So I’ve been toying with getting a round bale for two of my pasture horses. My biggest concern is the waste. I hate cleaning up dirty old hay in the spring, as well as losing grass in that particular area. If I get a round bale, do I need to put it in a container? If so, what do you guys use? I see that many farms use the red metal hay containers but my one horse is very accident prone and would probably try to get in it. Better to buy good quality hay or just get something they can munch on. Thanks in advance for your help.
My DH built a hay feeder (I call it the hay buffet) for round bales, after the first year of use, we also added a hay net. That significantly reduced the waste.
I think I need to borrow your hubby for a day, Kodidog763! How long did that take him to make? I mean… I could make it but it wouldn’t be as pretty…
What did you use for a hay net? I’ve been shopping around for a while now, seems like people want $300+ for what is like… poly-cotton cheapo netting… Hockey net stuff.
There will be waste OP. Lots and lots of waste. You definitely want a container of some sort. A net helps too but is not required.
We put ours on top of a palette, which works great for keeping the hay dry- we invested in some tarps as well, you need to cover it when it is raining or it will all spoil. A little wet is okay but drenched and you’re out of hay the horses want to eat.
We take our skidsteer and scoop up the waste and it is probably at least 1/3 of the bale. Aggravating - we have TBs that won’t touch a wisp of hay if it makes contact with the ground :rolleyes:
You definitely want to put it in a feeder of some sort or more than half of it will be trampled, peed on and uneaten. I have the standard tombstone style pipe metal feeder but it’s already getting pretty beat up… not so much from the horses as from moving it with the tractor. I’ve seen big black plastic solid rings that I’ll get when this one is unusable.
Quality and whether or not you want to use a slow feed net, that is entirely determined by how much hay you want your horses to consume and how many calories they need. I have 3 relatively hard keeping horses, two 16.3 hh OTTBs and a 15.3 hh 3/4 TB paint. I try to buy the best 2nd cutting bales I can find but it can be difficult to find really high quality hay in round bales since the growers can usually get more money per ton in small squares. Even the ones toted as second cutting are usually cut late and not that great.
If you have easy keepers I’d use a slow feed net or stick with first cutting.
The best quality bales last me several days longer than the stemmier ones but I get 3-6 days out of a 500-600lb bale with no waste.
[QUOTE=beowulf;8941784]
I think I need to borrow your hubby for a day, Kodidog763! How long did that take him to make? I mean… I could make it but it wouldn’t be as pretty…
What did you use for a hay net? I’ve been shopping around for a while now, seems like people want $300+ for what is like… poly-cotton cheapo netting… Hockey net stuff.
There will be waste OP. Lots and lots of waste. You definitely want a container of some sort. A net helps too but is not required.
We put ours on top of a palette, which works great for keeping the hay dry- we invested in some tarps as well, you need to cover it when it is raining or it will all spoil. A little wet is okay but drenched and you’re out of hay the horses want to eat.
We take our skidsteer and scoop up the waste and it is probably at least 1/3 of the bale. Aggravating - we have TBs that won’t touch a wisp of hay if it makes contact with the ground :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
lol - I’ve had a couple of people ask about DH building them a hay buffet. He built it over the course of a few days. I gave him an idea of what I wanted, he looked at a bunch of photos of others online, and came up with his plan. But he’s builder/remodeler, so building stuff is right up his alley.
I bought a Hay Chix net. I think I paid around $170 for it. I had a hard time spending the money, I wasn’t sure it would be worth it, but my 3 (all Thoroughbreds, who, like yours, won’t touch hay that has touched the ground or another horse’s nose/lips/etc!) went through a 1000 pound round bale in a few days. I swear they wasted 1/2 of it. I was so angry!
My net is now 3 years old, and definitely shows wear. Lots of holes, that we have to fix. When I first got the next, we had virtually no waste, we see quite a bit more waste now. I’ll make it through the winter with this net, and buy something else in the spring. Not sure if I’ll buy another Hay Chix or try something else. As my DH reminded me (after I was complaining about the cost of replacing the net) that it paid for itself in the amount of hay we saved.
we have a large concrete wash rack that is separated from the pastures, we drop the round bales on pallets on the pad then just basically unwind the bales feeding the horses as though it was loose baled hay.
The junk they do not eat… I have an old push lawn mower that I use to mulch the stuff they do not eat then use the mulch as ground cover
I don’t feed rounds, so I am no help.
I just want to say that we are in a “Moderate drought”. I will trade you three inches of dust for six inches of your mud. I can take that much because we drain fast ---- IF we ever get rain again.
thanks guys for the feedback. leaning towards no round bale. Too much waste.
I use roundbales for my outside horses (2 horses, a pony and occasionally my mini) and I have no waste. Ever. I use one of those crown feeding rings. I (unbeknownst to me) also used a “cow” hay feeder but that rubbed the hair off part of their manes ( because god forbid they ever come up for air)
Unless the bale is bad for some reason, which my hay guy is great so it doesn’t happen (if it does, it is one of the last bales in the spring).
Round bales for my outside guys makes my life so much easier. But I have 9 at home so maybe that makes a difference (but 9 are not on the roundbale).
If you only have two horses and want to use round bales, it is best to NOT just put the whole bale out with the horses. Just peel the hay off the bale, keeping the bale in the barn, and stack it as loose hay in a wheelbarrow for transport out to your horses. The trick with round bales is to find hay that is HORSE QUALITY that has been round baled. Most is cow quality, not dry enough to be well cured at the core. We make horse quality round bales at our farm, in a very dry climate, with very low humidity. But most of our neighbours make round bales when they can’t get it dry enough, and use it for cows. Round bales made with higher humidity tend to not be horse quality. When we lose the very hot, very dry, mid summer weather, we have had better luck with doing small squares than trying to get the hay dry enough to round bale. The problem with round bales is that unless you have a moisture meter, you don’t know how they are at the core until you get it unrolled that far.
I use round bales, for the outside guys, and I have a small hole net for them. Yes, they will tear it up, but you just tie it back together as you go. The savings, for me, is my labor. I don’t like to use round bales any time except the winter, because they hold up better then. Last year, I had one dropped the day before snowmageddon, and it was a life saver. I am currently having one placed in the shed, which isn’t ideal, because they stand in there, and make a huge mess that Ihave to clean out prior to getting another bale, but it was a good decision at the time, because the bale would have gotten nasty quickly in the hotter weather.
I have the poly hay huts. Very little waste. Mine is the Dupliessis/now Exactics huts. They are pricey but they have save $$$ in little to no waste. I have had them for over 5 years.
[QUOTE=caper;8944357]
I have the poly hay huts. Very little waste. Mine is the Dupliessis/now Exactics huts. They are pricey but they have save $$$ in little to no waste. I have had them for over 5 years.[/QUOTE]
I use these, as well. Probably on my 7th or 8th year with my original two huts. Very little waste. A 6-700# bale will last my 5 TB mares for a week. Don’t have to worry about rain, or sleet, or snow ruining the hay, either.
[QUOTE=kiwifruit;8944170]
thanks guys for the feedback. leaning towards no round bale. Too much waste.[/QUOTE]
I am in the same boat as you. I think about this every year. I always come out the same… the waste would drive me NUTS.
The best thing I have found so far is small hole hay nets. Helps the hay last, not too hard to deal with, slows them down so they don’t hoover, prevents them from spreading it all over the place and pooping/peeing on it.
[QUOTE=kiwifruit;8944170]
thanks guys for the feedback. leaning towards no round bale. Too much waste.[/QUOTE]
You can buy a Bale Buddy?? Bag…its a breathable Bag made of tough tyvec type material you pull it over the bale and roll the bale upright…as the horses eat the elastic top keeps bag on bale and loose stuff stays in…After nearly 5 years we will finally be replacing some of our original ones…I use 10-11 rounds a month and keep at least 1 in every paddock…the big pastures get 2-3 depending on herd size (3-6)…We don t get bald dead patches…I chain drag the spots and mulch the dropped hay and manure with garden tractor…we move the bale locations every drop…The seed from hay can be beneficial to pasture and mulched stuff doesn t hurt it…Before saying No give it a chance…one key is don t buy junk crap hay…invest in hay that is clean weed n fox tail free and of some nutritional value…Horses will waste poor quality hay searching thru it…
I LOVE our Bale Buddy! We have very little waste. It keeps the bale contained and works its way down with the bale as it’s eaten. I will never go back to square bales in my fields again. We have 2 horses and 2 ponies and our bales last 2-3 weeks in winter. My horses come in at night and get square bales in their stalls Dec to March. So they eat the round bale daytime hours only. If it’s going to snow or rain at night, I put a tarp over it with some weights to hold it down. That really preserves the hay and keeps it from getting wet.
Make sure you vaccinate for botulism!
What’s your reason for considering a round in the first place? Cost?
I’ve fed rounds for 10+ years, and peel-n-wheel it twice a day, laying out piles in the pasture. That keeps my cost down, and still allows basically free choice hay, without the mess to clean up, and also while still forcing movement.
I use the CinchChix (HayChix now I believe) small hole hay nets for round bales and literally have ZERO WASTE.
My horses are barefoot.
I put the net on the bale, plunk it out, and it lasts 2 horses approximately 14 days. Seriously, no waste.
I do not use a hay ring or any other type of containment/feeder apparatus, just the net.
I pick up round bales for my BO for 2 of her more remote fields. We built a basic wood corral and put the bale on a pallet. The corral is 4x4 corners a top rail and a middle rail that are 2x4s and a short piece of 2x4 in the middle between the top & middle rail. Everything is glued and screwed together.
Finnegan’s field has 3 horses at night and 1 horse during the day. They went through a 500+ pound bale in 10 or 11 days. No waste at all.
Last year we had one bale that they didn’t like so that was bit of a pain.
The first year we did the round bales there was some waste of the final spring bale. Once the grass started to come in they wanted nothing to do with the hay. Learning curve and that was not a problem the next 2 years. We just paid more attention to the grass coming in and the timing for the last bale.
For BO it is more convenient and cheaper to have the round bale. It was also better for both of us when it came to blanket repairs. She was throwing out hay at night but they would finish it before morning and then the boys would get bored and start playing a bit rough. Blankets were getting ripped, Finnegan was getting love bites on his throat latch area. Finnegan was kicking Calvin since Calvin was also biting his butt.
[QUOTE=SonnysMom;8945405]
It was also better for both of us when it came to blanket repairs. She was throwing out hay at night but they would finish it before morning and then the boys would get bored and start playing a bit rough. Blankets were getting ripped, Finnegan was getting love bites on his throat latch area. Finnegan was kicking Calvin since Calvin was also biting his butt.[/QUOTE]
Sounds like not enough hay was put out, as opposed to being a square bale issue 
I definitely agree it’s almost always cheaper though - labor and material costs are down in getting them baled and stored. Decent squares around here are about 4x that of my rounds.
