Least faffy way to get dust-free forage?

[catembi]

My Dartmoor has been diagnosed with asthma and we are awaiting the results of testing for EMS. She is on steroids which is a lami risk and I need to get her dust free in order to manage.

My fields are too wet for turnout (heavy clay) so they are on a large yard with free access to 6 rubber matted stables, each with a hay net. I have been told to close off the eaves of the hay barn to stop the dust.

What do I do re feeding hay? I currently feed it ad lib, dry, and the others are 2 x ex racers who need calories and a Shetland.

I really, really cannot face soaking hay for 4 horses. Steamers are very expensive, as is haylage. I once had one wrapped round bale of hay (not haylage) and the faff trying to pull it off for nets! Not keen on round haylage bales and they wouldn’t go through the hay barn door.

However, pony is very wheezy and it makes more sense to remove the dust than to keep stuffing her full of lami inducing steroids. So what’s my least faffy way to feed ad lib dust free forage to four horses, including two with large appetites! Why is nothing ever easy!

 

[meesha]

I tried wet hay but baggins still coughed. I feed haylage and no cough. Even chaff can make him cough...

Ask around about different suppliers of haylage, ours is really dry but still haylage and not too rich. We pay £40 a round bale or £20 for a 4 string which is v cheap (and lovely to use as it comes apart in flaps) and lasts 2 weeks for 2 horses. No waste, no coughing.

If you can't get 4 string then Hestons if can get them in barn, would think you would get through it ok ... Could prob store it outside, only cut wrap off the end then and take a flap at a time covering back up to protect from rain.

 

[GypsGal1718]

You could just give each net spray with a hose, wouldn’t get rid of all the dust but would bake it better

 

[Boulty]

Least faffy way would likely to be to swap to haylage. If pony is also suspected EMS you’d be best to look for something low sugar / starch maybe late cut meadow or timothy? If you ask around your local suppliers you might be able to find something suitable (I swear I’ve had square bales before and there’s various suppliers of small bales if that’s easier for you).

If you want to keep your current supplier then although expensive to purchase steaming will probably be your next best option. (& if hay cheaper than haylage in your area it may earn its money back over time by allowing you to keep feeding hay)

 

[Hobo2]

Just get a steamer it will soon pay for itself. Very easy to use.

 

[catembi]

I have seen that a hay gain that can steam a whole bale is £3k… I use 1.5 to 2 bales a day.

 

[maya2008]

Haylage.

There are hacks for the steamers if you Google, it is possible to make a diy version for much less. Haylage is less faff though.

 

[Lucky Snowball]

I would use wrapped hay or haylage. No faff filling from a large round, just unroll as you go. Have 2 large hooks to help hold open while you fill. Alternatively wheelbarrow and feed off the floor or in haybar type feeders.

 

[LEC]

Square bale haylage and add good quality straw mixed in for the pony if need be. Though respiratory issues have been linked to hind gut. Might be worth considering a supplement for this.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Sadly it is faffy, it’s a bit of a nightmare having to provide dust free for one when you have several together.
I got a big IBC container, cut it down, cage and plastic. I could get a fair few nets in and then drain via the tap. This over the years was by far the easiest.
It was the only way other than swapping to haylage.
I even had to soak for all 4 to put out in the field. Whilst I miss the horse in question I certainly don’t miss soaking such huge amounts of hay

 

[Highmileagecob]

Hay, in any shape or form, is a trigger for my oldie. He has been fed haylage for the past ten years with no ill effects. Dust free shavings, and moved stable to the top of the yard upwind from the haystores and away from the other liveries. Last year, following teeth extractions and an Equibiome test, I began feeding forage replacers to help him cope - veteran haylage, sugar beet, fast fibre, ready grass chaffs etc.. He went through this last summer with no respiratory issues, apart from a faster breathing rate. Maybe there is a link with the gut.

 

[ycbm]

Big bale square haylage.

I wouldn't use wrapped hay, the only times I've had it it's been dustier than unwrapped. I tried both big bales and small bales from 2 different places.
.

 

[rextherobber]

Would giving human antihistamines help? Would be cheap if they did. I tried making my own hay steamer, using a wall paper steamer. It didn't get the hay consistently hot enough for long enough, (and I'm pretty good at DIY, and it looked a pretty simple design) so I personally wouldn't go down that route, though I'm sure others have done it successfully

 

[tda]

We use haylage because I have one pony who only so much as looks at a bale of hay and starts coughing (and they live out)

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I used to buy wrapped hay and it's what I called light haylage it was the same price as hay but just less dusty, it smelt a bit like haylage when first opened but was just like non dust hay really.

 

[Cragrat]

I would also say square bale, or Heston bale, haylage. No dust, and very easy to use.

 

[TGM]

You may find that even soaked or steamed hay will set your pony off its asthma is bad. We certainly found with that with one of ours and the only option was to switch to haylage. He had a tendency to tie up on big bale haylage, so he gets the Horsehage High Fibre haylage which has a published analysis although works out expensive! But he is separated from the others so I can feed big bale to them. The rectangular bales are easier to deal with, I find, than the round bales.

A lot depends how prone to lami your pony is too (is iust at the moment as on steroids or has it had lami before?), as big bale might be too high sugar for him, unless you can get some that has been analysed and proved to be low sugar. The other option is to separate the pony off in some way and just feed an analysed low sugar small bale haylage to him.

If the two horses who need the calories are also getting hard feed, you may find that giving them haylage might mean you can reduce the hard feed down, which might help with the cost, plus if the pony can come off steroids then that will bring a financial benefit too.

 

[Surbie]

If hay still works when wetted, and it might not, we used to use a bath with a double wheel pulley system over it so turning, pulling out and hanging was easy - that took a conventional bale at a time.

 

[Goldenstar]

Small bale haylege, is what I do.
To use soaked hay you have to have hay on your place and that’s no good with asthmatic horses about .
I personally would not lower your ceiling I would have it professionally fogged twice a year or buy a compressor and do it yourself .
I found your beddding choice is important as well so rape because it begins to break down so easily can be an issue for big flaked shavings where best IME paper also worked well here .
You also need to think about the muck heap location it needs to be placed on the opposite side of the prevailing wind.
mucking out you need to get the bedding out of all the corners and air them regularly because the spore start forming in any trapped bedding
Luckily I am have the issue myself so I am good at knowing what’s what with air quality.
I also only have minimal bedding and haylege bales stored here less mess less places for stuff to build up when the place is full .
I brush walls all time in a rota and muck out when the horses are out unless in emergency .

 

[catembi]

Yes it’s doing it for four that’s going to be the headache! And for one ‘cheap’ companion pony! The others are fine on hay. She is only 8 so I could have 20+ years of this to look forward to! Plus managing the EMS if/when she tests positive…which she will.

If you steam hay, does it go off? I top my nets up daily. Sometimes they have emptied one or two completely or sometimes they have nibbled half from all six. Would this work with steamed hay or does it decompose?

 

[Goldenstar]

Ps if you are going to use hay I would get a steamer .

 

[Goldenstar]

And I would feed from the ground .

 

[catembi]

I have checked with my hay supplier who is very good and he only does round bale haylage. Round bales won’t go in the hay barn as the door is only 1 m 10 and no way of widening it due to the configuration of the block.

It sounds like steaming might not be enough. Pony has coughed all year round since I had her at age 3 to now at age 8. She has always been fully turned out 24/7 so we are quite dust free already apart from the hay.

We had a brush with lami in autumn so I had to take her off grass altogether, not that I have much, then after a few weeks, turn out with a muzzle. She also goes footy in the cold so I ordered some cloud boots to keep her feet warm, which has just arrived.

The wheezing and coughing have been worse since the summer. She saw the vet for it who said it was ‘just’ asthma and not to worry. We tried a tub of ventipulmin which did nothing.

We are dealing with three things here. 1. Very likely EMS. 2. Dust allergy/asthma 3. PSSM type 2 variant p3.

A lot to manage!

 

[catembi]

So even if I switch to haylage, it might stop the wheezing but trigger lami! Might be easier to sell the pony…

 

[TGM]

So even if I switch to haylage, it might stop the wheezing but trigger lami! Might be easier to sell the pony…

It does depend on the haylage, a lot of big bale is ryegrass and cut quite early, which would be risky. But meadow grass or timothy will be lower in sugar but harder to get as big bale.

 

[ester]

Can she have a section of the yard to herself? I don’t think I could face soaking for 3 horses that don’t need it even though we did have a great pulley system.

I think at this point you need to work out if soaked hay works or not.

 

[Goldenstar]

You should definitely use Timothy haylege

 

[Goldenstar]

Would the pony cope on a hay replacer like a pellet you could soak
You could try a straw chop and add something else for calories you will still need to get the hay away
Have you tried inhaled steroids ?

 

[Squeak]

Square bale haylage and add good quality straw mixed in for the pony if need be. Though respiratory issues have been linked to hind gut. Might be worth considering a supplement for this.

I've never heard about this before, do you have any further information on it?

 

[Highmileagecob]

If she can be separated from the others to keep her away from the hay nets, maybe buy a small bagged bale of haylage just to see if it makes a difference. If you can drop a big bale on a couple of pallets to raise it off the ground, you can always drop a tarpaulin over it to keep the weather off.
Ventapulmin is a preventative and no use at all when they are actually coughing. I wasted time trying it before realising it wouldn't work. I have also used human 'blue' inhalers when my cob was at his worst. He absolutely hated them and got very wary of me sneaking up on him but had to give up when it became dangerous to try more than two puffs up each nostril. Have also used Equine America respiratory supplement, menthol sweets, Vicks vapour rub under his chin, paracetamol and fibrocoxib with varying degrees of success depending what his current trigger is. Last summer was one of his best, and so far we have managed almost eighteen months without an attack. Maybe the wet weather does have it's benefits after all.