Hay questions for people with their own land

slumdog

slumdog

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Hi :) I know this will vary but on average how much hay/haylage do you expect to get through in an average winter (hopefully we won't have a 9 month one again!) when do they start to come in at night? How many horses do you have? How much hay are they fed? Would it be more cost effective to get large haylage bales?

This will be my first winter on my own land and I will be buying hay in next month so just want some idea on how much other people buy :) thanks
 
We feed ad lib hay throughout the winter, usually starting any time between October and November.

We make our own hay and last year kept back around 180 bales just to be certain, but didn't use any where near that - think we had between 30 - 40 left. Given it was a bad winter, you can probably work on around 70 to 80 bales per large horse (mine are large warmbloods, stabled at night, getting hay throughout the day and night).
 
I had 3 horses and a small pony last winter and I got through 300 small bales of hay and 10 big round haylage bales. This winter I will have 4 horses and the pony and I have 36 large round hay bales and I again expect to also use around 10-15 large round haylage bales. I like to feed adlib when they are out from October through to the spring. I would allow 100 small bales per horse. I have a 17hh a 15.2hh, 2 x 14.2hh and a 10 hh

I have 10 acres and last winter my WB and youngster wintered out on around 2 acres. The others were at home and this winter the plan is for all to come in overnight. They all get 2 hard feeds a day of varying sorts in winter.
 
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My two are out 12 hrs a day throughout winter, usually bring them up at night just after bonfire night but earlier is weather is horrific. 13.2 pony has a handful of chaff with multi vit and devils claw in and a haynet very very loosely half filled ( my hay is loose not baled do about an armful). 16.2 mare has a bit more chaff and if necessary speedibeet and a small holed haylage net well stuffed with haylage. I buy in 42 bags of haylage and this sees me through winter usually with a few bags in hand. Also put a 1 tonne Heston bale in the field to allow as lib feeding in very bad weather ie snow.
 
Hi, I had small square bales of hay (approx 8-10 to a large round). I had a 16hh TB, WB yearling, small welshie and and old cob approx 14.1hh (barely any teeth-preferred grass to hay). I had the TB and WB stabled at night from late Nov-Feb and hay started going out in field at night mid Nov and by Dec they were all getting hay twice daily and a hard feed twice a day which continued to April.
I went through approx 260 squares which equates to approx 25 large rounds, however I did move them on to more grass in Feb and only fed hay during snowy period.

I hope that helps
 
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If you work on half a small bale of hay per horse per day (assuming they are mainly eating hay not lots of hard feed).

It would be cheaper to buy big bales normally, if you can handle and store them, which (big rounds) would be maybe 8-10 small bales worth (they vary in size a bit).
 
Ours are out 24/7 in winter with a field shelter. We tend to feed hay initially then move onto haylage from December - February for the harshest part. We've got 2 big horses and a shetland. Between them they usually get most of a small bale hay split between 2 nets for morning and night - the extra little bit for the shetland. So 14 bales a week. The haylage we bought in big rounds bales and lasted 10 days a bale.

Just to add - our grazing is pretty non existent in winter as the field gets trashed in a matter of weeks (disadvantage to being on clay ground!) so they pretty much are just on hay and hard feed.
 
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Large rounds are cheaper to make so much more cost effective...if you can handle them and store them. Squares are more expensive, riskier to make (I've learnt the hard way) but easier to handle and store.
 
4 mini Hestons (the great big rectangular ones) does me for one big horse the winter through til end of spring. He is a good doer so it isn't ad lib and I only put it in the field if there is snow on the grown as he has 7 acres to nibble at. In at night from late Nov. In during the day from April to end of June to control his sugar intake.
 
This is really helpful thanks! I'm just worried I'll be caught short and I'm praying we don't have another horrific winter!

I have a tb and an ISH that will need to come in (ISH is in heavy work and will be clipped out around end of October) my little native will live out and lives on fresh air and then I will have possibly 3 more to look after (I have an arrangement with my landlord) so I'm working on the assumption I'll have 5 in around November. I think the big bales seem more economical, I have a shelter that my lorry lives under so I think she'll end up on the yard and I'll stick the big bales under there. The huge bale in the field is a good idea as well if I can find one!

How do you manage turn out? Do you rotate the paddocks? I have approximately 8 acres split into 4 paddocks.
 
We cut 300 small bales of our own off a few acres (Some of these are being used now because cow pony annihilated his back) and will get through about 55 roundals maybe more between 3 biggies and 2 welsh youngsters. Use approx 2 roundals a week.
They'll start coming in when the weather changes for the worst, normally end of Octoberish. Have 20 acres so don't really have to put hay out unless there is snow on the ground.

As for managing fields i'll be rotating between a 4 acre and a 6 acre, it's my first winter at this property so picking the two fields closest to the house and yard and slightly sloping. previous places i've lived the fields have always got trashed through winter but have always recovered well.
 
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I had 50 bales of hay for two 11hh ponies going in to last winter and would have been ok if it wasnt for the extended bad weather

I ordered large bales of hay when the small ones ran out these were much more cost effective but harder to move and store and so my following order was haylage in large bales, this was much easier and I got them dropped off where they were out of the way and left them in situ as they were weather proof, the haylage was dry - pretty much wrapped hay and excellent quality so I found it the best option at the time given limited storage

This year I have 50 small bales again through a barter with a neighbour but had that not happened I would have gone for the large bale haylage again

I have just under two acres (two thirds of my available space) ungrazed too
 
We've made 580 large round 5x4 hardcore bales so far and have about another 150 large rounds still to make (hopefully this week if the weather co-operates). And we are only making about 1,500 small squares this year.

We need 600 large rounds to get through the winter. Approx. 50 horses, all out 24/7, all fed adlib hay.
 
I'm too scared to think about how much hay we went through last winter :( We were feeding hay in the field for most of 2012, including the summer, as the grass didn't appreciate spending the summer under standing water and just didn't grow. We had to stable the ponies overnight last winter for the first time ever, just to give their legs and hooves a break from the constant mud and wet.

I'm really hoping this winter will be a lot better. We now have an additional 4 acres, which more than doubles our grazing. We're using about a third of that as we've temporarily lost one of our other paddocks, but still have nearly 3 acres of virgin grass, which was cut last month and will now be left to grow for winter. It's on a slight slope too, so I'm hoping it won't get too badly trashed.

We buy hay in small bales from a local farmer at a very reasonable price, 30 bales delivered at a time, as we have limited storage. They're much easier to manage than big bales, although if we have any prolonged periods with no grass at all we may get big bales dropped in the field for convenience.
 
I have two horses and about 4 acres in winter they eat between one and one and a half of small bales per day, in at night out all day but by mid winter most of my grass is gone, my grass didnt recover until about may as it was so cold and in summer I split the field into 3 and rotate to give it all a rest and grow, and in winter I tend to let them have the whole lot.
 
I have about 12 acres (5 acre hay field never grazed) a 3 acre field I also take hay off of but horses get on it from approx Feb-end of April to top up after worst of winter. Winter field is approx 2 acres which they go on from Nov - Feb it has the shelter and they just trash it then ideally it's rested Feb-Nov and recovers very well then summer is spent in another 2 acre field. This summer grass was too lush so they spent most of it in winter field which still looks great. I thought about rotating all winter but it was so wet, we would have ended up with less hay and more maintenance on all other fields preparing for summer so I'm a believer in sacrificing a section to winter gloom.
 
I have mainly good doer native types, four brood mares 14.2 ish, they had to come into a barn full time as the ground was completely water logged, they got a 1 hay 1 straw a day. Three native youngsters had a small bale a day until Christmas then they went on to 3ft round bale haylage which they eat like pigs and used a bale every 6 days despite netting it, they had 8 of those, with a bit of straw as I refused to give them anymore haylage per week.
The youngsters came out of winter looking about right, the mares had lost weight but you could not see their ribs. As the grass had nothing on it from October we have had loads and they are all now too fat. If the land had been dry enough I would had it fertilised and cut for hay as it is I have a lot of long stemmy grass and a lot of fat ponies.
This year I have already bought 16 5ft rounds and will buy about 160 small bales plus 16 hestons of straw. I try and plan 6 months in advance.
 
My 2 good doers live out, never have to feed hay as on 4.5 acres of ungrazed grass :) I have two liveries, their horses come in at night, they get through 4 small bales a week over winter :( that's £16 a week!
 
I currently have 1 17hh abd his 14.2 companion. I keep them on a 2.5 acre 'autumn' paodock from Sept to Christmas, then I move them into a 'winter' paddock about the same size from Christmas until spring grass comes through. They are out 24/7 when weather is dry enought but in at night to avoid ploughing our heavy clay soil!

Whether they are in or out doesn't make too much difference as there isn't much grass anyway! I keep 150 bales to last the big horse all year and 100 for the pony - does winter and summer odd nights in, travel haynets etc.
 
I have 8.5 acres and get between 550 & 630 small bales. I have 2 wb and a connie which are stabled at night and turned out during the day. They are fed adlib hay during the day and i manage to stuff about 1/2 a bale in their haynets each at night. I tend to go on the lines of about a bale each a day. I do feed hard food too.
 
I have trash paddocks for the winter, with 10 x 20 hardstanding near the gates. I'm on heavy clay so I need to save some paddocks for summer.
I had 8 horses last winter and used big bale haylage as it worked out much cheaper than small bale hay which would have to be soaked for the big boys anyway, which is a real pain when the water's frozen!
 
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I have 2 small horses - 15hh good doers.

In autumn/winter they have access to 3 x 1 acre paddocks, so graze each one for approx 2 mnths, then get moved onto the next.

They come in at night from mid oct - mid march, and last year used 10 large bales of haylage. These bales were the 6 string ones and each bale lasted approx 3 weeks (we are lucky as our supplier makes very dry haylage, hence staying fresh for longer).

They only had haylage in the field when it snowed, and ate approx 10kg per night.
 
We have 6 acres split into paddocks and hayfield. This year we got 15 large rounds off the hayfield, a bonus as it didn't get any treatments in spring, in case we had another miserably wet summer and lost the whole crop like last year. However, we swapped a dozen of these for 120 fabulous small bales which are top quality and from a finer sward. We will still buy in some haylage, probably about 6 large rounds, if we have a bad winter because we like to keep some quality hay back for summer, or in case of injuries. We might just get another 50 of these small bales whilst it is so cheap (£2) from our very nice farmer.

We have a sacrificial paddock where we will put a large round out if needed, an all-weather turnout area, and they have the use of the hayfield through winter, coming off there in February so that it can be rejuvenated for spring growth.

Last winter we had 6 but they rarely came in over night, only when terribly wet, frozen or it had snowed heavily. The old ones are best if they can keep their arthritic joints moving and it's one in all in, or they all stay out. We got through 16 large round haylage and perhaps 40 small bale hay, but we were still feeding it up to the end of March because the grass hadn't grown much.
 
I reckon I used 20 round bales last winter for a Shetland, section A, 13.1 and 14.1 fed adlib outside. There was a lot of waste. I am going to try a toppa net this year.

This summer I have not grazed the fields nearest the house which will be the winter fields (again) to be honest the growth is as poor as I've seen it due to the very late spring and prolonged warm and dry weather we have had, but I will strip graze it and hopefully it will withstand the winter better.
 
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