How much hay have you stocked up on for this winter?

[case895]

23 large round bales for 3 horses. That's what I made, so that's what I have.

 

[Bob notacob]

The age old question!
I know it can always only be approximate, but how many hay bales have you stocked up on for winter?

Preferably for one horse and small bales, in at night and out during the day during the winter months.

I have a 15hh cob mare who is in her 20's, an incredibly good doer, she usually lives out all year round but the yard we are now at the horses come in on a night from November.
I am making another order for winter but I have no idea on the amount to order! as I don't usually require so much.

How many small bales have you ordered for your horse?
Or large bale equivalent?

Details of your horse and the hours in and out would be gratefully appreciated

Thank you in advance!

i will add she is now only in very light work

Anticipate on using about two tonnes .This should last you tillthe end of April. Two tonnes is 100 reasonable sized small bales . Offer the horse a sample first , its no use buying hay they wont eat.

 

[Auslander]

I use this size bale - same length as last years huge bales, but half the depth, so one person can (just) move them. I find that each horse eats one a week. I can only store 4 at a time, as we can't manually stack any more than 2 high - but my hay supplier has plenty, and delivers by tractor if there's snow/ice.

 

[scruffyponies]

I got 100 in at the weekend. It's not much between 10 once they start needing it, but we have water meadow with foggage 3ft high in places, so in a dry year we hardly feed any, and so long as it's not too wet before January we're OK.

 

[paddi22]

yeah i offloaded a good few horses last year, so i have enough grass to hopefully keep them out and just feel until it gets very wet. its so hard to know what way it will go

 

[JillA]

For three retired horses - one 14hh good doer, one 16.1hh Cushingoid and one 17.1hh poor doer, living out for as long as we can get away with it weather wise I have bought 50 small bales of old not brilliant hay, a round bale of sheep hay, a heston of good clean barley straw and ordered 200 small bales of lovely meadow hay, with possibility of more if the spring is very late. I used to allow 50 small bales per horse for good doers living out on decent pasture, but that was native types. There reason for the mix is it was in really short supply up until a couple of weeks ago when some got a second cut, but the straw is for the good doer so she doesn't go into spring too fat.
I hope this gives you some idea

 

[siennamum]

I think prices will skyrocket. We had one good cut, but no second cut, thats never happened. Farmer has been feeding this years hay to the cattle since August.
I stockpiled for the first time ever & bought 10 heston bales which should last me 5 months.

 

[Dubsie]

Our yard has had the best hay crop ever, so the barns are full. At home, we didn't manage to make any as the bailer broke, so we have no emergency supply other than what little is left from last year! We've still masses of grass so not really eating more than 1 large bale between 2 warmbloods overnight per month. When they're in more this will go up but I'm not expecting to use more than 2-3 large bales a month even if in 24/7, and we have plenty.

 

[paddy555]

we have around 1000 small bales which hopefully should be enough.

 

[Miss Horse lover]

I bought in 200 small bales for our section b that’s out from about 9-2pm and in at night, more that I will need but I bought straight from the field collected so took what I could store and I have been feeding it for a couple of months. I know that the others at the yard will use some when they run out of theirs. Hays going to be hard to come by here this year apparently and prices for small bales are already up at £6.75 here!

 

[Chinchilla]

77 bales. They are really nice and were only £2 each!
Do need some more though we also need straw for my weirdo who prefers it to hay...

 

[Tarragon]

77 bales. They are really nice and were only £2 each!
Do need some more though we also need straw for my weirdo who prefers it to hay...

£2 each!!!
That is cheap.
It is interesting how dense the farmer chooses to make a bale. Sometimes the hay supplied from one supplier can have bales packed so loosely I reckon that it contains about half the amount of hay in another in a bale supplied by a different supplier but it is still charged as 1 bale.

 

[Chinchilla]

£2 each!!!
That is cheap.
It is interesting how dense the farmer chooses to make a bale. Sometimes the hay supplied from one supplier can have bales packed so loosely I reckon that it contains about half the amount of hay in another in a bale supplied by a different supplier but it is still charged as 1 bale.

Yes, these aren't the most dense bales but equally I've seen looser ones too. Not complaining at that price anyway...it's smells lovely and is quite green too. (Just to rub salt in the wound )

 

[Tarragon]

Chinchilla - can I ask you who owns the mealie muzzle in your Avatar photo?