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 Expert
Posts: 5293
  
| Out here in CA we do not have round bales really. But I see them in a lot of peoples pictures on here. Most from areas where there is a lot of snow etc. HOW DO YOU KEEP THEM FRESH being out in a pasture/Field??? Whenever it rains here I have to tarp my hay or it will be a moldy nasty mess. SO how is it that round bales can be left out in the elements and still stay good for the horses??? Just curious is all.  |
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 It's not my fault I'm perfect
Posts: 13739
  
Location: Where the long tails flow, ND | I only feed them in the winters and keep them up off the ground, with hay nets over them when I'm not lazy. They stay good for us! I also have 5 horses and a mini on them so they don't last terribly long, not long enough to get nasty that is. |
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 Straight Shooter
Posts: 5725
Location: SW North Dakota | I feed round bales. In the pasture, they don't last long enough to spoil. 14 horses make a round bale disappear quickly in the winter. For my drylotted horses, I use a pitchfork to feed. We don't get a lot of rain here, but when mine get wet, I have my husband give them to the cows.ha ha.
If I had to buy my hay, I would definitely keep my "active" roundbales under a cover of some sort (they are set up on their ends to make peeling the hay off easier). In the stack, they are on their sides and stacked in a pyramid. They shed water well and rarely do we have much waste in our stacked hay.
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Veteran
Posts: 233
| Round bale are baled and wrapped so the water rolls off the outside. Once you put them out, if you've got more than 3 horses eating on them they don't last long. Or you can put them under a cover.
Being able to buy hay for ~$60/ton makes them worth it.
Edited by hannahbug 2017-03-30 11:49 AM
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 Dog Resuce Agent
Posts: 3459
Location: southeast Texas | My three in the back go thru a round bale in about 10 days. It's out in the pasture on a high point, some is wasted, but it might be something they don't want to eat.
The two up front horses, I also use the pitch fork to peal off layers to put in stall or hay nets for out on the road.
I talked to a friend about putting the round bales in some sort of contraption so they would waste, she said what little they waste is minuscule to the vet bill if they get tangled up.
Edited by roxieannie 2017-03-30 11:53 AM
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | I feed round bales to the retiree pen....most times i just fork it..but with all the mud right now i just dump up on a hill in the pen and they go to town....and the other bales just stay stacked in the yard..i dont cover them at all....m |
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 The One
Posts: 7998
Location: South Georgia | They are wrapped and under shelters until they are fed. Once in the pasture, the horses eat them before they go bad. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 364
| The truth of the matter is: round bales left out in the elements do not stay good and fresh. I don't care what anyone says. We put up our own hay and it's about a 100 round bales a year and a few thousand squares. When the round bales are rolled up, they go straight onto a trailer and get stacked in a building that very same day. They never sit outside. When it's time to feed one, they get a net over them, dropped into a round plastic feeder that's inside a large covered lean where horses can come and go as they please. Our round bales are gorgeous. I understand it's not something that everyone can do, but we are fortunate to have a lot of covered area. |
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Expert
Posts: 5293
| hannahbug - 2017-03-30 9:48 AM
Round bale are baled and wrapped so the water rolls off the outside. Once you put them out, if you've got more than 3 horses eating on them they don't last long. Or you can put them under a cover.
Being able to buy hay for ~$60/ton makes them worth it.
Oh heck yes!!!!!! I would love those prices. I pay 19 a bale for alfalfa and 25 for Orchard.  |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 322
| We only feed round bales in the winter. It is really nice not to run out to feed with snow on the ground lol. We have 3 horses and 1 round bales lasted about 14 days (at $50/bale). Some was wasted, but the horses liked to lay on it vs. the snow so it didnt bother me. Once the snow started melting - now we have mud and rain... we are back to large square bales and feeding daily. |
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Expert
Posts: 1314
Location: North Central Iowa Land of white frozen grass | I feed big rounds ( 1,700 # ) and big squares (750#). Most new round balers have plastic net wrap so the bale is covered in plastic. Even outside here in norther Iowa they stay quite good if they are made right. There is also that are put in sheds also. Big squares are a different story. They absolutely have to be in a shed and off of the ground. They are like a big sponge. There is so much hay grown here that they have hay sales every week with over 1,000 to 1,500 tons to a sale at every location. It goes from $ 25.00 to $150.00 a ton depending what you want for quality. Most of the time $75 a ton will get you some beautiful alfalfa hay. I can't raise my own hay for what I can buy it for. My hay cost for my horses is about a dollor a day per horse on a round bale self feeder for 80% alfalfa 20% orchard timithy mix
Edited by BS Hauler 2017-03-30 1:03 PM
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Expert
Posts: 4766
Location: Bandera, TX | BS Hauler - 2017-03-30 1:02 PM I feed big rounds ( 1,700 # ) and big squares (750#). Most new round balers have plastic net wrap so the bale is covered in plastic. Even outside here in norther Iowa they stay quite good if they are made right. There is also that are put in sheds also. Big squares are a different story. They absolutely have to be in a shed and off of the ground. They are like a big sponge. There is so much hay grown here that they have hay sales every week with over 1,000 to 1,500 tons to a sale at every location. It goes from $ 25.00 to $150.00 a ton depending what you want for quality. Most of the time $75 a ton will get you some beautiful alfalfa hay. I can't raise my own hay for what I can buy it for. My hay cost for my horses is about a dollor a day per horse on a round bale self feeder for 80% alfalfa 20% orchard timithy mix
I'm very very envious! Would love to have hay like you have access to. We pay a premium for good hay! |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| If we think the weather is going to get dicey when we are baling we will roundbale to get it up. We have cattle as well as horses. If the hay goes up good and dry we will stick those bales under roof to feed to the horses. Occasionally we have a little bad spot on the bottom, we fork it off and burn it. We set the bale in our barn and fork off hay to them. If the hay doesn't go up in pristine condition or we don't have space inside they get rowed up and fed to the cattle. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | If you're worried about rain get a round bale feeder that's covered. They have wooden ones, metal ones, all sorts of different style. Very easy to make. Do a quick google search for a covered round bale feeder.
We keep our bales we feed under a shed row so it never sees rain. |
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Veteran
Posts: 227
Location: Heart of Texas | I buy them in the winter mostly, one at a time and they are barn kept until I put them in the pasture. They last about 13 days at most so they never have a chance to go bad. If I had one horse on it I would cover them but I have too many to worry right now. |
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 The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | I feed rounds during winter months. They are wrapped in netting, when they are put up and if they are put up correctly they can last for a couple years. The rain/snow just slides off. if you stack them correctly. We peel off the first layer when we feed and the rest of the bale is great. We feed a bale about every 10 days so we dont really worry about it going bad. |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | hannahbug - 2017-03-30 10:48 AM Round bale are baled and wrapped so the water rolls off the outside. Once you put them out, if you've got more than 3 horses eating on them they don't last long. Or you can put them under a cover. Being able to buy hay for ~$60/ton makes them worth it.
This. And I know here in WY we don't get the rainfall that other places do and no humidity. Square bales will mold in no time-top bales and bottom bales. But we feed 3 yr old round bales where the outside is ugly and sunbleached gray, but the inside will still smell so sweet and look good. The bottom bales where they are set in the dirt will mold and get nasty, we just don't make them eat that if we put them in a bale feeder. |
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 More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | 1st of all it doesn't rain here. 2nd if I told my husband he had to put all our 2000+ lb bales under a tarp or in a building he would put me in a straight jacket. |
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