Hay Questions

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vikkibeth

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28 February 2011
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Northamptonshire
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I am looking to move my horse from a small private yard due it being too far away as my son starts school in a village 30 mins away (we live in the middle). I am looking to get a field and have my boy out to grass as he is a very hardy little man. He is a great doer and in the summer lives extremely happily on just grass but just worried about winter as not sure how many bails of hay I am going to need.

I am also worried about where to store it...any ideas would be great.

Also anyone in Northamptonshire who do you buy yours off?
 
My Welsh Sec D lives out during the day all year and comes in at night on hay all year and I use 120 bales of hay per year...so you would be looking at less than half that for winter depending on how much grass you have and how much your horse needs to eat.
Storage wise, could you find a farmer to drop off round bales as and when you need them...bet you would only need 5 for the winter at any time....alternatively put and membrane down, pallets on top and store you hay out under tarpaulin...put pallets on the vey top bales too in order to create air flow all round the bales.
 
I use a small bale a week in the winter for my NF, I also pick from the field as it works out at 1/3 the price, I have booked 24 bales as my farmer sells in blocks of 8 at £2:50 per bale, I then store in my garage, if you don't have a garrage, you can rent one for around £40 per month so will work out a little more than buying in at full price.
 
When i used to have three living out i allowed at most 1/2 a small bale per day between them (at around £4 per bale/ £15 per week) and that is talking in wet, barely any grass conditions. We used to buy it 20 at a time and my husband built a field shelter type building which we stored the hay in in the winter on pallets and it always seemed okay. previosul to this we kept it on pallets under tarpaulin but this was a pin in the bum trying to fill haynets up and stop the tarpauling flapping wildly in the wind!
 
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