is there and economic way to soak hay?

[china]

My three are on very good quality hay. At the moment i am just squirting the hose over it to take any dust out but i have two that are barefoot and i would like to soak it to reduce the sugars in it. I pay low rent as it is and dont want to take the mick using lots of water and giving them a big water bill. and also i need ideas on what to soak the hay in. I stuff mu haynets so strugle to fit it into bins etc. i have a water bowser cut in half that only fits one net in it at a push.

thanks

 

[MissChaos]

Can't see any way you're really going to get round the water usage, tbh - if you're going to soak to reduce the sugars, then you'll need as much water as it takes. Maybe on that front have a word and offer to pay a pound or two more per net per week to cover the cost, or whatever you feel would be appropriate? Chuck a brick or two on top to help keep the net down.

As for soaking multiple/giant nets - we used to use an old bath, which worked well if you can get hold of one.

 

[ebonyallen]

I have just started to soak mine for 24 hours to take out the goodness, I am on a small farm and pay a very low rent so I know what you mean. What I have done is use the rain water that collects in the butts around the yard, and if any of my horses water is left from over night I put that in as well to save water, so far its working ok as we have had alot of rain Mine is soaked in a dustbin, its a bit hard to stuff the nets in but after a bit of pushing it goes in !!

 

[FairyLights]

get an old bath off freecycle. fill with collected rainwater,you can place the bath under a downspout ,for example. you dont need to change the water every day in the winter,it should do a few times but will go yucky in summer. the nets get very heavy,it might be an idea to rig up a hoist of some sort to save your back.

 

[amandap]

Echo collecting rain water run off if you can. I'm doing this and for drinking water as well now as my water bill was huge! We have loads of rain here though. I use a wheelie bin for soaking but am only soaking for two atm. Could you offer to pay some extra for water usage or would that be too complicated?

There is a huge concrete tank for collecting rain water off the buildings here but annoyingly the last owner smashed the lid, drilled it and filled it with rubble and soil! Grrr!

 

[happyhacking:)]

This may be wrong but this is what i have been taught regarding soaking hay.

After about an hour the sugar concentration will have equalized (in the water and the hay) so continuing to soak the hay for beyond an hr is pointless. If you want to lower the sugar levels further you would need to completely replace the water and leave to soak again for another hr.

So in my understanding you would need fresh water each time you wanted to soak hay. I dont thing there is anyway to reduce the amount of water you are going to need

 

[amandap]

Yes, you must use fresh water each time. Sounds obvious but I've read of a few who reuse the water. For laminitis and strict dieting etc. rinsing the hay well is needed and thus increases water use still further.

I wrestled with the fact of using treated water for soaking as some see it as wasteful and there's the question of the waste water going into drains. The health of my horses won out. I so wish hay producers would take more care and effort to produce low sugar hay.

 

[Burnttoast]

After about an hour the sugar concentration will have equalized (in the water and the hay) so continuing to soak the hay for beyond an hr is pointless. If you want to lower the sugar levels further you would need to completely replace the water and leave to soak again for another hr.

Yes, you must use fresh water each time. Sounds obvious but I've read of a few who reuse the water. For laminitis and strict dieting etc. rinsing the hay well is needed and thus increases water use still further.

^^, but it depends on how the amount of water v. hay - with a net stuffed into a tiny bin and barely any room for water as well, as you so often see , it'll take much less than an hour for equilibrium to be reached. With a big bin and a little haynet, longer, maybe. Certainly plenty of water is needed to effectively remove sugars. In either case the water tends to be rank by the end of the process and I'd always prefer to rinse hay after, simply to get rid of it.

 

[Hutchlou]

I soak 6kg in a haynet in a 50l plastic tub for about 15 hours. The hay is good quality but the water is very dark brown, there is no way I would re-use this water! I then rinse by soaking in clean water for another hour.

 

[sport horse]

I am not quite sure how farmers can produce hay with less sugar - perhaps bale dead grass?! Have any of you tried feeding oat straw instead of some or all of your hay?

 

[niagaraduval]

I have just discovered steaming (on here ! - kettle over a haynet in a bin with a lid). I fluff my hay up and pour in boiling water, leave it in about 45 mins (sometimes less sometimes more) and then fill my haynets.

Such a great tip ! Saves ages taking buckets of water back and forth, uses just one kettle full and very little wastage (just tip the small amount of used water out). Not to mention soaked haynets are VERY heavy and need time to drain before hanging up.

 

[china]

hi all. thank you for the response. I would have tried the steaming idea but i dont have electric down the yard. Just a generater, then you start going into petrol useage ;-)
at the moment i am filling a tub up and dunking it and standing on it to get the water right the way through so its not dusty for them and then draining. Even after just doing this with three nets the water is going brown! It has been mentioned about me soaking nets and water bill. i need to come up with a plan.

 

[Cortez]

Steaming won't reduce the sugar content, 'tho...

 

[china]

So what's the point in hay steamers?

 

[amandap]

I am not quite sure how farmers can produce hay with less sugar - perhaps bale dead grass?! Have any of you tried feeding oat straw instead of some or all of your hay?

By soil testing and fertilizing according to the results not just applying a high ammonia/nitrogen fert for growth. By trying to make in dry cloudy weather rather than blazing sunshine or cut in cloudier weather, making later in the year. Making sure soil ph is correct. Obviously not all hay can be made with this stuff in mind but there is a huge demand for low sugar hay, producers are missing a trick!
http://www.safergrass.org/articles.html

Some straws can be very high in sugar as well I believe.

 

[moorman]

One thing I have been able to do with some of my Laminitic clients is:
Get them to go to the hay producer/farmer long before the hay season, ask if they have fields that contain grasses are suitable for laminitics (mainly old course varieties if possible ) then they ask if the field can not have any artificial fertiliser on it, then, can be cut late (after the seeds have shed) then, and most important ask if the bails can be SMALL and VERY LOOSE
This produces the best laminitic hay you will ever see: which can be fed to all horses but it will not contain the sugars often looked for in competition diets
Late, first cut, lose bailed, hay carries on making when in the barn like the old ricks did.
You do NOT soak this hay and you will find fed through a nibblenet or something similar you will have no worries about the amount eaten.
I have put together several teams of owners who do this and now which gives them some buying power and are now finding it easier to get farmers who are willing to grow this hay.
They make more money but you get better hay with no soaking or waste, it’s a win win!!

 

[Cortez]

So what's the point in hay steamers?

Steaming stops hay from causing dust-related allergic coughing, etc.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

I have a lami prone pony and plenty of water (no mains, on own well!) but cant soak hay in the depths of winter as we are in Cairngorms so -20 not unusual. I have sourced some oat straw in small bales and this is proving ideal.

Mix it with the hay no more than 50:50 propertion to minimise risks of impaction colic and only do it with healthy good doers with good digestions but it really helps. And at £2 a bale collected for lovely stuff, it saves money too! NB another reason not to feed just straw is that it is very low in protein; if feeding solo you would want to mix with something that is higher in protein like good hay or alfalfa (the a-word to some lamis)

When soaking hay to reduce sugars you really want to use fresh water not reused tho the latter is ok for reducing spores/dust. Reasearch does show a continuing reduction in sugar up to 12 hours soaking (no water change from original fresh); after that there is little reduction, so no need to change water mid way or go beyond an overnight/day long soak.

For lo cal hay ideally look for hay with a lot of timothy grass (looks like long stem grass with furry bottlebrushes) rather than lots of rye (little groups of grains in separate bits coming out of a bare stem). Timothy matures later and is lower feed value tho horses love it more than anything so a lot of timothy is ideal for horses. To minimise fertilisers you want meadow hay ideally taken from a mixed species field rather than seed hay which is grown specifically for hay as thats more likely just rye/fescue and more likely fertilised. But care: meadow may have ragwort in it as less likely to be sprayed so take care on that.

Calculations I have seen say that (as very rough guides)

Grass 8.2-8.6 Mj/kg energy (but only 10% of the weight eaten is dry matter)
Early hay is about 8.5 Mj/kg energy
Late cut hay 8.0 (but can reduce to about 4.0 by long soaking)
Oat straw 6.2
Other straw 5.8 (but not as suitable as a feed)

Hope this helps!