Bitter hay

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poiuytrewq

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Any ideas to encourage a horse to eat it?
I have the huge 6 string bales and currently have 3 open 🤦‍♀️ up til now they have loved the hay but are leaving loads now and in particular one bale that looks, and smells gorgeous they really hate.
I’m going to start barrowing them to the sheep but am worried the replacement may be no better.
Steaming? Don’t want to spray molasses or anything as two can be prone to laminitis.
Might soaking lessen the bitterness? They don’t like soaked hay much but if it tastes a bit better 🤷‍♀️
Getting pretty stressed. With the one on box rest and the other refusing to spend much time out away from him I need them to be eating lots of hay.
 
poiuytrewq said:
Any ideas to encourage a horse to eat it?
I have the huge 6 string bales and currently have 3 open 🤦‍♀️ up til now they have loved the hay but are leaving loads now and in particular one bale that looks, and smells gorgeous they really hate.
I’m going to start barrowing them to the sheep but am worried the replacement may be no better.
Steaming? Don’t want to spray molasses or anything as two can be prone to laminitis.
Might soaking lessen the bitterness? They don’t like soaked hay much but if it tastes a bit better 🤷‍♀️
Getting pretty stressed. With the one on box rest and the other refusing to spend much time out away from him I need them to be eating lots of hay.
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Had drying agent on?? Altho bit odd, last summer’s weather.
Could try steaming with a good slug of vinegar in the steamer (dissolves limescale), will definitely smell vinegar in the steamed hay, but my horses have always been delighted if I de-scale - bizarrely.
 
When I was steaming and using hot water ‘washes’ on hay, the horses really loved that and I could smell the fresh green of the hay. The washing helped get rid of any moulds/spores/dust and also softened and intensified the green smell. I’m lucky that I have a hose straight off of my hot water cylinder, so can use that to treat hay for them if I need to.
When I used cold water soaks they were less keen about the hay being soaked and begrudgingly ate it. Hot water dunks really seemed to excite them more to eat it happily.

I know not many have access to litres of hot water, but possibly a kettle slowly poured over it (and cooled) might encourage them?
 
PurBee said:
When I was steaming and using hot water ‘washes’ on hay, the horses really loved that and I could smell the fresh green of the hay. The washing helped get rid of any moulds/spores/dust and also softened and intensified the green smell. I’m lucky that I have a hose straight off of my hot water cylinder, so can use that to treat hay for them if I need to.
When I used cold water soaks they were less keen about the hay being soaked and begrudgingly ate it. Hot water dunks really seemed to excite them more to eat it happily.

I know not many have access to litres of hot water, but possibly a kettle slowly poured over it (and cooled) might encourage them?
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Wouldn’t bother cooling it though, horses prefer warm and fragrant, and it cools fast enough hung up for them to stick their noses straight in - well, it does in our environment.
My friend uses a plastic dustbin, three kettles of boiling, lid on for ten mins, then feeds to the pony. Before anyone gets H&S excited, he’s eaten it for over 20 years.
 
Exasperated said:
Wouldn’t bother cooling it though, horses prefer warm and fragrant, and it cools fast enough hung up for them to stick their noses straight in - well, it does in our environment.
My friend uses a plastic dustbin, three kettles of boiling, lid on for ten mins, then feeds to the pony. Before anyone gets H&S excited, he’s eaten it for over 20 years.
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Yes it does cool quickly in this weather outside. I just meant cool enough to handle as I found the nets were too hot to touch and risk of scalding possible lugging them about against the leg!
I too as much as the horses prefer the smell of steamed hay, it’s got a really nice aroma!
 
I once had a batch of large round bale hay that had been treated with propionic acid. Maybe you’ve got that type of hay op? That gave the hay a certain mild vinegary smell but the horses, aged, and young ones, at that fine. It was a very stemmy hay.
I wonder if some horses don’t like the taste of vinegar acid preservative…or likely wouldn’t eat hay that had been doused heavily in it. It was very mild on the batch I had.
 
We had one bale at the end of last year that nothing on the yard would touch. I was a bit worried as it was an early one of a whole batch but fortunately they were fine with the rest of it. It looked and smelt fine but none of the horses would entertain that one bale.
 
I’m not sure why it’s so bitter- I know it is as I chewed a bit of each bale I have to see what the difference was 🤣
It’s not a bale of our own (I fear Mr P was £ signs and sold ours)
I have a proper steamer, not been used in ages but could dust it off and give a go. I also have a hot horse shower so could warm hose.
Maybe worth trying both.
 
PurBee said:
I once had a batch of large round bale hay that had been treated with propionic acid. Maybe you’ve got that type of hay op? That gave the hay a certain mild vinegary smell but the horses, aged, and young ones, at that fine. It was a very stemmy hay.
I wonder if some horses don’t like the taste of vinegar acid preservative…or likely wouldn’t eat hay that had been doused heavily in it. It was very mild on the batch I had.
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I’ve never heard of that. It certainly has no bad smell, the opposite. I was thrilled when I opened it and took them all big armfuls which they snuffed and snubbed 🙄
 
Exasperated said:
Had drying agent on?? Altho bit odd, last summer’s weather.
Could try steaming with a good slug of vinegar in the steamer (dissolves limescale), will definitely smell vinegar in the steamed hay, but my horses have always been delighted if I de-scale - bizarrely.
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How strange 🤣 I do descale regularly when the steamer is in use but with a descaler and on an empty cycle
 
poiuytrewq said:
How strange 🤣 I do descale regularly when the steamer is in use but with a descaler and on an empty cycle
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Yep, I always de-scaled on empty, washed out and then steamed the hay, because I presumed it was ‘safer’ and that the horses wouldn’t appreciate the taste.
I used to use a proprietary de-scaler, then swopped to ordinary vinegar, and once forgot I’d put the vinegar in already…. but horses all devoured that batch of hay, so ever since I’ve never bothered with the additional ‘empty’ run, and every time since, they’ve tucked in to vinegary hay with relish. However, this is sweet hay infused with actual vinegar steam, not hay which was already sour - possibly makes a difference?
Just basic, budget-supermarket vinegar for descaling, nothing fancy, and I don’t steam all hay anyway.
I don’t know what drying agent tastes or smells like, because we don’t use it, but some farmers do and I know some horses object, so maybe that is what affects your bale? You’d have to check with the original producer, because your hay merchant might not know - unless the bale was an ‘organic’ batch and would be free of additives.
 
Perhaps they were trying to get the grass to grow? Last year was a strange year for grass/hay.
Our suppliers have completely run out of hay now. We are having to grovel round other suppliers and pay crazy prices.
 
Honey08 said:
Perhaps they were trying to get the grass to grow? Last year was a strange year for grass/hay.
Our suppliers have completely run out of hay now. We are having to grovel round other suppliers and pay crazy prices.
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Yes, that’s what you’d use nitrogen for, it is an effective fertiliser, and maybe the producer has spread it onto a field intended for hay.
But N is expensive fertiliser to sling about, and when producing grass crops - there’s usually far better return from spreading nitrogen onto silage crops than onto hay crops, so it’s less likely.
To operationalise: nitrogen pellets need water, rain, so last year’s drought makes it even less likely that a grower would start using this by the time it’s becoming apparent there’s going to be a problem supplying hay. And it wasn’t the same, countrywide.
You’d have to check what fertilisers and/or drying agents may /may not have been used, with the original grower - they have to keep detailed records for DEFRA and Env Agency compliance.
Hope you find something suitable.
 
Animals usually have a far more sensitive sense of smell than us, so maybe the hay batch has had rodents in the storage barn scurrying about the bales?
When they nest on bales we’d smell that musty dank putrid urine smell easily, but if they’ve just been running on the bales horses could potentially smell ‘rodent’ and instinctively reject the hay.
One hay collection we did the farmer had a massive closed shed of small hay bales, and when he opened the doors up, there were rodent poison traps everywhere, so he evidently knows they’ll get in and ruin the batch if he wasn’t so liberal with traps/poisons (not really sure what types they were, I didn’t look close)

Animals sense of smell is amazingly sensitive. I have a cat blanket that my boy cat no longer will go near, let alone sit on. I interchange all animal blankets after washing so it’s not like they get their own, and this has always been fine. It confused me at first until I remembered it had been used in the crate for my other elderly cat to be PTS at the vets. It was calmly done. She was not on it long, there was no urine on it either, and it would have been immediately washed.
I then boil washed it thinking the smell of the vets or ill cat smell really lingered in the fibres. No, even after a hot wash, eco washing liquid, no perfumed anything used - he still would not go near the blanket. It’s been stored for a year and I tried again - no luck.
He is smelling or sensing something and truly is very wary of it. It smells absolutely fine to my nose!

I hope dunking your hay or throwing hot water/steam through your hay will entice your gang to eat it up. 🤞
 
I feel your pain! I have two round bales open which nobody will eat :( I'm currently mixing it with small bale haylage, but even then, they still aren't really eating enough. One of the bales looks find to me, the other a bit old. The one that looks fine was even rejected by my friends horses up the road. If I want to know if it's really inedible, I send some up there as her horses will literally eat anything. They did eat it the next day, but that tells me there is something wrong with it. I wouldn't mind so much if I had an alternative, but that's all my hay supplier has and that was £50 a bale.

I did expect a hay shortage, but I really didn't expect to have them not eat what there was. I'm tempted to just put them on high fibre haylage, but that'll be around one bale a day, which is currently around £7.60!
 
It shouldnt have been sprayed or had anything put on it, however one of the bales that is "definitely absolutely" from our own batch apart from being completely different hay has sheeps wool in it. There have never been sheep (in the 10 years we have been here) in my hay fields. So i think Mr P has literally been buying and selling willy nilly and probably has no idea whats from where anymore. There are no thistles or nasties in it so it may well have been sprayed with something at some point, with the dry summer any spray would be concentrated a little more and not washed into the ground as much.
The third bale I shouldnt have even opened as its visibly more reed and stick than hay, but I did and they said no and now I'm lumped with that one as well.
Warm water didnt work, All a bit annoying.

Today i will being my long task of barrowing it all out
 
meleeka said:
I feel your pain! I have two round bales open which nobody will eat :( I'm currently mixing it with small bale haylage, but even then, they still aren't really eating enough. One of the bales looks find to me, the other a bit old. The one that looks fine was even rejected by my friends horses up the road. If I want to know if it's really inedible, I send some up there as her horses will literally eat anything. They did eat it the next day, but that tells me there is something wrong with it. I wouldn't mind so much if I had an alternative, but that's all my hay supplier has and that was £50 a bale.

I did expect a hay shortage, but I really didn't expect to have them not eat what there was. I'm tempted to just put them on high fibre haylage, but that'll be around one bale a day, which is currently around £7.60!
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Cost is my issue also. I suspect I'd be using a few small bales in 24 hours or at least 1.5- maybe more. Its been a long time since I've used little bales but the ones I see locally are £8 or £9 and I just cant afford to do that.
 
poiuytrewq said:
It shouldnt have been sprayed or had anything put on it, however one of the bales that is "definitely absolutely" from our own batch apart from being completely different hay has sheeps wool in it. There have never been sheep (in the 10 years we have been here) in my hay fields. So i think Mr P has literally been buying and selling willy nilly and probably has no idea whats from where anymore. There are no thistles or nasties in it so it may well have been sprayed with something at some point, with the dry summer any spray would be concentrated a little more and not washed into the ground as much.
The third bale I shouldnt have even opened as its visibly more reed and stick than hay, but I did and they said no and now I'm lumped with that one as well.
Warm water didnt work, All a bit annoying.

Today i will being my long task of barrowing it all out
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Ha, sounds like a farming husband.
Really got to keep track of stuff, my best hay heading down the throats of greedy stirks if not super-vigilant.
Didn’t you write that said bale looked and smelt nice to you, though? Perhaps worth steaming one loose net with vinegar in steaming unit, just see if you can disguise whatever it is that’s offensive. Herbicide percolates into plant roots to kill, you don’t spray when wet, nor in the wind. TBH, I’ve always found ewes at least as picky as horses, and store cattle = best dustbins.
I doubt it would be rats, because even an infestation running and peeing across the stack are unlikely to permeate right into big Hestons, so tightly packed. If you do have that problem - gloves / Weill’s disease - and maybe kick those kittens out to earn their living?!
 
Yes, it’s a beautiful looking bale! I will try that today I need to uncover the steamer, it’s not been I use since last winter and under a ton of other stuff.
You’ve made we wonder if anything else could be added, peppermint essence or something 🤷‍♀️ apple juice!
We don’t have space here to store all my hay so once it’s cut it goes off to another farm and is stored in the biggest barns I’ve ever seen. I always wonder how he keeps track of what’s what in them. He always seems too though, until now maybe.
 
There shouldn’t be rats here, I mean I know thy are everywhere but with the grain stores and the fact the farm conserves grey partridge they are pretty on it when it comes to pest control.
I’ve only ever seen one I think dead rat here.

Well apart from once I got caught in a swarm but they were passing through thank god

The fields well below us flooded one year and no joke hundreds If not thousands of rats ran out of the flooded area, up the road past me and on their way up hill 😬😬
 
poiuytrewq said:
Yes, it’s a beautiful looking bale! I will try that today I need to uncover the steamer, it’s not been I use since last winter and under a ton of other stuff.
You’ve made we wonder if anything else could be added, peppermint essence or something 🤷‍♀️ apple juice!
We don’t have space here to store all my hay so once it’s cut it goes off to another farm and is stored in the biggest barns I’ve ever seen. I always wonder how he keeps track of what’s what in them. He always seems too though, until now maybe.
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Probably, so long as whatever doesn’t clog the steamer unit. Vinegar won’t harm either the unit or horses, I don’t know whether it will help with your hay, but since you’ve already got the appliance - might as well try. Good luck.
 
poiuytrewq said:
There shouldn’t be rats here, I mean I know thy are everywhere but with the grain stores and the fact the farm conserves grey partridge they are pretty on it when it comes to pest control.
I’ve only ever seen one I think dead rat here.

Well apart from once I got caught in a swarm but they were passing through thank god

The fields well below us flooded one year and no joke hundreds If not thousands of rats ran out of the flooded area, up the road past me and on their way up hill 😬😬
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Is that called a rat-moot?
Apparently, when flooding one of the local villages to create a reservoir in 1930’s, the night before one of the huge new water conduits was opened, father in law and friend were driving along adjacent road, and suddenly overrun with rats: an absolute flood of rats, all squealing, covered the road, verges, the vehicle, they were absolutely terrified. But this was actually before any water started pouring through, so how to explain that?
I don’t think your hay problem will be rats, either.
 
We are having a similar experience. We feed bought in big round bales of haylage. We don't have much room, so gave the bales delivered 2 at a time onto the yard. We have had the same farmer supply us for years. Our horses are not eating the current open bale with their usual enthusiasm but as they don't seem to be hungry (no arguing) I think it must just be that the haylage is very fibrous and filling. They will insist on pulling it out of the feeders to pick the best bits first, so have been quite wasteful because we don't use nets (and have no intention of starting).
 
Exasperated said:
Is that called a rat-moot?
Apparently, when flooding one of the local villages to create a reservoir in 1930’s, the night before one of the huge new water conduits was opened, father in law and friend were driving along adjacent road, and suddenly overrun with rats: an absolute flood of rats, all squealing, covered the road, verges, the vehicle, they were absolutely terrified. But this was actually before any water started pouring through, so how to explain that?
I don’t think your hay problem will be rats, either.
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Absolutely no idea It was a good job I'm not rat phobic though! Very very weird!

@Pearlsasinger - I do use nets sometimes and have the exact same thing anyway! I use big holed nets hung around various points and they pull it all out and eat the good bits! So nets wouldnt help anyway!!
 
I don't think my guys are full, although they don't seem hungry as such, they are not shouting for hay (as one will) but I have a bit of a previous bale left that I didnt like but they do and if i put that in the instantly start eating. I only have a few days of that left though. Been trying to mix it all together but its obviously the new they leave.
 
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