How much do you pay for feed & bedding?

[J_sarahd]

I’m moving from a part livery with feed and bedding included to an assisted diy yard and in all honesty, I’ve never had to buy bedding or feed as they’ve always been included.

So how much do you pay for both?

He’s on 1x mug of baileys lo cal twice a day with a handful of chaff just for reference

 

[milliepops]

the ones of mine fed like that would get through a bag of £10 chaff every couple of months and a bag of balancer every month. Baileys lo cal is about £25 a bag round here.

bedding depends on what you use and how immaculate you like your bed to be. I buy a couple of bales of big flake shavings @£9 per month and use wood pellets otherwise which I buy on a pallet load so they are £4 a bag. prob put one bag in a week but I'm happy to semi deep litter.

 

[DabDab]

Do you mean hay or just hard feed?

On wood pellets I spend £25 a week on three. One very wet horse, one normal horse, one very clean pony.

Hard feed is probably about £15 a week for three, including basic supplements. They are only fed once a day and two of the three are on just a token carrier fed.

Hay for the three is about £40 a week at the moment, although much less in the summer (less than half). I rely a lot on hay/haylage to give them their daily requirements in terms of energy, fibre etc. Also one of the horses is a very poor doer (consumes about 20kg of hay per 24 hours) and eats about 3 x what the pony eats.

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

Mine live out approx end March to end October so it varies through the year.

Wood pellet bedding I buy as a pallet of 65 bags at about £3.90 a bag. In the winter months when in about 12-14 hours overnight I’ll get through approx 10 15kg bags a month per horse.

Hay depends on how much grass is left in the paddocks. Was paying £20 for large bales equivalent to approx 5 small bales. Now can only get small bales at £6 a bale due to shortage locally as poor crop last summer. I get through about £40-£60 a month in winter per horse but I had to feed hay in the field last summer as no grass growth. Oldie now on haylage and I buy bagged at between £5.99 and £7.50 and he gets though about couple a week.

Oldie has a lot of food so he’s expensive now. I think I spend around £60-80 a month in winter on feed for him. He’s on Saracen Releve, Equijewel, micronised linseed, conditioning cubes. Young horse on pink mash and chaff around £25 a month.

I did actually work out totals over the last year but need to find my calculations.

 

[Surbie]

Winter is spendy. I use 1-2 bales of shavings or sawdust per week (roughly 6 a month) so £48/month roughly.

4 small bales of hay per week £96/month at current prices.

Hard feed is negligible (2 sacks every 18 months) - supplements are more so probably works out at about £1/day

(edited as my maths was wonky!)

 

[Polos Mum]

I have clean geldings and use a 1 tonne pallet of wood pellets for 3 of them and it lasts 2 years (so £130 per year across the three of them or £45 per horse per year - They live out most of the time in usual years and one refuses to wee in his stable !!!

Feed you could weigh your scoop and then look at what a sack costs and work it out for exactly what your horse is used to.

 

[chaps89]

Hay, 1 round bale at £35 will usually last a month (I do have 2 but the little one gets a negligible amount of hay) maybe 3.5 weeks.
I top up with barley straw which is £15 for half a Heston bale and get through 1 or 2 of those a month
1 gets a handful of chaff and speedibeet twice a day, speedi beet is £13 a bag, chaff is £16 and both last about 4 months easily. The lo-cal balancer is about £25/30 and for a 14hh pony on their recommended amount I worked out it would be a bag a month
Bedding I use nedz-bedz pro, £9.50 a bale, I put 1 in 1 week, the next week I put half a bale in, so about 4 bales a month. Never had her on such an economical or easy to use bedding!

 

[Michen]

Bedding is inc in my livery (although I add woodpellets underneath the straw).

Feed is so variable. One of my horses in the winter costs £75 a month in hard feed. The other £25 a month (a balancer only)

 

[Merrymoles]

Really does depend on your horse. Mine has one bale a shavings a week at £6/bale but his fieldmate (who I also muck out) needs at least two or three a week because he is such a wet horse.

Mine also gets a negligible amount of Baileys low-cal balancer and I reckon a bag lasts about three months - although the price has gone up to £28 for the one I bought last week. He also gets a small amount of grass pellets and a £8.50 bag lasts about six weeks.

I buy hay at £30 for a large round and that will last three weeks to a month, depending on weather and whether I need to feed hay in the field during the day.

 

[J_sarahd]

Thank you everyone it seems I will be saving! He’s been on wood pellets before and I really liked them so I’m thinking of getting those again. Can someone point me in the direction of a good brand? Can’t remember what ours was as it was a while ago now.

 

[windand rain]

Mine live out so no bedding but for 5 good doers its about £30 per month for feed and hay but we dont need much hay as have standing foggage to graze into only used 2 small bales of hay this year so far and that was because the livery was using it to get the pony out of the field

 

[milliepops]

Thank you everyone it seems I will be saving! He’s been on wood pellets before and I really liked them so I’m thinking of getting those again. Can someone point me in the direction of a good brand? Can’t remember what ours was as it was a while ago now.

i use white horse energy, i just buy whichever ones have the best price. i prefer platinum plus but got firepower the last couple of times.

if you're a new customer you could use my discount code JorRac16144 to get 5% off.

 

[EnduroRider]

I am crying inside a bit at just how little some of the horses mentioned above eat!

My three are currently getting through a £25 round bale of hay every 8 days so a little over £7 each per week for hay. One also has a couple of kilos of Fast Fibre a day so he is an additional £8 per week.

Feedwise they are going through a bag of A&P Soothe & Gain every two days, plus a bag of Graze On a week, so almost £17 each per week. Then joint supplement is £12 a week each in addition.

Bedding wise, I use Snowflake Softchip Plus, do not have mats down and like big clean beds. They are all quite clean so I get through an average of 6 bales per month each equating to about £9 each per week.

I started to work out how much this all costs in total but stopped as I don't want to know the answer
The only plus is that most of those costs (excl joint supp.) pretty much halve in summer...

 

[milliepops]

I am crying inside a bit at just how little some of the horses mentioned above eat!

My three are currently getting through a £25 round bale of hay every 8 days so a little over £7 each per week for hay. One also has a couple of kilos of Fast Fibre a day so he is an additional £8 per week.

Feedwise they are going through a bag of A&P Soothe & Gain every two days, plus a bag of Graze On a week, so almost £17 each per week. Then joint supplement is £12 a week each in addition.

Bedding wise, I use Snowflake Softchip Plus, do not have mats down and like big clean beds. They are all quite clean so I get through an average of 6 bales per month each equating to about £9 each per week.

I started to work out how much this all costs in total but stopped as I don't want to know the answer
The only plus is that most of those costs (excl joint supp.) pretty much halve in summer...

if my OH didn't make my hay I'd be bankrupted each winter by about November

 

[chaps89]

I am crying inside a bit at just how little some of the horses mentioned above eat!

Mine makes up for it in vet bills if that makes you feel better? ??
I also have hay/straw bill all year round as they're laminitis prone so get little in the way of grass and alot in the way of soaked hay so I don't get the savings in summer that most people do.

 

[PurBee]

1 bag of haylage plus shipping to my door is around €10. I buy it by the pallet load, so thats a pallet price Per bag.
so 300 euros a month on haylage for 2 horses, at least as i give them more than 20kg usually in the winter when there’s no grass.

Thats without bedding/balancer etc

Wish i could find a ‘truly good quality’ hay supplier who’s hay wasnt mouldy! I re-seeded 2 acres last year so will take hay from that this summer and harpoon my insane forage costs out of my life!

I’m about to import from latvia next until i make my own...?‍

100x10kg bags wood pellets €300 euros. 1 tonne shavings around 280-320 euros.

 

[ownedbyaconnie]

I have saved a fortune on hay/feed/bedding since moving off livery. My old yard owner definitely put a healthy mark up on everything we used.

For my 14.1 native who in winter is out 10 hours a day I get through probably a bale and a half at £5 a bale. So in a month my hay is probably £30 a month ish. Summer maybe £20.

Feed she is on basic cheap pony nuts and honeychop and only a handful of both a day. I buy a bag of pony nuts every two months I reckon and a bag of honeychop once a year so £40 a year on feed - this is why I love natives!

and then bedding she has 1/4 bag of wood pellets down every week so 1 bag per month at £5 and then a bag of shavings once every two weeks at £6 so bedding total cost per month £17.

 

[TotalMadgeness]

In winter my two get through 3/4 of a 20kg bag of haylage a day (£7) along with half a small bale of oat straw (£6 per bale - expensive I know but its like gold dust here).
They get 1-1.5 bales of bedding a week (nedzbedz pro / bedmax).
Have just taken delivery of a pallet of miscanthus bedding which is cheaper than the nedz/bedmax (around £8) and hopefully more absorbent.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

In the winter:
4 bales shavings per month - £32.76
1 rectangle big bale of Hay a month - £50.00
0.5 bag of Coolstance Copra - £11.37
2 bags of Dengie alfalfa pellets - £21.98

In the summer I use about 1 bale of shavings, 1 bale of hay per 2.5 months and half the amount of feed.

 

[scats]

Shavings are £7.40. We have to buy off YO who gets them in for us. I go through about 16-18 bags a month (two minging mares)

I’ll go and check my bill to see what my hay costs me!

 

[poiuytrewq]

if my OH didn't make my hay I'd be bankrupted each winter by about November

Same here. I couldn’t have horses to be honest!

 

[DabDab]

I am crying inside a bit at just how little some of the horses mentioned above eat!

My three are currently getting through a £25 round bale of hay every 8 days so a little over £7 each per week for hay. One also has a couple of kilos of Fast Fibre a day so he is an additional £8 per week.

Feedwise they are going through a bag of A&P Soothe & Gain every two days, plus a bag of Graze On a week, so almost £17 each per week. Then joint supplement is £12 a week each in addition.

Bedding wise, I use Snowflake Softchip Plus, do not have mats down and like big clean beds. They are all quite clean so I get through an average of 6 bales per month each equating to about £9 each per week.

I started to work out how much this all costs in total but stopped as I don't want to know the answer
The only plus is that most of those costs (excl joint supp.) pretty much halve in summer...

8 days?? Your three are amateurs....mine clear a round bale in 5-6 days in winter

Does that make you feel better

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

Ooh does this mean you are moving from the yard with the horrible woman?!

Apologies I am of no use whatsoever on your actual question, although I should probably educate myself on how share horse chows his way through each month! Just excited your situation is hopefully changing for the better.

 

[J_sarahd]

Ooh does this mean you are moving from the yard with the horrible woman?!

Apologies I am of no use whatsoever on your actual question, although I should probably educate myself on how share horse chows his way through each month! Just excited your situation is hopefully changing for the better.

Yes! Got a message today saying the yard I was on the waiting list for will have a space in March!! Thank you

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

I am crying inside a bit at just how little some of the horses mentioned above eat!

My three are currently getting through a £25 round bale of hay every 8 days so a little over £7 each per week for hay. One also has a couple of kilos of Fast Fibre a day so he is an additional £8 per week.

Feedwise they are going through a bag of A&P Soothe & Gain every two days, plus a bag of Graze On a week, so almost £17 each per week. Then joint supplement is £12 a week each in addition.

Bedding wise, I use Snowflake Softchip Plus, do not have mats down and like big clean beds. They are all quite clean so I get through an average of 6 bales per month each equating to about £9 each per week.

I started to work out how much this all costs in total but stopped as I don't want to know the answer
The only plus is that most of those costs (excl joint supp.) pretty much halve in summer...

Not sure why you’re crying yours sound mega cheap. A small bale alone is now £6 here. Would get through about 3-4 a week per horse in winter. That’s £18-24 a week for one horse. Do you feel better now .

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

Yes! Got a message today saying the yard I was on the waiting list for will have a space in March!! Thank you

Hurrah! Onwards and upwards ?

 

[Jeni the dragon]

My two and pretty cheap to keep. Since I've managed to get sheep on my big field they only really need hay when there is a good layer of snow on the ground. Before then I was going through 2 wee bales most days.
Feed wise they get through a bag every 3 weeks between the two. Thena gets a handful of chaff but a bag lasts probably 3-4 months. She gets an apple a day too, and will go onto a joint supplement once I manage to get out and get some!

 

[HappyHollyDays]

I semi deep litter bedding and one uses 2-3 bags of wood pellets under straw at £4.40 a bag. I bought a huge bale of straw in August for £30 and it will last the rest of the month. The other one uses 2 bales of shavings a month at £9 a bale. Feed wise a bag of Pure Easy at £15 lasts a month and is mixed with either speedibeet or Fast Fibre, no idea of cost but the two bags last all winter. Hay is my biggest outlay, they go through a large bale every 10 days so £105 a month. Supplements for feet, breathing and liver all from Science Supplements no idea, I just buy it as it runs out.

 

[J_sarahd]

It seems hay is a lot more expensive than I thought!! You can tell I’ve never had to buy it. I don’t even know how much of a bale he would eat cause I only top it up at the weekend...

Haylage wise, how many bags would you expect to go through for a 405kg horse? I want to use haylage because hay triggers my asthma but also want the cheaper option hah

 

[Iznurgle]

Haylage comes with my DIY, but I pay 7e per bale of Mi-Bed or 8e per bale of shavings. Bag of lucerne chaff lasts me 6 months at 20e a bag, and pink mash runs about 20e a bag which lasts about 4 (it's fed mainly to get supplements in, he's not working enough to merit anything more). I use about a bale a week on a wet gelding.