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 Tried and True
Posts: 21185
   
Location: Where I am happiest | Well, I am stuck with 18 ton of beautiful alfalfa hay in my barn my horses cant/wont eat. It's beautiful hay to look at EXCEPT it is sooooooo dry it is like feeding sticks. Literally. Right now I am soaking it so they can somewhat eat it, but that wont work in the winter when it doesnt get above freezing for months. So I am going to have to suppliment my horses with either pellets, or cubes. Which is best? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| There is actually a topic kinda like this on this page, talking about bale vs cube vs pellet. We give free range alfalfa bales plus add in 3 quarts of alfalfa pellet/essential k 50/50 mix to the 3 quarts of oats base, 2x a day. This is for our heavily worked performance horses, It is very high energy so I would not give it to anything not working hard at least 6 days a week. |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | My horses love cubes but soaking them is a pain. I'm afraid to feed them dry (unless they're like the soft Danco cubes, which I can't get. If you can then that would probably be your best route). So I feed pellets. My horses are not snarfers and do well with dry pellets. The only bad thing is there's no long stem fiber in them. If you're feeding other hay then it's not really an issue.
Edited by cavyrunsbarrels 2015-09-16 1:35 AM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 396
| Is it possible to put a whole bale in with your horses? We had hay like this last year. I felt like with a little wind carrying a flake to the pen I lost everything but sticks. The horses did loose some condition last year when this was happening but we started just putting one big bale in with them since it was so dry. They overate a few days and then leveled out and looked good. |
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Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | My horses are on and have been on free choice for years. The flakes of this hay are small and even just giving one small flake, their feeders are left with ALOT of stems. By the end of a week, their feeder is full of stems and also thrown all over the floor looking for any piece edible. My horses will starve themseves to skeletons by the end of winter on this hay. It also doesnt help that 3 of them are retired senior's. |
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
Location: Kansas | I feed alfalfa cubes.....they aren't a pain for me to soak since I'm soaking them with the beet pulp anyways. I add a few pounds of cubes.....and a scoop of beet pulp on top, let it soak for 30 minutes...walk out to the pasture and dump in feed pan...easy as pie lol. And a 40lb bag was like $11 for me! It's lasted my bunch a while. I'm just now getting to the point to having to get another bag. |
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Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | Thankyou everybody for your input. I am going to the feed store today and will see what I can find in the way of cubes. It's just all so upsetting to me. Thats thousands of dollars in hay sitting in my barn and I feel like I shouldnt be having to worry, or suppliment my hay with hay cubes to sustain my horses. If it wasnt such a touchy situation as they are good friends I would just return it to the farmer. |
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Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
Location: Kansas | ThreeCorners - 2015-09-16 8:30 AM Thankyou everybody for your input. I am going to the feed store today and will see what I can find in the way of cubes. It's just all so upsetting to me. Thats thousands of dollars in hay sitting in my barn and I feel like I shouldnt be having to worry, or suppliment my hay with hay cubes to sustain my horses. If it wasnt such a touchy situation as they are good friends I would just return it to the farmer.
Are you able to sell the bales to someone who will feed to cattle? |
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 The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | If you don't want to return the hay, SELL IT! Someone will buy it if the price is right. Either to feed cattle or horses that aren't as picky. |
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| When you soak the beet pulp & cubes, do you drain the water or not? |
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