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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
   
Location: Phoenix | Or large square bales? My mom is on board to start feeding round bales so we don't have to feed twice a day. We just need to convince dad. We have a huge tractor tire we could put it in...and we have a round able feeder but I hate how it rubs their mane. Is the Chix round bale saver thing worth it? And how many bales do you go thru a week with how many horses? Thanks for the help!!
ETA: how many of you are operating without a tractor to move these bales?
Edited by hammer_time 2013-12-08 12:32 PM
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
 
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | I keep 5 decent sized horses (1000-1300 lbs) on a round bale. Two are brought up at night and three are on it full time. The round bales we're feeding are around 600 pounds and will last 4-6 days but they have been somewhat coarse and they do waste a decent bit --we have a cradle feeder. They get fed feed in the mornings and then my old horse gets fed 2x. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 616
Location: Texas | We feed them, we have a round bale feeder made for horses,the bale sits in the feeder up off the ground and the horses don't have to stick their heads thru it thus do not rub out manes, plus a lot less wasted hay, we have 5 in one pasture and feed the 5x5 costal bales, lasts about 2 weeks and 3 in another pasture which will last almost 3 weeks, they all get feed 2 times a day and have protein tubs in each pasture
Edited by kickincans 2013-12-07 8:34 PM
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9991
Location: Kansas | I have 4 horses on 900lbs of brome/prairie hay bales. I go through about a bale a week, they will pretty much clean up everything except the bottom of the bale and I only pay $25 a bale if I haul a load. |
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 Best of the Badlands
Location: You never know where I will show up...... | I have no experience with the Cinch Chix bale ring but their round bale hay nets are a really good investment! I just use a bale ring that's made for horses.....so they don't rub their manes out....I net the bale and throw it in there with the skid loader.
One of our big round bales will feed a pen of 4 horses for about 10 days if it's really cold like it has been, or 2 weeks if the weather is nice. There is little to no waste with the nets.
Edited by rockinas 2013-12-07 8:50 PM
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 989
| I feed the big squares and have a cinch chix net on it. I also leave the bailer twine on it so it is harder for them to get out. I was feeding 1 gelding, a pregnant mare and a weanling on a 3x9 bale and it was lasting about 2.5 weeks with pretty much no waste. If you get a feeder, the tombstone design is built for horses. |
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 More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | We feed big rounds in hay feeders that wont rub manes out, A 1700 pound bale lasts about 2 weeks for 4 or 5 head of horses. |
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 Living on the edge of common sense
Posts: 24138
Location: Carpenter, WY | We feed net wrapped round bales. One bale will last 5 broodmares about 10 days in this cold weather. We move a new bale in and I take the netwrap off while Dan sets the feeder over the bale with the tractor. No mane rubbing as the feeder is made for horses :)
The rest of the bunch in the pens, which is the younger and old have tires. I use the 4 wheeler with my cart behind it and fill the tires in each pen. I got a 4 wheeler that will go through the 4 foot gates so just drive through each pen. If you turn the tire over so the smaller opening is on top they wont throw the tires around either.
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 Can You Hear Me Now?
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | I have 10 horses and I feed 2 bales every 5 days. Mine aren't that big, only 4 by 4 soft core bales and maybe weigh 400-500 lbs. Timothy grass hay and they have 24/7 access. |
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 Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4553
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | I feed a 900 # bale for 4 horses and about 7 days.... I just take it to their pasture drop it off and un-wrap as it has the mesh netting, let them have at it. The only time there is waste is when it rains and remains muddy, when dry nothing remains. I feed grain once a day. When it's cold it nice to come inside early, just have to check water. |
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 Guinea Pig Herder
Posts: 5124
Location: Minnesota | We have hay nets made by Tabatha Webster out of Minnesota.. We love them.. Best investment ever!  |
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | Thanks for all the responses! It would be nice for the horses to be able to keep eating. I would like to feed them at least 3x a day but dad keeps them on their summer schedule...always has. Do horses adjust well to the round bale? I'd be afraid that my pig of a horse would go through the bale in no time flat. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1430
Location: Montana | Your avatar thingie says "San Diego." It's been -36 or worse here in eastern Montana the last two nights. I have absolutely NO idea how to predict how much your horses will eat and I'm not about to tell you how much mine are eating because everyone will decide I'm lying! ;-)
We'd have to sell down substantially if we didn't have big round bales because it would beyond me to feed 20-30 horses in this weather with small bales. We do supplement with small squares of alfalfa but they kind of have to have grass hay in front of them 24/7 in the winter here. And I think it's good for all horses to have grass hay in front of them all the time - physically and mentally. Not an option always, but it's nice when you can.
It sounds like there are getting to be a lot of cool options out there and you should look into them. I'll admit though that we just dump the bale on the ground in the pasture and they slick it up. Our corrals all have feeders built in the pen - more of a manager type thing. We have to feed twice a day for most of those horses.
Good luck convincing your Dad - but keep trying because it is worth it.
I'm working on convincing mine that we need a bale handler because I don't get along with our tractor. It's Russian and I swear Stalin himself designed the transmission. Good bale handlers on good pickups are probably the way to go for most people that don't need a tractor otherwise. Worth looking into anyway. Oh, some Bobcats are big enough to handle bales too if you have a grapple fork. And you can handle bales with a spear on the back of something like a Bobcat but I don't think you can unload a semi with that arrangement.
Oh, I've tried big square bales and if you can keep them under a shed, store them NOT on the strings side then you can peal big flakes off very nicely and I love them. But I dont' have under-roof storage for them here and can't keep them from molding - grass or alfalfa. Big rounds shed water better for us.
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | Ausranch-- I'm currently in San Diego but the horses are back home in WA with my parents.. It's been 1-16 degrees all week...brrr!! I am flying back today. Had to say goodbye to my horse and my puppy!! |
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Expert
Posts: 1430
Location: Montana | That sounds warm.
One more way to handle big round bales . . . wrap a chain around the bale and drag the darn thing out to the pasture. Forgot that one . . . but the Russian tractor flat would not start today at all so we were down to Plan B. This doesn't work in mud . . . not a problem in eastern MT but a big one in WA I bet!
Good luck! |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 495
Location: Washington | I'm in W. WA. We feed round bales, no net, no feeder. A 700lbs (ish) bales last 3 horses (no ones over 1000 lbs, cutting horses) about a week. They make a mess but we put it in the driest spot and over time if you put it in the same spot they'll waste less.
We don't have a tractor so we find either a tree to tie the bale to then drive away or back up really fast and hit the breaks and it rolls out. |
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 Buttered Noodles Snacker
Posts: 4377
Location: NC | We feed round bales because I like them to have hay in front of them 24/7. With three horses they were going through a round bale a week. I am not great at estimating size but I guess they are average size maybe 4X4' and 700lbs... not really sure. BUT then we got a hay feeder ring and with less waste it seems to be lasting us a little over 2 weeks now. so definitely recommend a feeder. |
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Who feeds round bales??