Do you weigh your hay nets??????

Feed by eye im afraid, by how much is left, how they are looking condition wise. And as weird as it may sound :/ by how messy the beds are; as in when my boy is hungry he demolishes his banks !
 
I cram in as much as I can (horse has 2 large small holed haynets per night), sometimes they are heavier than others.
 
I didn't used to weigh, I used to give ad-lib but my mare does not have a "full up" button :) she will constantly eat. She got laminitis in March so all her hay is weighed and soaked now and double netted :)
 
Yes I do. I have 2 good doers, who must be carefully monitored especially in summer. The interesting spin off from doing this is seeing which hay suppliers have "light" bales... I didn't when they were in a field with absolutely no grass and needed feeding hay ad lib. Then I just weighed a net out of curiosity to find out just how much you could get in there when it was stuffed absolutely full...
 
Last edited:
Yep, we usually just fill up the hay nets, the small ones for the small ponys, medium ones for the large ponys/small horses and large haynets for the larger horses! :)

If they eat all in their net, they get more hay. If they still have some by morning, thats great :)

But then all our horses are of correct weight, so we dont need to restrict/give more :)
 
Ours live out 24/7 and have ad lib hay morning and night. We don't weight it, keep a close eye on their condition instead.
 
Always, its is amazing the difference in weight between bales, 2 slices can weigh anything from 8lb to 12lb. I am constantly watching weight so it is important that I monitor hay intake, they are in at night all year around and the amount they have does vary according to the grass growth/temperature. Someone new to our yard was shocked recently, she wanted a little more condition on her 16.3 clyde cross, she was convinced she was giving him plently of hay but when she weighed her normal "stufed" night net was shocked to find it was less than 12lb. She now has him at his perfect weight and is a "weighing the net" convert.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top