Hay on the floor in fields?

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Rochelle

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How much damage to land would be caused by feeding hay on the floor in fields? Its something we tend not to do but as we are low on grass it may have to be an option. Really don't want to bugger up the field though with trampled in hay! Thoughts would be appreciated! Thankies
 
Where I used to work... they fed hay in the fields, on the ground. TBH it didnt bugger up the grass any more than normal poaching around the gate. It worked better when hay was put at wider intervals and more small piles rather than all in the same area.

Hardcore in the area you're going to hay in works well, but if that's not possible then I'd go with a small pile per horse (plus one extra pile) as far apart as possible.
 
To be honest by the end of this winter in partciular the fields are going to be a terrible mess. Moving the piles will help avoid poaching. But as long as the fields are harrowed, rolled and rested adequately after you move the horses off they should recover really well.
 
We only have 2 horses so ours goes out in two giant flexible buckets (think tubtrugs?) they just tend to eat from the bucket then so less mess. We do take out uneaten hay from field occasionally though and we put the buckets on our drier spot
 
I've seen those nice big circular feeders that at least keep the hay from spreading about, so it is all in one place. Might be worth thinking about investing in one of them.
I'm not a fan of feeding hay in fields, but needs must at this time of the year I suppose...
 
the grass seeds from the hay will help grow the grass back, yes it looks a mess but as long as it is rested before summer it will be fine, i have 2 paddocks for my 2 horses and have decided they will do 3 months on 3 months off so they both get time to rest properly. also ditto move it around also helps you not to get attack when you go in with the hay because they don't know where its going
 
I've been feeding hay in the field since forever! My two live out so when we got all the snow it was essential they had as much hay as they could eat. I actually always feed in roughly the same place - I'd rather a small section of my field was poached, than moving the piles around and poaching it all over the place!

At the moment, the haying area is muddy yes, but then so's the whole field, nothing I can do about that. However, I know that once spring comes, my boys will move away into the main bulk of the field to find the grass, the lying hay will help regenerate the bit that's currently horrible and by the summer you'll never know it was there!
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It's been this way for as long as I've had this field. To be honest, ground is very resilient, and will come good given a little bit of time.
 
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I'm not a fan of feeding hay in fields, but needs must at this time of the year I suppose...

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You obviously have grass in yours, you are lucky.
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Around my feeders for an area of about 10' the level is a good 6" higher than when I began feeding last year. Fortunately it is frozen, not a stinking quagmire, I'll just scrape it level come Springtime, it reseeds itself. They are sacrifice pens, not important for summer grazing, I am not fussed if there is grass in them or not.
 
Perhaps try to use the driest part of your field, if it's not too far to walk. I have the footings of an old dry stone wall running under the soil through my field and tend to put out a few smaller piles along that as it doesn't poach up. We are feeding haylage which is full of seeds at the moment so that should help the land recover in spring. I do sometimes tend to rake off bits of trodden in hay manually if the land has dried out, but don't let it worry me if I can't manage to. As long as my neds are happy I'm happy!
 
I rotate the areas that I put hay on, to prevent it being trampled too much, placing it in many little piles. If I do find that a layer of yucky hay builds up, I remove it in the spring - it's never harmed my fields yet.
 
We always do this morning and evening. The area around the gates get poached anyway whether we feed hay or not and we have 2 out 24/7 so they need hay. Occasionally we put in haynets on the fence if windy but that's it.

We have not found it has any detrimental effect on the grass but we do have two separate fields so will rest the 'winter field' once the two stabled horses are chucked out 24/7 in the spring! I think as long as you give the fields time to recover it's fine.
 
I now put hay out in nets tied to the fencing, my fields are crap now anyway so not worried about what the hay's doing to the fields, more how much hay gets wasted, mine tend to paw it, roll on it, pee & poo on it & then it doesn't get eaten. Out in nets there is minimal wastage. I can see a massive difference in how much hay I'm using by putting it out in nets.
 
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