Hay soaking systems

pistolpete

pistolpete

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How do you soak yours?
We have hay bars and I soak mine in an eighty litre trug drain it and wedge it into the hay bar. He gets a second one (spoilt) at nine pm. So can fit around 5-6 sections of hay in. I buy the builders trugs from Wickes £9.99 each. Is there an easier way? Hay net soaking must be harder?
 
I soak my big haynet in a bin that Dad fitted a plug (I'm not sure that's the right word?!) that you pull out and the water drains away. Made life so much easier. Smaller haynets I just soak in a tub trug.

Then nets are just tied up and rinsed off (laminitic prone pony - I'd rather be safe than sorry!) & when they have stopped dripping enough, are tied up in the stable.
 
in the summer, i soak hay in the stream next to the lami paddock...tie haynets to a bit of electric tape looped over some hammered in posts. just drag out and tie up...much quicker than dragging soaked hay across the field! in the winter, we have a bath tub next to the tap with the plug over the drain. fill, soak and empty!
 
My YO has an old bath tub in the yard, with it's own water source, so we soak nets in there and then let the plug out when they're done. If the water (which is run off from the fields) is frozen, we can use the hose pipe in the tack room. It's so much easier than when we used to use old feed bins!
 
Hay cube looks excellent but a cheaper hom-made version is a cut about wheelie bin. to be found on internet for about £60 then just add drainage hole and plug and cut some if height away from front so pony can still get head in. Erm.. ok..perhaps it is easier to buy one of the haycubes. I only have 1 lami prone pone, so i weigh out his 2 haynets - on vet advice 1 slice of hay in each, dunk haynets in a full of water plastic rubbish bin overnight, tip bin over in morning, hose off, drip dry then feed one net am and 1 net pm. actually much easier than I thought now I've got a routine going.
 
I have an old bath which has a pipe connected to the plug hole so I put the pipe into the bath whilst its filling and soaking then poke it down the drain when its done (this way no need for a plug and sticking hands in.
they seem to drip off enough as long as I drain it 20 mins or so before hanging.
Hate soaking hay!
 
I have one of these http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garde...y-Green-Water-Butt-Kit-9876481?skuId=10277186 with a hose pipe attached to the tap. Inside I sit the haynet on top of an upturned collander with one of these on top http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garde...nd-Q-Garden-Sieve-Black-9218266?skuId=9227965

Once the hay is soaked I just open the tap, let the water drain away, rinse with the hose pipe and then leave to drain as the hay is sitting up above all the dirty water. Then you can just empty out the small amount of dirty water from the bottom after you've removed the drained net. This has made my life so much easier - no more hauling heavy nets out of the water and getting soaked :)
 
Haycube is the best thing i've ever bought for horses in over 10 years of owning horses!

worth every single penny! pretty sure my yard will be fed up with me being a walking advert!

i even emailed the company to tell them its amazing!
 
megwan1 said:
Haycube is the best thing i've ever bought for horses in over 10 years of owning horses!

worth every single penny! pretty sure my yard will be fed up with me being a walking advert!

i even emailed the company to tell them its amazing!
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I like the look of these, but when you have let the water out, do you just feed the hay straight from the cube without rinsing it ?
 
The hay cube looks really small to me. What size is your horse Meg wan? He has his plastic tub in the stable tonight hope its still in one piece tomorrow!
 
megwan1 said:
Haycube is the best thing i've ever bought for horses in over 10 years of owning horses!

worth every single penny! pretty sure my yard will be fed up with me being a walking advert!

i even emailed the company to tell them its amazing!
Click to expand...

Any update, Megwan1, on how this is working for you? What is its capacity? How do you - or do you - rinse hay in it after soaking? And how quickly does your horse get through the soaked contents? Any info much appreciated, thank you.
 
I have a haygain which I treated myself to with a tax rebate. Yes I know they are not cheap but it is wonderful and does save all that soaking. When you are feeding big horses its a godsend.
 
During the winter I soak a whole bale at a time. I have an old loft cold water tank with a tap at the bottom. My Dad welded me up a frame and I have a 1:4 winch to pull put the bale out. I put the bale on an old mesh stable guard. Once winched out I put a piece of old trellis on top of the water tank and lower the bale and leave it to drain. I can then just open the bale and feed it to them in their hay racks, nets or on the floor. Much easier and no wet hands.
 
Ditchjumper2 said:
I have a haygain which I treated myself to with a tax rebate. Yes I know they are not cheap but it is wonderful and does save all that soaking. When you are feeding big horses its a godsend.
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Domirati said:
I've just invested in a steam and easy from ebay. Fingers crossed it works. I'm fed up of soaking ; we have metered water so costs a fortune and yard drains into field so it is boggy round drains.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_t....TR0.TRC0&_nkw=Hay+n+steam&_sacat=0&_from=R40
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Steaming is great for reducing the mould spores etc that can be breathed in and give the horse respiratory problems but it doesn't reduce sugars as does soaking. I made a very servicable steamer using a wheelie bin and wallpaper steamer unit ( loads of info on this forum if you search hay steaming) for well under half the price of the eBay one. There was mention of double steaming reducing sugars but I have not got any feedback when asking about it from Haygain etc. So it would be wrong I think to steam and believe that you are reducing sugars, even though latest research shows only 27% (max) of sugars are removed by soaking, thats better than nothing.
 
dalidaydream said:
I have one of these http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garde...y-Green-Water-Butt-Kit-9876481?skuId=10277186 with a hose pipe attached to the tap. Inside I sit the haynet on top of an upturned collander with one of these on top http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garde...nd-Q-Garden-Sieve-Black-9218266?skuId=9227965

Once the hay is soaked I just open the tap, let the water drain away, rinse with the hose pipe and then leave to drain as the hay is sitting up above all the dirty water. Then you can just empty out the small amount of dirty water from the bottom after you've removed the drained net. This has made my life so much easier - no more hauling heavy nets out of the water and getting soaked :)
Click to expand...

I bought two of those the other month and the taps sheared off within two weeks so I wasn't impressed by quality.

I'm still seaching for the perfect soaking method because with 6 nets a day (mine have 2 each) soaking and hanging them even after a days drying is the bane of my life:(

The haybar thing looks too small and mine would trash it in stable and i need small hole nets or they eat up too soon. As mentioned steaming alone doesn't remove the calories so that isn't an option.

Pistolpete is that trug significantly larger than normal ones then ?? If so looks good might get some as it's cheaper than dustbins which crack after a while.

Anyone know of a portable winch to help with lifting??
 
Last edited:
Twinkley Lights said:
I bought two of those the other month and the taps sheared off within two weeks so I wasn't impressed by quality.

I'm still seaching for the perfect soaking method because with 6 nets a day (mine have 2 each) soaking and hanging them even after a days drying is the bane of my life:(

The haybar thing looks too small and mine would trash it in stable and i need small hole nets or they eat up too soon. As mentioned steaming alone doesn't remove the calories so that isn't an option.

Pistolpete is that trug significantly larger than normal ones then ?? If so looks good might get some as it's cheaper than dustbins which crack after a while.

Anyone know of a portable winch to help with lifting??
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Really? :( That's bad luck, mine's still going strong a year on. If you're interested you can buy the taps to replace them.
 
dalidaydream said:
I have one of these http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garde...y-Green-Water-Butt-Kit-9876481?skuId=10277186 with a hose pipe attached to the tap. Inside I sit the haynet on top of an upturned collander with one of these on top http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garde...nd-Q-Garden-Sieve-Black-9218266?skuId=9227965

Once the hay is soaked I just open the tap, let the water drain away, rinse with the hose pipe and then leave to drain as the hay is sitting up above all the dirty water. Then you can just empty out the small amount of dirty water from the bottom after you've removed the drained net. This has made my life so much easier - no more hauling heavy nets out of the water and getting soaked :)
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Genius and a fraction the price of the hay cube.
I use an outsize trug and an ordinary dustbin, but I'm fed up of getting wet feet.
 
horserider said:
Genius and a fraction the price of the hay cube.
I use an outsize trug and an ordinary dustbin, but I'm fed up of getting wet feet.
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Why, thank you :o

That's definitely one advantage. The other big one for me is not having to haul the hay out of the water - my back is definitely thanking me for it :)
 
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