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 Expert
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| I am a firm believer in keeping forage in front of my horses 24/7. However my horses are pigs and they seem to waste a lot of hay just throwing it around. lol I don't have access to omnis cubes or any of the other premium cubes some of you do. What I DO HAVE access to is a super nice alfalfa/Oat cube that is clean, my horses love them etc. Does anyone JUST FEED cubes? THanks! Will add, these cubes I can get are very soft and do not need soaking. If you feed just cubes, how do you keep hay in front of them all the time?
Edited by FLITASTIC 2015-10-13 2:54 PM
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
 
Location: Kansas | Have you thought about investing in a hay hut? |
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Expert
Posts: 5293
| I do have a shelter if thats what you mean. But I only buy about 20 bales at a time. With only 2 horses hay would get really old until I fed it all. |
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Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
Location: Kansas | Oh I figured you fed round bales. I would think feeding just cubes would get expensive fast. A 40lb bag of alfalfa cubes is $16.95 for me, my gelding gets 5lbs soaked daily...so a bag wouldn't last me long lol.
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 I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
Location: In the Hills of Texas | I keep coastal hay in front of mine and for what ever reason, he is good and keeps it all neat in the corner of his stall. LOL
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Expert
Posts: 5293
| Nevertooold - 2015-10-13 1:05 PM
I keep coastal hay in front of mine and for what ever reason, he is good and keeps it all neat in the corner of his stall. LOL
Mine are probably spoiled and just fling it everywhere... We don't have round bales here in CA!!! LOL |
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | Usually if they start wasting it, I cut back quite a bit and just give them the max that I know they'll clean up. They'll usually make it last all day anyhow. I use hay bags too to keep the mess down. |
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 Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | hoofs_in_motion - 2015-10-13 2:57 PM Oh I figured you fed round bales. I would think feeding just cubes would get expensive fast. A 40lb bag of alfalfa cubes is $16.95 for me, my gelding gets 5lbs soaked daily...so a bag wouldn't last me long lol.
Select Way cubes are made by Midway in Herington, KS. They're the bigger diameter cubes, but they're soft and do not need to be soaked. They are MUCH more affordable as well.
http://midwayforage.com/select-way-premium-alfalfa-cubes.html |
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Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
Location: Kansas | rachellyn80 - 2015-10-13 3:21 PM
hoofs_in_motion - 2015-10-13 2:57 PM Oh I figured you fed round bales. I would think feeding just cubes would get expensive fast. A 40lb bag of alfalfa cubes is $16.95 for me, my gelding gets 5lbs soaked daily...so a bag wouldn't last me long lol.
Select Way cubes are made by Midway in Herington, KS. They're the bigger diameter cubes, but they're soft and do not need to be soaked. They are MUCH more affordable as well.
http://midwayforage.com/select-way-premium-alfalfa-cubes.html
That's about an hour and half from me. I'll have to give them a call and see what a bag runs to see if it's worth driving that far lol |
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Expert
Posts: 1207
| I also feed the alfalfa/oat cubes. I have 3 and they also are on pasture. Grass not lush by any means and they have to travel some to get the good part. What I did as I got tired of them wasting so much hay that I got the slow feeder hay nets and put them up. Mine are spoiled also as I also have fan in the barn for them. When the grass is good I would only put maybe a flake in the hay nets. Of course they would eat that first then go out. When the grass was good right after all the rain here in OK I didn't give them any hay, only the cubes and would soak them so that THE products would stick to them. I gave my older senior guy some weight supplement also and he was doing really well, but now I am having trouble keeping the weight on him. I need to get his teeth checked and I just worked last week. He is looking better and looks to be putting weight on. Anyway you might try the slow feeder hay nets. |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | Financially it would make no sense for me to do just cubes. I board and hay is included in my board price...cubes are not. Plus my barn wouldn't soak them for me. Anywho, one of my horses especially uses loose hay as a toilet. I put everything in giant hay nets and that prevents them from wasting it.
ETA-If you are buying hay and/or cubes anyway (unlike me as stated above) and have some grazing then I've seen no evidence that replacing hay with cubes has any negative side effects. 
Edited by cavyrunsbarrels 2015-10-14 12:50 PM
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Expert
Posts: 2531
Location: WI | Get a Hay Chix net! They have sizes for 1/2 bale, full bale, large squares, round bale, etc. |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | We feed strictly cubes to a lot of ours..and we have the 3/4 hard cubes and i dont soak them as when it gets -35 that gets to be a bit impossible..lolM |
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Expert
Posts: 5293
| THanks all! I did try the slow feed hay nets. THey lasted maybe a day and my horses chewed a hole and made them not so slow feeders.lol Turds |
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 Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | Horses are grazers.. Id think youd have to give them cubes several times a day.. |
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I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
Location: In the Hills of Texas | FLITASTIC - 2015-10-13 3:15 PM Nevertooold - 2015-10-13 1:05 PM I keep coastal hay in front of mine and for what ever reason, he is good and keeps it all neat in the corner of his stall. LOL
Mine are probably spoiled and just fling it everywhere... We don't have round bales here in CA!!! LOL
I don't feed round bales. He gets $10.00 a bale coastal. I put a few flakes in the corner of his stall and when he eats most of it, he gets 2 more flakes. |
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I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
Location: In the Hills of Texas | Bibliafarm - 2015-10-13 8:24 PM Horses are grazers.. Id think youd have to give them cubes several times a day..
I feed cubes three times a day and in the morning he gets Renew Gold and at night he gets 4 cups of Beet Pulp along with FORCO and Redmond salt minerals and has flakes of Coastal in front of him all the time. |
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Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | Nevertooold - 2015-10-13 9:42 PM Bibliafarm - 2015-10-13 8:24 PM Horses are grazers.. Id think youd have to give them cubes several times a day.. I feed cubes three times a day and in the morning he gets Renew Gold and at night he gets 4 cups of Beet Pulp along with FORCO and Redmond salt minerals and has flakes of Coastal in front of him all the time.
agree.. they need hay to chump on.. |
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 Elite Veteran
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Location: West Texas | I have fed only cubes for 3 years. I feed 18-24 lbs daily. Half at 7am and half at 5pm. |
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Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | I have 3 old horses here and this years hay was very dry so made it hard for them to eat. It was more like baled twigs. So they to were throwing it all over the place wasting exhorbatant amounts of hay. So I am feeding cubes, and just 1 flake of hay with their cubes. It's working beautifully! |
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 Go For It!
Location: Texas |
Here is a cool trick... go buy a big outdoor trash bin, the kind with wheels... cut a 10" X 10" hole in the bottom front of it and fill it with hay... attach it to the stall wall or fence... as the horse eats the hay it keeps falling to the bottom... Voila! Dry fresh hay, free choice, without the waste.
I saw that on Pintrest or somewhere. :)
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 959
Location: Borger, Tx | I don't feed cubes but do have free choice round bales and with my colt he has a slow feed hay bale net that I use, and I throw the entire thing in an old stock (water) tank that doesn't hold water anymore. I have found that even feeding the hay loose that those are deep enough they can't throw too much of it out:)
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 Whack and Roll
Posts: 6342
Location: NE Texas | grinandbareit - 2015-10-14 8:07 AM Here is a cool trick... go buy a big outdoor trash bin, the kind with wheels... cut a 10" X 10" hole in the bottom front of it and fill it with hay... attach it to the stall wall or fence... as the horse eats the hay it keeps falling to the bottom... Voila! Dry fresh hay, free choice, without the waste. I saw that on Pintrest or somewhere. :)
I have wanted to try this for so long. Went to buy my trash cans and they were $100 or something and I just couldn't afford that for each pasture at the time. Thanks for the reminder....may go back and do this now. :) |
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Expert
Posts: 5293
| Herbie - 2015-10-14 9:01 AM
grinandbareit - 2015-10-14 8:07 AM Here is a cool trick... go buy a big outdoor trash bin, the kind with wheels... cut a 10" X 10" hole in the bottom front of it and fill it with hay... attach it to the stall wall or fence... as the horse eats the hay it keeps falling to the bottom... Voila! Dry fresh hay, free choice, without the waste. I saw that on Pintrest or somewhere. :)
I have wanted to try this for so long. Went to buy my trash cans and they were $100 or something and I just couldn't afford that for each pasture at the time. Thanks for the reminder....may go back and do this now. :)
Awesome Idea. Once they stopped spooking at it I bet they would like it. lol Walmart has them or Home Depot. Yea. They are not cheap
How hard are they to destroy???? LOL
Edited by FLITASTIC 2015-10-14 11:45 AM
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | FLITASTIC - 2015-10-14 11:38 AM Herbie - 2015-10-14 9:01 AM grinandbareit - 2015-10-14 8:07 AM Here is a cool trick... go buy a big outdoor trash bin, the kind with wheels... cut a 10" X 10" hole in the bottom front of it and fill it with hay... attach it to the stall wall or fence... as the horse eats the hay it keeps falling to the bottom... Voila! Dry fresh hay, free choice, without the waste. I saw that on Pintrest or somewhere. :) I have wanted to try this for so long. Went to buy my trash cans and they were $100 or something and I just couldn't afford that for each pasture at the time. Thanks for the reminder....may go back and do this now. :) Awesome Idea. Once they stopped spooking at it I bet they would like it. lol Walmart has them or Home Depot. Yea. They are not cheap How hard are they to destroy???? LOL
I'm wondering how long it would take my mare to stick her foot or nose in the hole and cut herself on the plastic. |
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Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | Three 4 Luck - 2015-10-14 12:55 PM FLITASTIC - 2015-10-14 11:38 AM Herbie - 2015-10-14 9:01 AM grinandbareit - 2015-10-14 8:07 AM Here is a cool trick... go buy a big outdoor trash bin, the kind with wheels... cut a 10" X 10" hole in the bottom front of it and fill it with hay... attach it to the stall wall or fence... as the horse eats the hay it keeps falling to the bottom... Voila! Dry fresh hay, free choice, without the waste. I saw that on Pintrest or somewhere. :) I have wanted to try this for so long. Went to buy my trash cans and they were $100 or something and I just couldn't afford that for each pasture at the time. Thanks for the reminder....may go back and do this now. :) Awesome Idea. Once they stopped spooking at it I bet they would like it. lol Walmart has them or Home Depot. Yea. They are not cheap How hard are they to destroy???? LOL
..or a pen gets flooded and it fills up with water, lol
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | Does anyone make a decent grass cube or oat hay cube that isnt' rock hard? |
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Expert
Posts: 5293
| run n rate - 2015-10-14 11:01 AM
Does anyone make a decent grass cube or oat hay cube that isnt' rock hard?
I feed a Oat/Alf cube that is nice and soft. Tractor supply carries them..
I bet you could Duct tape the opening and keep them from getting cut.
Edited by FLITASTIC 2015-10-14 1:55 PM
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I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
Location: In the Hills of Texas | FLITASTIC - 2015-10-13 3:15 PM Nevertooold - 2015-10-13 1:05 PM I keep coastal hay in front of mine and for what ever reason, he is good and keeps it all neat in the corner of his stall. LOL
Mine are probably spoiled and just fling it everywhere... We don't have round bales here in CA!!! LOL
I jinxed myself...I don't know what happened or got into my horse last night but this morning he had his hay spread all over his stall and in his pen were a bunch of long tail hairs strewn around. I'm wondering if I coyote came in. |
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 Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | find the magic flake size of what they clean up vs what they make a mess out of.....
I'm still trying to figure out how 20 bales get old when you have 2 horses......I buy 40-50 small squares in August in hopes they last until next August (stored inside) and 30-50 large rounds stored outside....
If your horses are in pretty good sized runs why not make a corner feeder just using some longer 2X6, 2 X 8 or 2 X10 in one corner? Make a triangle high enough so that can't really get a leg over but so the hay can't blow out of it either.- They might still crap in it but but at least they won't walk through it.
Also, I've seen the trash can feeders mounted on the fence a little ways up so the water doesn't set in it-maybe a foot or so-and I don't really think they are tough enough to tear a horse up. |
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Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | FLITASTIC - 2015-10-14 1:49 PM run n rate - 2015-10-14 11:01 AM Does anyone make a decent grass cube or oat hay cube that isnt' rock hard? I feed a Oat/Alf cube that is nice and soft. Tractor supply carries them.. I bet you could Duct tape the opening and keep them from getting cut.
Pippy would eat the duct tape off. She is Dennis the Menace in red mare clothing. |
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Veteran
Posts: 197
| I tried the trash can feeder thing, they tore it up pretty much in one night.: pulled off the duct tape around the hole, that hole ended up a split clear up can, got it un-attatched from fence and stomped it around. |
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3314
Location: Jersey Girl | FLITASTIC - 2015-10-13 3:52 PM I am a firm believer in keeping forage in front of my horses 24/7. However my horses are pigs and they seem to waste a lot of hay just throwing it around. lol I don't have access to omnis cubes or any of the other premium cubes some of you do. What I DO HAVE access to is a super nice alfalfa/Oat cube that is clean, my horses love them etc. Does anyone JUST FEED cubes? THanks! Will add, these cubes I can get are very soft and do not need soaking. If you feed just cubes, how do you keep hay in front of them all the time?
I use a slow feed bale bag. If I don't do they blow thru it in no time flat and waste alot of it.
My dad is building me a slow feeder like this:
http://buddyfeeder.wix.com/buddyfeeder#!services/c21w2
Edited by fulltiltfilly 2015-10-15 5:24 AM
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Just Cubes???