Think someone is nicking my haylage

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NellRosk

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I currently split a bale of haylage with my friend who has a 14hh pony. Currently my 16.2 mare and said pony are going through a bale every 6-7 days. It's costing me a fortune and the other lady at the farm who uses haylage makes her bale last 3 horses for 2 weeks... I've just heard from someone who knows her that she's struggling financially to look after her horses so why she has recently bought another is beyond me. And I've just spoke to someone else who says a bale lasts their 5 big horses 9-10 days so I just don't see how it is physically possible for a horse and a pony to get through a bale in 6 days. So angry and upset, it really is beyond me why someone would resort to stealing. Obviously I have no proof but I'm going to try get some kind of tarpaulin and a padlock to try secure it. Does anyone else have any ideas how I can stop the mysterious haylage fairy taking it? And anyway if it is secure then I can see if we really are using this much and I'll have to put her on hay which is cheaper because at £36 a bale it's not cheap to be going through it weekly!!
 
should be quite easy to remedy. Buy a bottle or two of red food colouring. Sprinkle over haylage, it will dye the thiefs hands red and also show up in the haynets of the thiefs horses.
 
I don't know how any-one makes a bale last 5 horses for 9-10 days. Our big bale lasts our 4 (all about 16hh) roughly 6 days. We are feeding hay now but haylage lasted about the same when we used that. Ours don't get hard feed but even so.
I can't see how you can padlock your haylage without putting it in a building tbh. But it certainly sounds as if someone else is sharing your haylage.
 
You could put a dumpy bag over the bale and chain and padlock through the handles.You'd need access to beneath the bale though so would need to be on a pallet or something. Admittedly the bag could be cut but at least you'd know if you had a thief.
 
Keep it in one of those whole bale nets and padlock the opening?

Alternatively can you set-up a webcam or CCTV (There are some reasonable cameras which record onto a memory card, you'd just need power), to see what is happening when you aren't there.
 
I'd set up a hidden camera to catch them in the act - you've then got proof to take to the YM/YO/whoever which will probably mean the thief will be asked to leave.

Big round haylage does 'my' two (mine and the one she lives with both 15.1ish, one cob, one 26-yo standardbred) anywhere between 4-7 weeks depending on the size of the bale. Yours should be lasting 3 weeks minimum!

Edit: Mine only have one large net each (8kg-ish) per day as they're still living out.
 
If you make it look like your taking action re poss theft it might stop her. We used to leave the bail in certain way so that we could clearly see when the mice had been at it.
 
webble said:
We feed hay now but a big bale of haylage used to last a 15.3 and a 14.2 10-14 days so for yours to last 6 days isn't miles out depending on the bale size and how much you feed
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that is twice as long as the OPs though.

I'd go with a tarp/dumpy bag and lock I imagine if it is made a bit difficult it might well stop.
 
NellRosk said:
I currently split a bale of haylage with my friend who has a 14hh pony. Currently my 16.2 mare and said pony are going through a bale every 6-7 days. It's costing me a fortune and the other lady at the farm who uses haylage makes her bale last 3 horses for 2 weeks... I've just heard from someone who knows her that she's struggling financially to look after her horses so why she has recently bought another is beyond me. And I've just spoke to someone else who says a bale lasts their 5 big horses 9-10 days so I just don't see how it is physically possible for a horse and a pony to get through a bale in 6 days. So angry and upset, it really is beyond me why someone would resort to stealing. Obviously I have no proof but I'm going to try get some kind of tarpaulin and a padlock to try secure it. Does anyone else have any ideas how I can stop the mysterious haylage fairy taking it? And anyway if it is secure then I can see if we really are using this much and I'll have to put her on hay which is cheaper because at £36 a bale it's not cheap to be going through it weekly!!
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This is a horrible situation to be in - I've seen it happen so many times! Firstly - you must be completely sure that you are not being overly generous with your rations! Then - if you're absolutely sure you're not - you need to turn detective. It may not be the other haylage lady, by the way, it could be anyone having a little dip into your haylage! We don't have individual storage for our fodder at our yard, so that makes things much more tricky. Try to cover/secure your haylage in such a way that only YOU will know if it's been tampered with. The way you fold the tarp, the special little knots you do in the string, that kind of thing. Stuff you will know about, but no-one else will. Then, if you find it's changed when you go to use it next time - you'll know someone is helping themselves. Then, you've got to find out who it is, which will be hard. Any chance you could have a sneaky peek into the other stables? Haylage is easily spotted compared with hay. For goodness sake don't let anyone know though. Nothing angers people more than being accused of stealing (when they're innocent of course!) I can fully understand your anger - it's happened to me countless times. Unfortunately there are people in this world who think they can help themselves to anything that doesn't belong to them. But as I say, DO NOT make it common knowledge in your yard. You could end up making yourself public enemy number one! If you ever do find out who the culprit is (and you may not), then you will have to think very hard how you will tackle it. In the meantime, cover and secure your haylage - that may just be enough to deter the light-fingered one. Good luck.
 
Firstly, don't take anyone's word about the other liveries financial situation. It is more than likely highly inaccurate. If I had a quid for every time I have told friends how hard it was covering the cost of Fly and Molly sometimes, I'd be rich. I also have a friend who is genuinely loaded, but moans at everyone that she can't afford her horses. Third party information should be irrelevant.
So, please don't assume that it is anyone. Think about the routines on the yard. Do your horses need more due to being in for longer hours? Do you over feed? Do others under feed? Then, pop to your local Maplin and get a cheap little pen camera to catch the thief out If there is one.

I just won't worry too much until you know for sure it is being stolen. Fly and Molly were 16:2 and 15:3 and when they were in at night, they would go through a big square bale of hay every 10 days. One horse at 16:3 on the same routine would go through the same amount in under a week.

You may have a thief, you may not, but you definitely need proof before you say anything.

Good luck. I've been there and It's a horrible feeling. Xx
 
get a strand of baler twine and knot it in a couple of places (so you'd recognise it again) then tie it around the bale with a distinctive knot (eg a double knot and leave the end tucked in or in a quick release) this makes it look like you are simply trying to hold the bale together better but you will then be able to tell if its removed and re-tied differently

its a non confrontational way of dealing with things and the faff of undoing it and making it look like nothing happened may actually deter the thief and stop the problem with no fallouts or accusations
 
Thank you for all your replies everyone!! I would not dream of ever confronting anyone, I could be completely wrong and that mine and my friend's horse are just tearing through it!! I've reached the end of a bale so tonight I'm going to roll a new bale to outside my stables where my straw is, currently the haylage is down where everyone else's hay/ straw is but because my stables are set back from everyone else's I can store my own outside. And I'll try the knot idea, tbh I think if someone was stealing it they wouldn't come to my stable because it looks kind of obvious then! If YO asks I'll just say it's for ease of getting haylage, I'm not going to mention it. :)
 
Five horses here (14.3 - 16.3) get through a square bale of haylage every two days, so probably about the same rate as yours. They are currently off the fields and go out in the sand turnout though.
 
We had something similar at previous yard so I put tarpaulin with my name written all over it and then rope tied around the bale to secure and tied in a certain way which I then snapped a photo of on my phone. The evaporation of my hay stopped.
 
i had this problem when we first got the horses and had them at a small yard, it was a really hard year for hay, very expensive and difficult to find good quality, we traveled miles just to keep our horses fed good stuff and 2 women used to help themselves to ours coz it was easier and cheaper, put a camera up and when we caught them HO put a notice up saying would the people responsible for stealing our hay please stop, no one spoke to me again, i didn't care as it was short term but be careful how you deal with the problem OP !
 
Wagtail said:
Five horses here (14.3 - 16.3) get through a square bale of haylage every two days, so probably about the same rate as yours. They are currently off the fields and go out in the sand turnout though.
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I think I would cry if I had to spend that much on haylage!!

Sometimes there is advantage to having Sec Ds who live on air.. a big £30 bale of hay lasts us 4 weeks! And they have some left in the morning.
 
Sounds like a nightmare. There are a couple of options, I think moving the hay sounds like a good idea, if they have to go to another part of the yard to get it then its easier to get caught out and that might put them off.

If you have enough hay nets between you and the other person sharing it once you open the bale put it straight in hay nets, that way you know how long it should last and can keep track of how many hay nets you have use and see if any go missing.
At my old yard I used to fill my weeks hay nets at the weekend to make it easier for me during the week, I would then tie the bale up with two blue ropes, not to stop someone stealing it, just to make it look tidy but I would have noticed straight way if someone else had touched it.

If it keeps happening, i would mension it to the Y/O or Y/M they should be sorting out this kind of thing and I am sure there are lots of things they can do with out pointing the finger.
 
A big square bale of hay and haylege lasts my 16.3hh mare about 8 days.

I would mention it to the YO if you really are sure that it's being stolen, but I would make sure that you are fairly certain before you do as it could become very awkward for you if you are mistaken.
 
Thanks for the added replies! I can't put it in nets as we only have about 3 between us, I feed it on the floor and my friend uses a net. Don't really want to get YO involved as I don't want it to seem like I'm stirring anything! And I'm not really sure it's being stolen. After I've moved it/ tied string around it and it's still disappearing then I may mention something. Something else I forgot to add, a few weeks ago a massive slice fell off the bale and was on the floor. I had given my horse haylage and friend was coming up that night to do her pony so I took a pic of the slice and sent it her saying use this before you pull more off the bale, but when she'd got up there it was gone! I guess that is the only proof I have but it could have been a one off.
 
I would find out how much weight is in each bale and weight the nets when you wake them to see what you use. This will let you know how much you are using and actually feeding to the horses, as suggested you can do the nets in a big batch then tie up the bale and wrap it.
Out yard charge for hayledge and we take what we need, its £! per day - I know that is cheap, but £36 per week is expensive.
 
Are you comparing your bale to other bales made by the same farmer? There is a big variation in contents of bales so be sure of that before you get too upset.

Our large round bales are very heavy and dense and I would expect them to last 4 horses for a week fed adlib.
 
FfionWinnie said:
Are you comparing your bale to other bales made by the same farmer? There is a big variation in contents of bales so be sure of that before you get too upset.

Our large round bales are very heavy and dense and I would expect them to last 4 horses for a week fed adlib.
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The other lady on the yard who uses haylage (from same farmer) makes it last her 3 horses 2 weeks. But yeah it's a massive variation and so difficult to work out how much we are using!
 
I agree, it is not necessarily the other person that uses haylage who is the culprit (if there is one). People using hay may want to give their horses the odd bit of haylage and so, if you are sure it is being stolen, then I would suspect other people as well as the other haylage lady.
 
Luckily our farmer gives us bales of haylage between Nov-May, however because we had such a wet October my barn mates and I bought the horses in overnight from early October onwards. I myself had been buying bales since the summer owing to my horse's ill health so I just increased the order with our farmer accordingly. Seven horses went through 2 bales of haylage a week, and by the end of the month I think it was going down even faster. I bought 8 bales in the course of October (and collected the money from my yard mates of course)
 
I'd just attach a note to it and say something like 'I don't work hard to fund your hobby. Stop stealing my haylage otherwise I will make it very public that you have been doing so. Yes, YOU'.
 
My four, from 14hh-17hh would go through 3 big bales of hay, fed ad lib in field per fortnight, but they rarely left the ring feeder, came out of winter fatter than ever, but at least my poor doer didn't need built up, now have a barn and feed as needed, couldn't afford hay bills like that again
 
How big/heavy are the bales OP? You mentioned rolling one to outside your stable so I am guessing they arent huge? My bales weigh a minimum of 300kg and it lasts my 2 ponies about 2 weeks.
 
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