How much hay do you order in

Rache

Rache

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Just wondering how much you order for horses and how much you feed it during the winter,

ive got a non-foody tb so he will be on ad-lib hay over the winter, turned out for 12hours every day with slice or two in field when needed,

so im thinking 50-60, is this enough? Hw will have 1 or 2 hard feeds depending on him, he's new so just going to see how he goes
 
Im on a DIY yard and last winter I ordered 1 large bale of hay (= 12 small bales) per month from a local farmer, he dropped it off on his fork lift for me, Che was out all day and in at night and had 1 enormous hay net per day plus a slice in the field in the worst of the weather. I bought an odd small bale from the yard owner when I ran short towards the end of the month. Hope this helps, Che is a TB in light work who has 2 feeds a day made up of hi fibre cubes and chaff plus supps.
 
I always work on 70 bales per horse, may have to buy a few extra towards the end of winter/spring and this has always worked out OK. Horses come in of a night from when the clocks go back till about a month after they go forward.
 
Mine are in at night all year round and at the moment my 6 horses get through one large round bale of hay every 8-9 days. In the winter this goes up to a round bale every 3-4 days. They have more limited turnout from November - March and they are fed their hay ad lib.
 
I do 200 bales for my two, they are on ad lib hay and by the start of January we have more mud than grass to turn out, plus they stay in three days a week. This lasts me from end October to early May. I also have to add, one is a clydesdale and she eats about 3/4 bale a day and my cob eats about half a bale a day when in, hence I get through a fair bit and last year needed 240 bales as I was feeding in the field from the start of September.
 
I generally look at a calender and work out how many weeks I am likely to be feeding forage from, which depends on your individual grazing, and stabling plans. Mine stay out 24/7 and some years I haven't started feeding hay/haylage until the November/December time, and I tend to budget through to mid April, to be sure.

Then I work out how much per bale each horse is likely to eat per 24 hours - for my good doer this is little more than half a small bale, but for my poor doer on haylage it is over 2 large sections, which weighs 16 kgs!!

Then you do the obvious multiplications :)
 
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