Dispensing Haylage on large yards? Ideas please ...

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Eventerchick

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how do you dispense haylage from large bales around your yards?
Would like to switch from using hay to haylage for a number of reasons but one logistical problem is how to efficiently move it around the yard to give to 20+ horses several times a day. Filling that nimber of haynets just doesn't really work from a time and enery point of view!
Ideas and suggestions much appreciated!
 
If your stable block allows , i know people who have the bale sat at the end of middle aisle of stables , ie ten stables on one side and 10 stables on other side .

Roll bale down the centre of all stables , like a long runner of haylage carpet , lol , and then fork in to each stable a pile of haylage from the carpet you have made , and then leave bale at opposite end of stables from where you started it from , and do same next time starting from the end where the bale is ???
 
thanks, just worried it is quite an erratic way of making sure how much they get at a time, and also the time of pulling off bale, into barrow and out again several times to do all the ponies...
maybe I'm being optimistic but there must be an easier way! or need to develop one and make a load of money!
 
At one yard I was on we used to use builders sacks, fill them up and drag them around the yard. They're quite robust and can fit a lot in but not so much that its impossibly heavy.
 
I use the big green garden sacks for my 6 on haylage, nice and easy to fill and one sack gives one horse more than enough haylage per serving. Its a lot less time consuming than haynets and keeps the yard nice and clean too!!
 
We have a trolley with 3 sides that is the same size and shape as a slice of haylage (large rectangle bale). We load as many slices on as we can and wheel that around. It was made for us. We have 18 stables that we use that method for.
The other 6 have a yard for them selves and have a bale on a trolley at the side that we take the haylage from for them.
 
It depends on if you use round bales or square.

I found round bales much harder, as you have to walk round the damn things pulling and dragging to unravel it. I would spend a morning stuffing old dengie bags full of haylage and then cart them round and tip over the door/into haybars.

Love the idea of rolling from one end of the block to the other - fabulous! - but I have visions of it disappearing out the open end and into the mud
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I swapped to oblong bales and find them much easier. The sections come away quite easily, and separate into thirds, so I use a large wheelbarrow and load up with thirds and lob over the door into haybars.

I feed ad lib so don't worry too much about who gets what, I just top them up every evening with enough to leave some over in the morning (except for the fatties who get small hole nets anyway). It is more economical than the little bales so I don't mind if some gets wasted, although not much does as I let the half-starved fatties loose in the yard while I muck out and they finish up any leftovers
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Chuck the haynets and install haybars instead (you can make a similar thing for a couple of quid). Then you just fill it to the brim - my barrow full to almost toppling over fills one nicely.
 
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