How much hay do your horses get through a month?

S

sasha1414

Active Member
Joined
16 December 2009
Messages
40
Visit site
Hi :-)

With a few recent threads on the amount of hay horses are being fed and the cost of it popping up recently it has me reconsidering how my hay usage compares to others as I seem to get through a lot! I have a 4 year old 17.2hh Clydesdale mare who is still growing and whilst her ribs are easy to feel (but can't be seen) she is prone to getting ribby during growth spurts so she's fed ad lib hay (but in hay nets to reduce waste). She is turned out everyday and apart from hay just gets chaff with her vitamins and some treats each day.

She gets through almost an entire big bale of hay a week which costs £35 and although she's a heavy breed it still seems an exceptional amount more than everyone else! Please tell me how it compares to yours and if she really is eating a mountain more, thank you :-)
 
I don't use hay, I use meadow Haylage so not much different.
I get through about 5x220kg bales per month between three horses, 16.3, 16, and 14hh. The 16.3 is very old and gets forage replacement as well or it would be more, and the other two are not ad-lib.
 
I have 2 using about 7/8 small bales of hay a week between them. I pay £5 a bale, delivered and stacked. Mine are a welsh cob and an irish draught, both reasonable do-ers but I have next to no grass in the field until I can move them to my spring field.
Yours is probably not too far out for a young heavy horse.
 
We have 4 mares, all about 16hh, 2 adults, 1x rising 5 and one rising 4. I usually buy 5 x big bale hay per month for them and 3 sheep. Our bales cost £35 delivered, so I would say that you are using about the same amount of hay as we are. I can't stand haynets, so we use haybars and put hay in piles out in the field. Putting hay out is wasteful but we haven't enough grass available for them to be out all day without hay.
I often wonder how long some people's horses stand in their stables with nothing to eat - that wouldn't do for me. In fact the Draft horse who can't have a straw bed in case of colic has a trug of oat straw chaff to stave off hunger pangs (!) when she has finished her hay - the others can nibble their beds if necessary. IIWY, I wouldn't worry too much about how others keep their horses, you do read about some strange practices on here, just manage your own horse to your own standards. It sounds as if your Clydesdale has an excellent home with you.
 
I'm now on full livery now so couldn't say for sure but when I was still on DIY a few months ago my IDx was getting through 10-12 standard bales of hay a month. They were £5 each so £50-60 a month cost.
 
I have 5 horses, well they are all around 14/15hh and a Shetland and up till it snowed was using 1 bale a day for all 5 :) now we are using about 2 bales a day so around 60 bales a month costing £210 Once the grass starts coming through we will be back down to 1 bale or less a day :)

We can't use big bales as no where to store them and no way of getting them over to stables as ground is too wet.

Looking at the above comments makes me v happy that all of mine are good do-ers :biggrin3:
 
My two (15.2hh good doer and 16.2hh average / poor doer) live out on no grass to speak of. I've not seen them grazing in months. They have a small / "normal" bale a day between them (obviously the skinny one gets fed as well) and this has kept them both roughly at the same weight as six months ago. It's about six sections each, per day - any more and they start leaving some.
If they were kept inside some of the time, I'd be giving them both proper ad-lib hay whilst in (I cannot stand a horse being in with nothing to eat), and nothing / a small section whilst out. I expect my two browse the hedges around their fields, so I'm not too fussed about them having not-quite-ad-lib hay.
I'm not going to work out how much it costs!!
 
My 16.2hh IDx who weighs 610kg goes through 1 round every 4 weeks - works out about 250kg to a bale I think? You sound like you go through a lot!
 
As she is eating it and not treading it into her bed and she is not too fat, she is eating what she needs. If you fed less she would be thin! She is still growing so she will eat more than a fully grown horse and you are not feeding anything else. Any grass that she grazes during the day is probably not much nutritional use at this time of year. She is going to be a big girl and expensive to feed! Good luck - trust your 'eye' as all good horsemen should.
 
I'm using one small bale a day at the minute. Two Shetlands and a growing 15hh ish cob. At £3 a bale it's also costing me £35 a week. Mine live out with very little grass at the minute. They do have one small feed a day with their vits etc.
 
Last edited:
15.3 Friesien cross adlib hay overnight and if in during the day 4 standard small bales at £4.50 each per week I'd be up to 6 or 8 if he had to be in more during the day
 
Jay is munching a bale a day at the moment just for him, but the bales are saggy no not as heavy as some. He also has a small haylage every 3 days, but no grass turnout (on arena) and no hard feed. He is also ad lib in small holed nets and licks it clean if I cut it any.

When he comes to work harder again he will drop weight, but I am being careful as if he is cold he cad drop weight so quickly you can't stop it. He won't have feed until he has increased weight.

Your horse does eat an awful lot, but then he is awfully large! If he looks well you have got it right, as long as you are on top of worms, teeth etc.
 
3 large bales a month with a 17.2hh and a 15.2hh beast. They have 2 large sections each a night and have a bit left over in the morning. Currently the 15.2hh is also in so he is eating a section during the day too.

I pay £40 a bale.
 
Hey. I have a 15.2 poor doer and a 16hand good doer. They are on no grass and get 2 feeds a day. The fatty only has a spoonful to keep her quiet whilst the other eats and they have 2 haynet each twice a day. I go through a round bale every 2 weeks :)
 
Thank you everyone for your responses! Don't worry I'm not going to lower the amount of hay she gets as she would start to lose condition and I also don't like a horse standing in without forage for too long although I understand the various difficulties this can entail if a horse is prone to being overweight. She is on a regular worming regime and worm count and has had her teeth done at the end of last year so I think it's just my mind accommodating to the amount such a big girl needs as my other horses found it very easy to put weight on! I may look ridiculous carrying huge hay nets like a dung beetle haha but I'm glad it seems in line with people's thoughts. My passion for heavy horses does tend to mean my bills are a bit higher but she's well worth it :-)
 
four big bales a week for a 16.2 tb, 16.3 appy, 16.2 (and still growing!) appy, a 16 wb and a 15.1 appy the tb has ulcers so is on adlib, so are the big two. the wb has about ten pounds a night, anymore and she tramples it into the bed, the little appy gets the same as he is a lami.
 
I have one 15hh Welshie and he has a third of a small bale at night and about half that during the day with a strip of grass too. So I usually use about half a bale a day give or take and in the summer when he is on grass during the day, he has a third of a small bale per day at night in his stable..so about 10 bales per month.
 
We have the huge 350kg round bales. The 6 of ours - x2 Dartmoor ponies (12.3hh & 12hh), 1 New Forest (13.3hh), 1 Welsh Sec. A (12hh), & x2 Andalusians (15.3hh & 16.1hh) get through one round bale every 2 - 3 weeks.

They're all in at night, and are never without hay when they're in. They also have a 350kg bale in a metal ring feeder in their field.
 
I have a 15.3 and a 13hh pony, if I leave a big bale in the field it will last just over a week but they waste a lot. If I put it in the field in haynets everyday it lasts just over 2 weeks
 
sasha1414 said:
Hi :-)

With a few recent threads on the amount of hay horses are being fed and the cost of it popping up recently it has me reconsidering how my hay usage compares to others as I seem to get through a lot! I have a 4 year old 17.2hh Clydesdale mare who is still growing and whilst her ribs are easy to feel (but can't be seen) she is prone to getting ribby during growth spurts so she's fed ad lib hay (but in hay nets to reduce waste). She is turned out everyday and apart from hay just gets chaff with her vitamins and some treats each day.

She gets through almost an entire big bale of hay a week which costs £35 and although she's a heavy breed it still seems an exceptional amount more than everyone else! Please tell me how it compares to yours and if she really is eating a mountain more, thank you :-)
Click to expand...

Do you mean the large square bales or the round ones? If you mean the round ones then that does seem fairly excessive. My mare is on haylege now (she's 16.3hh) and she goes through about a large square bale per week which cost £19 each. When she was on the large round bales of hay they would last approx 2 weeks.
 
Moomin1 said:
Do you mean the large square bales or the round ones? If you mean the round ones then that does seem fairly excessive. My mare is on haylege now (she's 16.3hh) and she goes through about a large square bale per week which cost £19 each. When she was on the large round bales of hay they would last approx 2 weeks.
Click to expand...

Ah sorry yes I mean the large rectangle bales not round ones.
 
We have five horses that get through 3.5 big bales of haylage a week. They are between 14.3hh and 16.2hh. I remember when I had a 17.2 (fully grown) ID gelding and the amount of haylage and bedding he got through was immense. I would expect your mare to be getting through about what she is doing. It will slow down a little once she is fully grown. Big horses really do take a lot of feeding. My little 14.3hh rising 4 year old eats less than half the haylage of her 16.2hh rising 3 year old companion.
 
We have a 14.2 and a 15.1 and a big square bale lasts us four weeks @ £30 a bale. They are never short and always have some left.

I read what some of yours eat and thank my lucky stars ours are more economical!
 
We have a 14.2 and a 15.1 and a big square bale lasts us four weeks @ £30 a bale. They are never short and always have some left.

I read what some of yours eat and thank my lucky stars ours are more economical!
 
I have a good doer warmblood, 17.1 and a 4 yo ex racer looks ok but not yet properly muscled. Both have ad lib hay at night, the tb has adlib during the day in the field as well. The warm blood has a couple of sections in the field. I go through nearly 2 small bales a day. Luckily we do our own hay so don't pay for it.
 
I have a good doer WB who get 4-5kg soaked hay in a small-holed haynet at night. He cannot have ad-lib forage because he would never stop eating. He has a couple extra kg if he comes in early. Grass has been very good until the last week so we have just started feeding some hay in field. In the last three months I've got through 30 small bales at £4 each so approx. £40 a month. Will use more over the next couple of months until the spring grass comes through.
 
I use small bale hay and use 4 bales a week for my 15.3hh mare. That's feeding adlib overnight when she's stabled and putting a couple of slices in the field in the morning - she's not a greedy horse though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top