018, you might not find any no matter how much you’re willing to pay.

[B-burg_Dressage]

I usually buy 100 bales per horse per winter (they’re on full grass in the grazing months). Our bales average about 50lbs and I aim to feed 1 full bale a day for two horses.

I store my 200 bales in about a 14x14x8. Not sure on height as barn was built into a hill and it’s a bit wonky.

I almost never have to touch my bottom layer of hay. Which is good, as it tends to get musty in the Midwest. I use it as a buffer for two years then clean it all out. So some of my space is “wasted” there.

Extra always feels good. I’ve got about 7 bales left not including the bottom layer and the handful of bales that I had to toss due to random issues (snakes, weeds, etc.).

[SuzieQNutter]

Work out how much you can store and fill it. There is no guarantee that there will not be a cyclone, hurricane, drought, earthquake, etc that means there will be no hay next year.

[jawa]

I have 3 horses and 2 acres of pasture that is subdivided into 6 paddocks, 3 large and 2 small. I manage my pasture intensively. I can count on 12 hours of grazing from June - September most years. I have one horse (really a large pony) that is in his mid 30’s. His teeth don’t work very well, but he is still able to eat grass if the pastures are kept short. He picks at the hay and chews it then spits it out. The other 2 horses will eat his discarded wads most of the time (yeah, not much wasted hay).

I calculate 20lbs of hay a day for the 2 horses over 365 days. This gives me plenty of room for a stupid, cold winter or stupid, wet year, or a drought. I purchase 800lb square bales and get 16 for the year. The cost of quality, tested timothy per 800lb bale is $70. I will be getting a few bales of pure alfalfa this year ($100 each). I’ll spend $1,240 in large squares versus close to $4,200 if I were to purchase the same quality hay. The large squares aren’t as easy to deal with, but they are worth it due to the savings.

The happiest day is the day the hay shed is stocked with a years worth of hay!!

[clanter]

we live in a hay desert since urban sprawl has and is continuing to eat away at the ranches…then natural gas drilling began. Most all of the ranchers who did produce hay retired after getting their signing bonus, then we have had multiple droughts

We get all of hay from a broker who has supplies year round. Our costs are less than what some of friends are paying for hay out of the field

[KCSLK]

Thanks for all of your responses! I really appreciate your help – just wanted to update that I got hay sorted out, and so far it seems to be feeding out at about what I estimated for summertime based on this thread, plus there is some extra for cushion and wintertime increases.

[Zu_Zu]

Good ~ glad to hear it’s working out !

Nothing like having all your hay in place ~ peace of mind for all horse owners.

Let it snow ! :lol: just kidding !