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 Expert
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| Hey there! I primarily feed high quality alfalfa and try and get an alf/Orchard grass mix when I can. Has not been easy this year. I currently give a flake of timothy to each horse so they have something to munch on all day. Timothy went up to over $30 PER BALE for a 100 pound bale. I will if I have to, but was thinking about going to my local Tractor supply and getting a grass mix cube instead. My whole purpose for doing it is so they have some grass hay moving through their system and not 100% alfalfa. What would you recommend?? Pellet or cube ?? I am worried about choke a little and not sure my horses would readily eat soaked hay?? Not sure... Thanks!  |
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I just read the headlines
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| I have read that the cubes can be considered hay but the pellets are considered a feed because they lack the bits of hay in them that the cubes have. I fed the cubes and the pellets from Tractor Supply until I was able to get the Danco cubes. I soaked the cubes/pellets for about 15 minutes. They are pretty hard and I was worried about choke. |
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 Expert
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Location: Deep South | FLITASTIC - 2016-10-24 9:20 AM Hey there! I primarily feed high quality alfalfa and try and get an alf/Orchard grass mix when I can. Has not been easy this year. I currently give a flake of timothy to each horse so they have something to munch on all day. Timothy went up to over $30 PER BALE for a 100 pound bale. I will if I have to, but was thinking about going to my local Tractor supply and getting a grass mix cube instead. My whole purpose for doing it is so they have some grass hay moving through their system and not 100% alfalfa. What would you recommend?? Pellet or cube ?? I am worried about choke a little and not sure my horses would readily eat soaked hay?? Not sure... Thanks!
Because this is your purpose, not just to add something to their diet, I would go with cubes. They can clean up the pellets pretty fast, just like any other grain pellet you can feed. But the cubes take a lot longer to finish.
The barn I worked for fed 70+ horses cubes from weanlings to show horses, to retired brood mares. We didn't soak any of them, no incidences of choke. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
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Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Cant answer your question for you, just wanted to say wow on the price of a bale of hay,, here we feed costal and I have hay growers all around me. Can you get Costal Hay? |
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Expert
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| Southtxponygirl - 2016-10-24 7:45 AM
Cant answer your question for you, just wanted to say wow on the price of a bale of hay,, here we feed costal and I have hay growers all around me. Can you get Costal Hay?
I can get bermuda, and its CHEAP.................... but its the really bad fine stem junk that causes major impactions.. lol I am always scared to death of bermuda.. lol I think what I might try is some grass hay cubes.. Those shouldnt be as hard as alfalfa ones and my horses can munch on those all day....or sell a Kidney and get a couple bales of Timothy... lol 
Edited by FLITASTIC 2016-10-24 11:37 AM
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Expert
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Location: Willows, CA | I like cubes much better than pellets. I will use alfalfa pellets in a diet to get some alfalfa in the system to assist with grass hay digestion, but would rather that source was from cubes if I have a choice. Grass / Alfalfa mixed cubes are much softer than straight alfalfa cubes in general. It is funny how people are concerned about using hay that is the most commonly used in another region. People who have never fed alfalfa are afraid to feed any, and those who have never fed Bermuda feel the same. Both just need to understand the rules of feeding those forage sources and everything can work out. The biggest impaction issue with Bermuda that I have seen is when the horse can't comfortably chew it as much as they would normally do because of teeth issues. Usually a hook on the lowers is the issue, so a horse just chews enough to swallow and the Bermuda is not broken up as much as it should be. This leaves unchewed long strands that are the nucleus of an impaction. As long as Bermuda is well chewed impaction is unlikely, and it can be a good roughage source in the overall diet.
Edited by winwillows 2016-10-24 1:19 PM
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