Not allowed to soak hay

Penny Less said:
Get yourself a wallpaper steamer and a large dustbin and steam your hay !
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The OP is using soaking to reduce nutrients... steaming will not do this..

Forage testing is great if you have a consistent supply that you know has come off the same(ish!) field at the same time but many can't do that. Also we are still feeding last years hay - I would be happy with the sugar levels being low but it needs soaking having been stored.
 
My hubby said take your hay home in a bag and soak it there bring it back to feed

that would be a last resort for me, as I had to bring my own water to my first mare as the yard owner would not let me defrost the tapes. So had no choice but to bring her water with me when I went to the yard
 
Mooseontheloose said:
As a yard owner in a nitrogen vulnerable zone with a fussy local authority, I cannot see that there is anything dangerous in the run off from soaked hay. I suspect more it could be the cost of water rates, perhaps you could harvest rain water as much as possible and use for soaking if this is the case. Otherwise I feel it's a yard without it's clients needs being a priority, so try and find somewhere else. We have been advised in the past to use soaked good quality hay for certain conditions by our equine vets. Poor quality hay should not be used. Sometimes if you can find some second cut it won't be so rich.
Bad luck. I know there are some tricky livery owners, but really, this sounds OTT of the yard!
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There is absolutely something dangerous about effluent from hay soaking. The run off has a phenomenal Biological Oxygen Demand, greater than untreated sewage usually, which strips watercourses of oxygen. Disposal down drains to surface water is illegal, and to the main foul sewer would need a trade effluent consent from your water company (not v expensive). It will be the Environment Agency that would come after you if a pollution was caused (offence is to cause or knowingly permit a water discharge activity without a permit, Environmental Permitting Regs 2010).

But I agree, it's a pain if your horse needs it soaked.
 
To be honest, I think I am just going to have to take the risk and try some alternative forage.

Thanks for all you food for thought! High fibre Horsehage is probably my first thought, but she loves it so maybe I'll try and get some oat straw to mix in to slow her down eating it.
 
Ooops wrong thread-I got too excited at remembering how to post pictures

but can you not see she knows all about hay soaking run off and is trying to telapathically (from beyond the grave) tell us all the do's and don'ts she was a clever dog (I lie she was not clever but I loved her anyway
 
I used to soak hay for my retired mare who has cushings and has had laminitis. However, it really was a faff and caused lots of waste water which was not easy to dispose of, so I tried horsehage high fibre. I am very strict on the weighing so that she doesn't gain weight, but it has worked really well for the past two years. The rest of the horses have large bale hi fibre haylage. But this brings on laminitis in my mare and so I have had to stick to the more expensive Marksway Horsehage.
 
We don't have automatic waterers, so I use the left over water in the horses buckets to soak hay the next day. So maybe one extra bucket per day. Not much anyway. .

Fiona
 
Regandal said:
Very interesting. What is the average horse owner supposed to do with the effluent?
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Excellent question, not easy! If I have to soak hay, I am not on the mains so can't use a trade consent so I pour mine over different bits of field. There is then some biological treatment of the effluent by microbes in the soil that reduces the BOD. Just make sure if you pour anything out its at least 10m from any watercourse, drain or ditch, so it won't run straight off into it.
 
I think its quite inflexible of the yard to say you can't soak hay. Its a useful thing to do not only for laminitic diets but also in other situations such as chest infections, after choke and helping to rehydrate horses after they have been ill. It would give me concerns about other restrictions which might be imposed once my horse was there.

I used the Marksway horsehage for my lami pony which was great although expensive, but a couple of times he did get footy and I had to go back to soaking hay for him...he did go through a very difficult lami phase though where anything seemed to set him off, he was ok on it for the majority of the time.
 
The last yard I was at was a large yard with a fair amount of people soaking hay, they had a visit from the local council as the run off went into a drain out in the road and there had been complaints about the smell. They ended up digging a soak away on the yard, that frankly couldn't cope with the amount of water and they had to keep pumping it out. So councils can be funny about this sort of thing, the soak away stunk by the way.
 
I've just moved onto assisted livery everything done for me apart from bring in feed making and hay nets I loved the yard and actually wanted full but due to them not willing to soak hay (I think in my case more because of the hauling it round etc) so I do evenings soak my hay hang to drain and feed. I only do a quick dunk really due to copd rather than to reduce sugars.
At first they weren't willing to let me soak at all but I soon got them to budge I was on one yard where they had a no soaking rule due to amount of water it wasted. Whilst there I had to feed horse hage the high fibre one which was fine but extremely expensive at one bake a day. Hurt even more when hay was included in livery price!!!
 
Mooseontheloose said:
As a yard owner in a nitrogen vulnerable zone with a fussy local authority, I cannot see that there is anything dangerous in the run off from soaked hay. I suspect more it could be the cost of water rates, perhaps you could harvest rain water as much as possible and use for soaking if this is the case. Otherwise I feel it's a yard without it's clients needs being a priority, so try and find somewhere else. We have been advised in the past to use soaked good quality hay for certain conditions by our equine vets. Poor quality hay should not be used. Sometimes if you can find some second cut it won't be so rich.
Bad luck. I know there are some tricky livery owners, but really, this sounds OTT of the yard!
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The soaking of hay produces an organic effluent. All organic effluent will pollute a clean water source, it reduces oxygen in the water, and fish are very sensitive to oxygen levels. You will not find trout in a canal for example, they need fast flowing streams with oxygen.
If the efflent is put in to a drain which runs in to a river this is contaminating, but it would be fine to pour the effluent on to grass, the soil acts as a filter.
Nitrate fertilisers have a similar effect, but are chemical pollutants rather than organic.
 
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Dogsandcats said:
I've just moved onto assisted livery everything done for me apart from bring in feed making and hay nets I loved the yard and actually wanted full but due to them not willing to soak hay (I think in my case more because of the hauling it round etc) so I do evenings soak my hay hang to drain and feed. I only do a quick dunk really due to copd rather than to reduce sugars!!
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In your case, steaming would be idea.
 
too many people running yards without enough knowledge about horse management, I never feed dry hay to anything! it`s the most basic thing any fool should realise

all hay contains high levels of spores, unless its been cleaned and tested for micro spores, I live in an area with many top class thoroughbred horses and such hay is produced to cater for this, barn dried and tested for aspergilus etc.

without knowing the variable sugar content of different hays, which can be very different, I would have thought it is essential to soak the hay for laminitics.
 
tristar said:
too many people running yards without enough knowledge about horse management, I never feed dry hay to anything! it`s the most basic thing any fool should realise

all hay contains high levels of spores, unless its been cleaned and tested for micro spores, I live in an area with many top class thoroughbred horses and such hay is produced to cater for this, barn dried and tested for aspergilus etc.

without knowing the variable sugar content of different hays, which can be very different, I would have thought it is essential to soak the hay for laminitics.
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That is one view.

I feed hay dry to two competition warmbloods with no issues. I agree there are studies showing very little UK hay is dust and bacteria free enough to be fed dry. But if it isnt broken dont fix it is my view. I dont consider myself a fool. If my horses started showing signs of having issues, then I'd have to soak / steam / feed haylage. However I think hay is broadly less acidic, less water content and suits my horses better, compared to haylage.

It is big bale wrapped hay. I have a rough idea of the sugar levels, but it is not all from same fields.
 
the whole point about damp or soaked hay is to avoid getting allergies in the first place!

once they become sensitive they usually stay that way to some extent or another.
 
I feed dry hay too, and always have. From the ground I see no problems, and never have had any.
I do se for lami ponies and COPD sufferers that is not possible.
 
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