round bales...........

[hihosilver]

So I seem to have 2 very piggy horses! one a 5 year old connie cross and the other a 14.2 connie type between them they have eaten a round bale of hay between them in 9 days!!! Is this excessive? both are carrying too much weight and grass is fairly good still. I am trying to do the right thing by feeding hay adlib but as £40 a bale this is working out expensive! how long so other horses take to eat big bales of round hay? Has any one tries the haynet topper over the top?

Thanks x

 

[Jenna1406]

7 days for a 16'2 warmblood and 15'1 cob

 

[FfionWinnie]

You cannot compare "round bales". It's like saying my horse ate a whole field of grass. They can vary in content immensely. The ones I use last my horse one month. I have seen others which wouldn't last a week.

 

[Kezzabell2]

round bales would last my 2 around 2 weeks! they'd be at it 23 hours a day too!

one 15'1 connie x tb, 28 at the time
one 16'1 connie x tb, 3 at the time

 

[popsdosh]

The guy charging you £40 for a round bale is taking the p**s as well you should be paying half that for a decent 4-5 ft bale approx 4 to the ton. It always amazes me how quickly they jack up the price when its short but somehow dont wish to drop it. You can barely give hay or straw away at the moment in the wholesale market. Straw around here is making less than the cost to bale it let alone buying it in the field.I would seriously shop around!

 

[quirky]

Lasts my 14.3 3-4 weeks and costs £35.

 

[Kezzabell2]

The guy charging you £40 for a round bale is taking the p**s as well you should be paying half that for a decent 4-5 ft bale approx 4 to the ton. It always amazes me how quickly they jack up the price when its short but somehow dont wish to drop it. You can barely give hay or straw away at the moment in the wholesale market. Straw around here is making less than the cost to bale it let alone buying it in the field.I would seriously shop around!

I paid £35 a bale 2 years ago.

 

[_HP_]

If you have two overweight horses on plenty of grass, why are you feeding ad lib hay?
Save your money and wait until they need it would be my advice☺

 

[hihosilver]

The guy charging you £40 for a round bale is taking the p**s as well you should be paying half that for a decent 4-5 ft bale approx 4 to the ton. It always amazes me how quickly they jack up the price when its short but somehow dont wish to drop it. You can barely give hay or straw away at the moment in the wholesale market. Straw around here is making less than the cost to bale it let alone buying it in the field.I would seriously shop around![/Quote

That's actually the going price here. That does include delivery into field. I have looked at prices and round bales of hay cost in area all cost £35 but £5 for delivery.

 

[hihosilver]

If you have two overweight horses on plenty of grass, why are you feeding ad lib hay?
Save your money and wait until they need it would be my advice☺

One is a growing 5 year old and neither have hard food. Have read lots about the importance of feeding ad lib hay to prevent colic, grass sickness and ulcers.........

 

[happyclappy]

I feed large round bale haylage not hay, and they are also on grass 4/7. One bales is lasting 4 of them (10hh - 15hh) about three - threea nd a half weeks easily.

 

[Lisa2manyponies]

you are lucky a round bale is lasting appox 5 days in the field with 3 ponies !

 

[Slightly Foxed]

It's been very mild and the grass is still growing. If you have plenty of grass and plump ponies restrict the hay until you have less/no grass. I have my horses in separate winter paddocks, some paddocks are really cut up and bare so I'm feeding haylage. The others still have plenty of grass in them so I'm not feeding haylage.
FWIW you're not likely to encounter grass sickness at this time of year, particularly if your ponies have been on the pasture for some time.

 

[poiuytrewq]

A round bale lasts two 16.2 horses about 7 days in the field for me.
I agree in theory £40 is way too much for a round bale of hay. At the hay and straw auctions near us recently where all the big dealers go hay was making very little and a lot of nice stuff going unsold. However that never seems to reflect on the price the average horse owner pays!
I'm finding it very difficult to actually source rounds this year, annoyingly we made a lot and I gave them away as the quality wasn't great and daughters stabled horse has copd- so annoyed I never thought of rolling into the field instead of being stuck lugging sacks of hay out constantly!

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Ours cost £35 delivered and last 4 approx 16hh horses and 3 sheep 5/6 days.

 

[thatsmygirl]

God I sound tight now, a round bale with 4 horses is lasting me around 6 weeks but I am resisting them as others have said the grass is still growing

 

[popsdosh]

I paid £35 a bale 2 years ago.

Yes but they have gone down since then there has been so much grass around the last two years and not bad weather to make it ! Thats approx £140/ton its making £45-50 if your lucky enough to get a buyer at auction see other post above that bears this out . I just checked on Farmers weekly big bale hay £40/ton less than £10/bale OK so you can allow a bit for transport . Anyhow thats made me mister popular with my fellow farmers.
At the end of the day they wont drop their prices unless you point out the error of their ways. I know a straw merchant locally who is selling Midi hestons of hay to a yard at £70/bale but to local farmers for £20/bale

 

[kassieg]

I buy big square bales. 1 hay & 1 haylege is lasting me about 3 1/2 weeks for 2 horses. Some in the field & 2 nets a night

 

[hihosilver]

It's been very mild and the grass is still growing. If you have plenty of grass and plump ponies restrict the hay until you have less/no grass. I have my horses in separate winter paddocks, some paddocks are really cut up and bare so I'm feeding haylage. The others still have plenty of grass in them so I'm not feeding haylage.
FWIW you're not likely to encounter grass sickness at this time of year, particularly if your ponies have been on the pasture for some time.

My friends horse died this time last year with grass sickness.

 

[Pinkvboots]

Why don't you just put hay out twice a day rather that put the whole thing out if they are overweight they don't need ad lib hay especially as the grass is still growing, I would only feed ad lib hay when there is no grass.

 

[FinkleyAlex]

Mine had round bales put into the winter paddocks last year - they were fed adlib hay and it was only replaced once it had been eaten all the way down and any clean scraps eaten too. I was getting through one a week between two 14.2s, luckily they were provided as part of my livery cost due to not having any grass for six months (everything went into mud paddocks with adlib hay).

 

[Achinghips]

Three and a half days and nights for a 16.1 tb X Clyde, 14.3hh cob, and 16.2hh full up half shire X cob

 

[Honey08]

My two big middleweight ISHs go through a round hay bale in a fortnight if out during the day or one a week when on the hardstanding winter turnout.

We also pay £35/bale for good hay delivered. Around here a lot of second cuts were lost due to rain and that that was made later was dreadful. We are in a hilly area, not much decent hay around in general. Our suppliers travel at least 50 miles to collect hay from better, more arable areas. I don't mind paying for that. I may get it cheaper if I went to auctions, but I can't transport or store it anyway.

 

[minesadouble]

I

Yes but they have gone down since then there has been so much grass around the last two years and not bad weather to make it ! Thats approx £140/ton its making £45-50 if your lucky enough to get a buyer at auction see other post above that bears this out . I just checked on Farmers weekly big bale hay £40/ton less than £10/bale OK so you can allow a bit for transport . Anyhow thats made me mister popular with my fellow farmers.
At the end of the day they wont drop their prices unless you point out the error of their ways. I know a straw merchant locally who is selling Midi hestons of hay to a yard at £70/bale but to local farmers for £20/bale

So go and buy it at the mart - provided you can take and store (and unload) a 70 bale load! We sell good quality hay for £30 a bale to horse owners. There are plenty of people locally who sell it for less. We still have plenty of customers and are never left with any at the end of the year - because the hay/haylage sold at that price is top quality. The prices you see that loads have made at auction say nothing about quality! Apart from which if you can take a wagon and trailer load obviously you are going to get it cheaper -it's wholesale as opposed to retail.
The weather is not the only consideration, the price of the gear used to bale a field is a big part of the cost of the bales, and believe me the tractor and baler used in most reasonable scale operations will be more than the average semi detached house!

 

[spacefaer]

One is a growing 5 year old and neither have hard food. Have read lots about the importance of feeding ad lib hay to prevent colic, grass sickness and ulcers.........

For stabled horses........ horses don't tend to colic or get ulcers on adlib grass

 

[Pedantic]

£40.00 !!!! taking the piss, we pay £25.00 large round cattle bale

 

[Shutterbug]

I pay £30 for a large round bail and it lasts my two around 2-3 weeks depending on their turnout - a 16'2 WB and a 16' Trotterx

 

[gallopingby]

You can encounter grass sickness at ANY time of the year - Slightly foxed!!

 

[keri66]

£30 per bale lasts 5 days.
16.1hh
14.2 hh
14 hh youngster
16 hh yongster

 

[HashRouge]

One is a growing 5 year old and neither have hard food. Have read lots about the importance of feeding ad lib hay to prevent colic, grass sickness and ulcers.........

If you have plenty of grass you shouldn't need to feed ad lib hay to horses that are out 24/7 and carrying too much weight. I'm not sure you can prevent grass sickness by feeding hay, since they will presumably still be eating some grass and the information is still vague as to what actually causes grass sickness. And surely you don't feed ad lib hay all through the summer? But also, in your shoes I'd be more worried about weight related health problems, which are much more common than grass sickness.

Last year my sister and I only used 20 small bales of hay over an entire winter for two horses living out 24/7, because we had plenty of grass and the farmer we rented from even let us open up another field after New Year, so they never went short even though there wasn't a huge amount of goodness in the grass. Most of the hay we used when it snowed - usually they just had grass! And one of ours is an oldie who can lose weight quite quickly, but she looked fab all winter.