left over hay...what do you do with yours?

charlie76

charlie76

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I dont like to see horses with an empty hay nets so i give them huge hay nets over night. quite often they have a fair amount left in the morning and it seems a shame to just chuck it.. so what do you do with yours?
 
Mine are out 22 / 23 hours a day so get some hay in the stable while they are there. Left over hay gets put in the field overnight at this time of year.If I leave it in the hayboxes in the stable they dont eat it the next day - but love it in the field.Typical horses though - I pick up any uneaten hay from the grass in the morning and put it on the muck pile in the corner of the field - horses will then go and eat it from there! Yuck.
 
charlie76 said:
I dont like to see horses with an empty hay nets so i give them huge hay nets over night. quite often they have a fair amount left in the morning and it seems a shame to just chuck it.. so what do you do with yours?
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I have a hay feeder in the field so it goes in there and they and the field horses can pick it over. If THEY don't eat it it isn't edible lol so then it goes in any poached areas to beef up the mud (it takes FOREVER to rot on a muck heap!)
 
I have never understood people who chuck left over (dry or untouched or unspoiled) hay. It's exactly the same age as the ''new'' hay they put in the net the next day. Sigh.

If they have any left over I mix it with the 'new' hay the next day.
 
I try and recycle it into a net that a more greedy ones will eat from, then it goes into the chickens nest boxes or else for the pigs. I absolutely can't bear to waste it, but they my gang are very cavalier about pulling from a net and then not eating it - or even worse trampling it into their bedding & peeing on it!
 
Smokey eats it... When Al mucks out they play musical stables and whichever stable Smokey goes in he hoovers for her!
 
I will reuse so long as it's not been dragged around their beds, and ever now and then I collect up all the seeds and sprinkle them on the field :)
 
Mine is a bit of a snob and tends to not eat what lands on the floor! Even if I try to outsmart him and stuff it back into a haynet and top up with fresh, he just won't eat the older stuff. It's perfectly good dry hay which has nothing on it, just literally the stuff which has fallen out of the haynet. He turns his nose up so I give it to one of his neighbors each morning. The owner is happy with this as it keeps her horse (who is quite an anxious little thing) occupied for a short while before she gets turned out.
 
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Mine can tell the difference between "fresh" hay (dried grass), and "pre-offered" hay (dried grass). Its not me being fussy - I am as careful over costs as I I can be and if they would eat it I would leave it. I know its no different.
 
We have an old beggar that is exactly the same with dropped hay and will not eat it at all, so it gets 'downgraded' to the greedy pony who will eat everything. Very little is wasted by the ponies.

However, if she won't eat it either then I will put it in for the rabbit as bedding.
 
Can not understand throwing out hay, stuff left over which is rare is put out in the field for the fatties who are equine hoovers. I used to be a livery where once a week I would sweep the hay shed of 'waste', usually about a barrow full, then put it out in the field and it all got eaten.
 
theres never any left as shes a greedy git...... !!! but if there was it gets mixed in with fresh like i did with previous horse... :)


if its more than 2 days on the trot it gets cut down/smaller nets :)
 
Fussy eater's dropped haylage goes in my mare's stable, shavings an' all. She rootles through like a truffle pig and after a couple of days and no interest I chuck it out.
 
I have always thought it was ok to share about left overs but a comment or two led me to believe i was the only person to do this!well now my mind has been put to rest i will re instate the waste not want not policy
I never give left over instead of new hay, its as well as.
 
Chuck it or soak it and try to feed it the chubby one..

Generally it goes on the muck heap though. Find my two won't eat it if its been in the net two or three days.
 
Mine goes from the fussys hat bar into the greedy's hay bar, if ever there's anything left in that it goes to our pigs who scoff it! my old boy who's out on loan was previously third in line for pre-tried hay - the pigs never got anything then !!
 
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