how many square bales do you go through

asommerville

asommerville

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or would you expect for 2 bug horses per day? trying to get organised for winter and i have no idea , usually i get round bales but not possible this year.
 
Depends how your feeding it. If they are big horses and you ate feeding adlib I would guess they'd get through 1 1/2-2 bales a day so 10-14 a week and if just feeding at night in stable between 6-7. However I also feed round bales of haylage so could be way off!
 
I have varying numbers between 2 and 4 horses, min 15hands, max 17.2 (vary as some out in loan but obviously boomerang back at times). If small bales, they very much vary from suppliers, but, on average, the big lad eats one to one and half bales a day in peak of winter. We have next to no grass in fields then too, so hay is the main source of fibre. He is stabled at night, and if weather too wet. The others probably have between three quarters of to one bale daily.
 
In winter when there is no grass I would estimate 1 bale per day per horse. I usually use hay in the field - one bale per day between 3 and then big bale haylege in the stables at night, of which I go through two big bales a week between 3.
 
I've used about 100 good quality small bales (£4 a bale) in the last year for my 16.1 18yrs WB. We have good grazing and he is a good doer. I used about 120 bales the year before.
 
I have 3 1 x 15.2 growing baby, 1 x 15hh adult mare and 1x 13.2 NF pony. They get through 1 big bale hay every 2 weeks in summer and 1 x big bale hay a week in winter...........I am not going to work out what that is a yr as I don't want to admit it lol x
 
It very much depends on the weight and density of the bales. Some are light fluffy things and others are like solid wood. And how nice it tastes! They'll eat far more if it's nice quality.

My two big horses will easily eat 3/4 a bale each a day of heavy solid bales. They'll polish off 3 bales between them of lightweight ones. That's adlib with very little grass avaliable.
 
I have a 15.2 and 16.3 (both warmbloods) on not great grazing so I'm doing a nearly a bale a day at the moment so I expect to do just over a bale in winter.
 
My horses live out, no grazing. Most are about 15.2h. I allow for 1 bale a day each, my bales are about 50lbs each. Usually I have 20 - 25 horses. Let's say my hay bill is over $1000 a month.
 
Enfys said:
My horses live out, no grazing. Most are about 15.2h. I allow for 1 bale a day each, my bales are about 50lbs each. Usually I have 20 - 25 horses. Let's say my hay bill is over $1000 a month.
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Eep! But be thankful hay's so much cheaper over there: fed at that rate here you'd be forking out over £4000 a month!
 
Last winter our tb's ate about a bale of hay a day each. They were out during the day with hay in field and in at night with giant hay nets to see them thru till morning.
 
It also depends on how the bales are made. My farmer packs them tightly so I get a a lot of hay for my money but I remember trying to find some hay when there was a shortage a few years ago and someone was selling bales that when you lifted them by the string they practically folded in half, they were so light! ( and they weren't cheap - I walked away)
 
As others have said, it depends on how much hay is in the bales (loosely or tightly packed) but in a standard round (4x4) there's usually approx' 10 small squares. After that it depends on how much you feed.
 
When i had to use the small square bales of hay it worked out that i got 2 1/2 haynets out of each one so for my horse in winter it would be about 1 1/3 bales a day at least
 
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