Soaking Hay

Getting back to the question!

I soak for ten minutes max, so as the hay is waterlogged but hasnt leached out too many nutrients. This allows dust and mould spores (which there is in all hay in the UK) to swell to a size that they cannot be inhaled.

If I have needed to soak hay for laminitics or fatties in the past its gone into a tub and has soaked for 12 hours. HOWEVER the water should be changed as often as possible through those 12 hours to avoid the sewerage problem.
 
i do wish people would let sleeping dogs lie (So to speak) and stop bringing up all the rubbish thats happened recently. Also most of us are guilty of typing before we think (i hold my hands up to it to) so lets just put it all behind us.

moving on...........

.............i hang Bloss's net up and just run the hose over it to dampen it all down for about 10mins each night.
 
I soak my hay for about 5 mins, purely to get rid of the dust etc as my boy can be prone to coughing. I don't want to get rid of any nutriants particularly so will be feeding good quality halage in the winter.
 
We soak all hay, we place it in haynets and then soak in tubtrugs and hang up to drain.
At an old yard they had a proper hay soaker and used to soak overnight, but I always thought you loose all the goodness that way.
We now only soak for 15 minutes
 
We used the big blue barrels for soaking the hay. Wedge bale into barrel by whatever means then let hose fill it up.

Let it soak for 20mins, then empty out
 
On this very subject.....

I phoned the Dodson & Horrell Helpline today for feeding advice for our section A (who has lost weight but is cresty), and I was advised by their nutritionist to soak his hay for 12 hours prior to feeding.

Now, I have never soaked hay for more than 20 minutes, ever!
 
Regarding soaking hay...

I muck out in the morning and the hay (which is in a huge flowepot that a tree came in so holes in bottom) gets a hose run over it for about 5 mins, or a few good buckets of water tipped over.... then it is left in stable (assume it wont dry at this time of year) for about 4-6 hours.

Does anyone know if this is sufficient to render the spores harmless but not affect the nutritional value?????

I dont need to alter the nutrition, so want to avoid this!!

Hope you can help
 
Steaming is simple, pour contents of boiled kettle into bin, but hay in bin, close lid tightly...walk away...come back 15 minutes later, drain off water (careful it will still be hot) and remove hay. I usually give it a few minutes to cool off.

You could leave it longer at the steaming stage to allow it to cool down before draining.
 
If your horse has a respiritary problem then the hay needs to be soaked for no less than 20 minutes. However there is little point unless you keep your stable and all other stables dust and cob web free. Any other horses in the same stable block should also be on soaked hay as otherwise the spores from their hay nets become air bourne and will ingress in to your horses stable which somewhat defeats the object of the excercise.

If you want to soak the nutrition out of your hay then you can soak the hay overnight as long as the weather is cool. If the weather is warm fermentation may occur which could be dangerous for your horse.
 
I used to steam the hay in a big bin, put it in in the morning and put a kettle of water over it and then take it out in the evening!!!

Worked a treat and pony stopped coughing within a couple of weeks :-)
 
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