Hay feeding in field

[cat100]

Can anyone share their ways of feeding hay in the fields, especially over winter. We have to hay feed all year as not enough grazing. We only have the 2, and on 2.5 acres but the main paddock gets too wet in winter. So over winter they in a small paddock of about 3/4 acre with a concrete track running through it, for about 6-8 hrs and then stabled over night. When we ran out of hay last May, we went over to some cheap 2nd cut haylage that Mole were selling. The horses loved it! Their hay/haylage gets put in wooden crates to try and stop it getting trampled etc. However they always chuck it out, and it ends up getting trampled, urinated on etc and piling up around the crates and getting boggy etc. They didn't do this with the haylage this year! Not a blade was chucked out of the crates! But we have a barn of 400 hay bales and I am not wasting that! They have hay nets in their stables. I don't really want to tie hay nets around the paddock, as I am also conscious they need to eat in a more natural position too. They don't get much movement/exercise over winter anyway and I don't really want to restrict the small amount of natural movement they do get. As it is they tend to spend their outside time stood on the concrete track waiting to come in. I worry it is too hard on their legs. Although they are not stood in mud etc. Has anyone got any clever suggestions of hay feeding, so there isn't a big mess/wastage in the field?

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Put mud control mats down to make a feeding station and put the hay boxes in the middle. Hay that falls or is pulled out won’t be in the mud and any waste is easily brushed up and disposed of.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Best thing was putting up the field shelters on concrete and haying in those.

Before that I used to end up at the end of every winter with large stinky muddy quagmire circles of rotten trampled hay. My winter grazing lasts so much better now.

 

[Barton Bounty]

My hubby made me a hay box, so I can hang a net to save him chucking it on the ground

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I think unless you have several really dry areas you might have to just use nets in the depths of winter that's what I do.

 

[Fransurrey]

Are they shod? If not, you can use a large slow feeder haynet (Harry's Horse) - I attached zips to mine for ease of filling/closing. They're hung in the shelter in summer/bad weather and thrown onto the grass in winter (if sunny)! You could in theory use a plasterer's bath to put it in and attach by drilling holes near the top of each side.

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[dorsetladette]

I have a hay feeder which we built ourselves. I sort of knew what I wanted and found a photo on pinterest to show my OH.
Mine fits a round bale in which I put in a large holed bale net to save the wastage from it being chucked around and peed on. It's been getting boggy round the feeder in winter so this year we've put stone (45mm apparently) down around it to help with drainage and then rubber mats over the top. Hopefully this will help them not stand in mud all winter.

Can you put the large hole nets in the hay crates so they don't toss it about as much but aren't restricted so much. Then put the hay crates on the concrete path? Or set up a feeding station type area you can easily clean up every day.

 

[Burnttoast]

It really depends how wet the field gets, but I put hay out in tiny piles in lines around the field, which are small enough for them to eat in one go and move on to the next. This works best when you aren't feeding ad lib (ie there is *some* grass for them to pick at), as it all gets finished and very little wasted. I also save most of my grass for winter to stop poaching, so actually feed more hay in summer, when it doesn't get trampled into mud. If you are grazing across most of your land for a lot of the year the root system will be more vulnerable to poaching.