# Long bale longevity?



## melly ann (Apr 10, 2018)

My girlfriend and I have just brought 2 horses to her property, they are outdoor 24/7 and strictly on hay right now until the grass comes in with the warmer weather. Had a 5x5 round bale dropped off yesterday evening (not sure exact weight though) and wondering approx how long this might last them? 
Our little guy is a 13.3 "mutt", thick winter coat but needs to put on some weight. Not currently in work. Big guy is 16.3 Hano/TB, could use some weight also and not as thick of a winter coat due to years of being clipped and blanketed in the winter in his show days. Not currently in work until he settles in fully, but probably in a week or so we'll start him back with some light work. 

Weather is hopefully warming up in the next few weeks, but currently still a little chilly -- not too "spring-like" just yet. We've found a great "hay guy" for rounds and will stock a few square bales in the barn, but more so for budgeting purposes hoping to get a ballpark on how often we'll be needing to bring in a round until the late spring & summer when they will also have ample grass to supplement.

Any input appreciated -- neither of us new to horse ownership in itself, but having them on the premises rather than outside boarding is a first so bear with me!

Thanks in advance. 

ETA: we are looking into supplementing with some sort of roughage/other to help get their weights up, by strictly hay I meant they are not on grain.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

Takes about two weeks for my two in the small pasture to work down a round bale. 

About a week for the four amigos in the other pasture to wipe one out, esp when the weather is still really cold.

Less than a week for 25 head of heifers, one bull, and a long-horn steer named Elliot.

That's a pretty dense, all bottom land bermuda grass bale.


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## ApuetsoT (Aug 22, 2014)

Not sure of the weight, an average round, but it took two of mine two weeks to go through a round.


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

It's completely dependent on the type of hay and the weight of the bale. Some small round bales weigh 500 pounds, some weigh over 1000 pounds if it's a heavier grass and baled tight. Your hay seller should be able to tell you how much the bale weighs. Then go through and figure out how much your horses eat-- they will need a minimum of 1-2% of their body weight in hay per day, divided into several feedings. Figure 20 lbs per day per horse. So if your bale weighs 750 pounds and you have two horses, it will last a bit over 2 weeks if you hand-feed, less if you free-feed. 

Also, are you feeding them by hand off of it, or are they eating free choice? They will go through a LOT MORE eating free choice than if you fork off their meals and don't let them have free access to it. If you do decide to feed free-choice, a slow-feed net and something like the Bale Barn will really cut down on waste and stretch your hay budget. 

We hand-feed three small, easy-keeper horses off rounds in the winter and make sure the horses have enough in their feeders so they never completely run out. We had 10 large rounds off the pastures, and I bought 5 more from a dealer. The 5 from the dealer were smaller in size, but weighed a lot more and were better grass, so lasted longer. We figured 2-3 weeks off each bale, which will come out about right -- more hay when it's super cold, less when it's warmer. Our spring is late in coming this year and the grass still hasn't started to come up, so I anticipate we'll be on rounds until the end of May, which will mean we have 1 large bale left for next fall and/or summer feed if a horse can't be out on pasture for some reason.

We had a 2-week stretch this winter when the owner of the property where the horses are boarded was laid up with an injury and couldn't commit to feeding 2-3 times/day, so we put a big bale out in a feeder and kept an eye on it. The horses ate nearly twice as much hay than usual, and wasted a lot of it, too. A friend put out a round bale for his horses and forgot to put the slow net on, and figured it would be ok, he'd put it on when he got back from their weekend trip. Big mistake. A bale usually lasts his horses three weeks. This one lasted three days without the net. By the time he got home, they'd eaten and trampled it to the point where there was nothing left for them to eat.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

May I recommend rice bran for the weight gain? It's usually pretty cheap if you look at a store that sells it for deer... if I go to Tractor Supply it's 30 bucks for a 50lb bag. The bag has horses on it.

If I go to the feed store and ask for it, it's 6.99 for a 50lb bag. That bag is camo, has a whitetail buck on it and a bullseye painted behind him.

I add some as a topper to all our feed now.


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## melly ann (Apr 10, 2018)

Thanks so much everyone for the speedy replies! They are currently free choice so will look into net/Bale Barn for sure. I'll talk to my gf about hand feeding as well when I'm up tonight -- she's on the premises all day to do the feeding but not sure we'd have the space to store it away from the elements.. the barn is quite small, we have no indoor arena, and current run-in needs some solid fixing-up work.


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

^ It's easier to fork off a round bale if they're standing on end, but that means they need to be under cover as they won't shed water. You could probably get away with turning one bale upright and feeding off of that, then turning the next one needed, etc. Whether you put the up-ended bales indoors or put one outside to feed from, put a pallet underneath it so the bottom stays dry, too. If you're supposed to get a lot of rain and you have a bale outside on end, toss a tarp over it and tie the edges down to the pallet corners.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

If you can limit them some so not just gorging and wasting, your bale will last longer and you will have less waste. And they _will_ still gain weight...
I was diligent in picking up all hay that was yanked off and out of the round bale during the day hours, then locked my boys off at night...
However, the hay I picked up I fed if it was clean of manure...
My guys ate in the evening from 5:00 till around 9:30 off of what they yanked off. I couldn't see them in the dark after that...
I did limit them to 3 hours in the morning, 2 hours mid day and then what ever I forked off the ground is what they had at night... my horses ate 6:00am - 9:00am, 12:00pm - 2:00pm , then 5:00pm on...
When they weren't stuffing their faces they rested quietly...content and happy.
I do not believe that a horse needs to gorge non-stop 24/7...they just waste.
Mine would use the hay as a toilet and bed is not a good $$ investment.
Free-choice you better figure a loss of 1/3 the bale is what everyone tells me is a good average.
I don't use a net nor a ring...but I do have my bale where I can close it off from my horses for portion control.
I put my bale on end so it sheds water and I do loosely tarp it from the rain and heavy dew of night. 
My bale sat upon a grid of 4x4 boards so off the ground away from dampness with a plastic barrier laid down first.
My bale was 1000 pounds and it lasted me 4+ weeks of carefully cleaning it up nightly...
Was work for me, yes. But it saved me all that waste...
I lost about 100 pounds total.._if that!:smile:_
Now my one horse would walk away when full, my other would not ever stop and he did not need the extra weight gain, he already is a tank...so yes, limiting was a must for me when doing the round bale.
It was a experiment for me...one I will be doing again now I have figured it out.
I will bring in 3 round bales and carefully tarp and store them...that should get me through much of next fall and winter when my pasture is closed..
I do feed squares, a bale a day per 2 horses currently I have. My squares are a solid 55 pound and I do feed feed or ration balancer to my easy-keeper. My hard-keeper just doesn't do well on just hay...we tried and it was a disaster.:frown_color:

With your friend home you have a lot of options if you see major waste happening to limit gorge time and to also clean up after them so less waste the more economical that round becomes..
Make sure the rounds you feed are _*horse*_ rounds not cattle. 
It _*is*_ rolled and stored differently with less humidity allowed..always though watch and smell carefully daily for mold growth...
Good luck.
:runninghorse2:....
_jmo..._


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## 4horses (Nov 26, 2012)

If you don't want to fork off hay, get an electric fence and put it around your round roll. You just move the fence a little to provide or remove access. Pulling hay off and feeding it individually is harder if you have more horses. The electric fence is easier than putting on a slow mesh net on a round roll. It also limits waste, as the horses can't step on the hay. 

I like to keep 2 rounds for my 4 horses. 2 horses on each round. I use the electric fence for my harder keepers, the small mesh net i save for the easy keepers.


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

Yes, you can fence them off, too, to save hay. When I lived with a friend and we had 15 horses between us, we had a round bale in a feeder in a pen with two gates. We let the big horses on for a couple of hours in the morning, and a couple of hours in the afternoon. The minis were on for about an hour at noon, and an hour later at night. We'd fork any hay pulled off or on the ground over the fences so everyone had a bit to eat overnight. If it was very cold, we fed more frequently but since there was usually at least someone home nearly all the time, it wasn't a big deal and only took a few minutes to go out and open one gate or run one set of horses off the bale and let the others on. 

With just a couple of horses, you could let them have a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the afternoon/evening and they'd be fine-- especially if you cleaned up any loose hay or hay on the ground by tossing it to them to nibble overnight. Horses weren't meant to go long hours without eating, but a few hours here and there won't hurt them, especially if there's grass or some other sort of forage they can nibble if need be. You may also find you need to let your hard keeper on the bale much longer than his fatter, smaller friend, or do what a friend of mine with two thoroughbreds and two ponies does--- ponies get access to a grass bale with a net, while the TB's get grass/alfalfa with no net and are on their bale at least 12 hours total each day.

Like I said in an earlier post, we fork hay off rounds for ours 2-3 times/day when there's no grass, and they usually have hay still left in their feeders when we go out for the next feeding. They spend long periods of time, sometimes several hours, dozing in the sun or toodling around or otherwise not eating. I figure they spend about 8 hours a day eating hay, and the rest of the time doing other things. Some horses, if left free choice, will eat constantly, so each situation is different.


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## horseluvr2524 (Sep 17, 2013)

AtokaGhosthorse said:


> May I recommend rice bran for the weight gain? It's usually pretty cheap if you look at a store that sells it for deer... if I go to Tractor Supply it's 30 bucks for a 50lb bag. The bag has horses on it.
> 
> If I go to the feed store and ask for it, it's 6.99 for a 50lb bag. That bag is camo, has a whitetail buck on it and a bullseye painted behind him.
> 
> I add some as a topper to all our feed now.


Are you positive that the rice bran made for deer is stabilized rice bran? Anything less is unsafe for horses! I personally would not feed something that was not made for horses specifically.



> Be certain to purchase stabilized rice bran. Unstabilized rice bran is available but will go rancid quickly and cannot be stored for longer than 5–7 days, depending on heat and humidity. It is also important to not confuse stabilized rice bran with other rice products available for equine consumption, such as broken rice.


https://ker.com/equinews/five-reasons-feed-stabilized-rice-bran-horses/

If looking for a cheaper option, beet pulp is a good way to go, so long as it is soaked first. However, I've personally found that rice bran is more bang for your buck. If your horse really needs to gain weight, that is an excellent way to go. Had a BO get my horse super fat (I was mad) on just a half pound of RB. It lasted an average of 6 weeks. Once I went back to self care, I took her off it, because she did not need a weight supplement.


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## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

Round bale nets are an excellent choice to keep hay waste to a minimum. You just can't have horses with shoes on around it as they can get caught in the net. My first choice of another forage for weight gain would be alfalfa.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

Average bale weight for that size is 1000lb. Figuring 40 pounds for both horses (pony will eat a little less than 20, WB a little more) then should last 3 weeks. BUT if this is the first bale you feed they may stuff themselves until they regulate their intake. When we put bales out the first bale never lasts as long as the later bales.

ETA all replies just dropped. Going back to read.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

Atoka - the difference in between those bags is that the $30 dollar bag is stabilized (to keep it from going rancid) and has the Cal/Phos ratio balanced. The $7.00 bag doesn't. As long as you are feeding it quickly and adding what you need to provide balance then no issues. We can't feed the cheap bag here in the warmer months. Adding the Calcium can be as easy as adding alfalfa as it has a higher Ca level where the RB has a higher P level.

We stand our bales on end on a pallet and tarp when we need to conserve. Then we just peel off with a fork. If you fork the top of the bale and drive it out and away it will take a layer off that side then if needed you can remove the other side by just shoving it off or pulling from where you separated it.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

QtrBel said:


> Atoka - the difference in between those bags is that the $30 dollar bag is stabilized (to keep it from going rancid) and has the Cal/Phos ratio balanced. The $7.00 bag doesn't. As long as you are feeding it quickly and adding what you need to provide balance then no issues. We can't feed the cheap bag here in the warmer months. Adding the Calcium can be as easy as adding alfalfa as it has a higher Ca level where the RB has a higher P level.


The cheap bag WILL go bad quickly, yes. We use it through the winter though and have yet to have one go bad before it's used up. 

We don't feed grain or bran once the grass comes in. I maintain routine by bringing them just a wee bit of feed and loose salt/mineral every evening through the warm months.


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