Hay soaking, freezing weather

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poiuytrewq

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How go you cope? I know today my waters probably going to be frozen up all day. I have a few water containers to fill at home but really only enough for drinking water for the horses. No electric so can't steam (although might bring net home and steam here maybe?)
 
I have long periods (Cairngorms!) when I cant soak hay and I have a lami prone girl. So I have taken to buying some oat straw bales and I mix that and the unsoaked hay 50:50, as it is lower energy than feeding just the hay unsoaked.

If oat straw isnt available in bales then it may be better to feed more lo cal chaff (eg Top Chop lite or Hifi Molasses free, or fast fibre) and somewhat less hay.

Steaming will not reduce the sugars much anyway, and thats my main concern. If you are steaming for other reasons, then you might need to continue that anyway.
 
When it gets to about minus 5 I find I cannot soak hay because the tap is frozen etc. So mine has to have dry on the floor of his stable then for a few days. Not ideal as he has copd problems but nothing else I can do as cannot feed haylage as he has had lami and not risking it.
 
This is like my friends pony today, I had to take her net out of soaking and it was covered in froze and frozen ice. Oops she will have to cope!
 
A bit late for this period, but the best I can do is to completely fill my soaking trough before freezing weather and dunk it in briefly (I am also removing dust). That's what I did this morning, although I knocked the ruddy trough over dragging the net out, so will have to go back up this evening to fill it when the tap to my water butt is unfrozen!!

Otherwise I have water containers and take it from home, placing net in the trough and then pouring the water over it. I use that for a couple of days to save water. I've risked it and spread dry hay out in addition to the soaked one, but I know he'll be coughing, later. :(
 
Its a pain isn't it?!

I have to soak for dust reasons. I always keep 2 5 litre bottles topped up, a black bucket and a tubtrug filled to the brim of water. I can get buy on that. I use the 5 litre bottles to do my feed and stable water and the tubtrug and bucket to soak my hay. I take the bottles to work and fill them up and then use that for her night net soaking. We still have 1 tap working at the moment (typical its not the one right next to my stable) so will refill the buckets later on.
 
I was actually organised last night and filled the bathtub i use for soaking my haynets right up and a big black bin as the tap right next to them is frozen solid. Mine are soaked to get rid of dust as even if it's good quality hay, feeding it dry still makes them cough. Luckily one tap on our yard is normally pretty good at staying unfrozen but if that freezes we have a stream running through the fields. I used 2 fence posts to loop the haynets round and then big rocks from the stream to keep them under water when I used it through the summer to soak hay for the fatty paddock. Fresh running stream water means I don't have to rinse it:D
 
I have to soak nets for my lami mare but today she has had to have them dry so I have mixed straw with them. I do go early afternoon as sometimes the water starts to come through, if it does I soak for a couple of hours instead of 12.
 
I routinely soak all my hay. The haynets get a bit crispy on the out side but I drop them on the ground a few times and the ice on the outside breaks up and falls off. I tip the hay into their haybars and its always been fine. I never had a problem feeding soaked hay this way.
 
Buy a large thermos, or two and a large dustbin with a tightly fitting lid.
But hay in the bin, empty boiling water from the flasks on top Nd put lid back on. Leave for at least an hour.
This is what I do when it's frozen
 
Do you find steaming that way works?
My boss is obsessive about soaking and has researched optimum times/temps etc and apparently the only way to do it properly is continuous steam for about a hour until the centre of the hay reaches 70 degrees minimum. I did at an old yard use a kettle and bin but after talking to new boss figured pretty pointless?
I was going to try at home with a wall paper steamer.
 
Put boiling water into a couple of large flasks, stick the hay in a dustbing and pour in the boiling water and slam the lid back on? wouldn't be much cooler water than boiling a kettle and taking it to the hay.
 
I soak hay for one of mine for dust reasons. I soak it as normal but Try and soak it as close to feeding as poss. I also pour a kettle over it and then let it cool slightly so its not ice cold when eating
 
I soaked mine with warm water then put inside the American barn an wrapped in a rug. Despite minus 4 it was still unfrozen this morning :)
 
I do the dustbin and kettle (we fill an old water trough so have water) thing and it seems to work fine. I did it from Jan to March last year without any problems. This year just doing whilst freezing as have the slowest boiling kettle so it's quicker just to run the hose over when not frozen :D
 
I think if you are just doing it for dust purposes then the kettle and bin method would work just fine, I would prob put some sort of draining rack or grid in the bottom... God I don't envy you though I would hate doing that so much! I take a bit of water for feed and have an automatic water trough but wouldn't be practical to take water out of it. Makes me shiver just thinking about it!
 
It stops my horses snotty nose so steaming must work. I do have a tap at the bottom of my bin as I soak hay in it in the summer. But as I don't use as much water steaming so I just tip it out. And I use a trickle net which is oblong when full so fits in the wheelie bin with ease :)
 
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