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Regular
Posts: 71
| Ok I have LOTS of questions! I sold my good barrel horse last fall and paid off all my student loans, and now have a full time, salary job (yay me :)). However, I am looking now to buy a horse and think I may have found one, but I want to keep feeding costs at a minimum.... where I live hay can get pretty expensive, especially in this drought (think panhandle). SO:
Do you think cubes/pellets are more cost effective than hay?
Do you feed cubes/pellets?
Why or why not?
How much do you feed? (size of your bucket)
Pros?
Cons?
Thank you in advance for all your help :)
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  Angel in a Sorrel Coat
Posts: 16030
 
Location: In a happy place | Bumping this up for you. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 448
Location: lone star state | Convenience always costs more. Bagged hay is definitely a luxury item around our place and is rarely used.
With that being said -premium alfalfa costs around 200.00 per ton. More in some places less due to trucking costs and availability.
There are 40 50# bags in a ton. At 15.00 per bag that equals 600.00 a ton! |
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 Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | I don't have a lot of storage so I always replace part of my hay with alfalfa cubes & beet pulp.
I've found that beet pulp actually helps to stretch the hay a whole lot more than the alfalfa -- they slow down on their hay more when they're on beet pulp than when they're on alfalfa cubes. The alfalfa has always done a better job at getting and maintaining weight. So that's why I feed both.
Granted I know 50 pounds is 50 pounds but for some reason I feel like I get a better value in feeding the cubes -vs- feeding pellets. I'm not really sure why that is. Maybe it's because even though it's the same poundage you get more actual volume with the cubes because they expand more.
The pellets here are hard and very dry. They set up like concrete if you soak them and don't use enough water. Also I just haven't gotten the same weight results with pellets that I have with cubes.
I've tried a lot of things over the years and I always come back to feeding beet pulp and cubes. For our big horses 1200+ pounds I'll feed a half scoop each of alfalfa cubes & beet pulp, 4 medium flakes of fescue mix hay, and a scoop of feed per day -- 3 quart scoop. If I was feeding just feed & hay, I would have to feed at least 6 flakes of hay per day.
Also there's a study that was done by University of Colorado on alfalfa cubes -vs- alfalfa hay. The horses had less "chew time" but they gained and maintained weight better on the cubes. They attributed it to the cubes were more consistent in weight and quality.
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| Price your 2 string small square bales of alfalfa in your area ... I'm in tx/ok ... out of state alfalfa usually runs $12 to $16 per 60-65 lb bale. '''''''''' Just say yearly avg/bale $14 ,, 30 bales equals a ton....
Alfalfa cubes .. 40 # sacks at $11-12 per bag ... due to being compressed and dried you end up with around 55#s of alfalfa. As you can see ... avg cost would be about $2 more to feed cubes vs bales. I recommend you soak your cubes between feedings or at least 2-4 hours. Prevents an accidental piggy horse from gulping a chunk down and having a choking episode.... lol...
In tx/ok we don't have hay brokers that sell to major feed companies where you can buy it cheaper by the ton ... like the $200 mentioned by another poster .... that would be $7 per bale here for alfalfa and that is a rare thing in my part of the country or considered cheap cow alfalfa (may have gotten rained on or too stemmy) ... ... lol
Dig out your calculator and do some figuring ...
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![](<a href="http://s1191.photobucket.com/albums/z470/alicat0909/?action=view¤t=yellaandcalf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1191.photobu) Heeler Hater
Posts: 3014
Location: Texas | Me personally, it evens out to be about to same.
Cubes are around $15 for 50 lbs. Same for pellets. Right now Im feeding cubes. 50-60 lb bale of hay is roughly $16
I decided to feed cubes for two reason. I have a very slow eater who doesnt need them soaked and he is in a small turnout pen 24/7 so I sling a scoop across his pen. In my mind it simulates grazing and keeps him interested because he has to "look" for them. I then put a scoop mixed in with regular flaked coastal hay. He gets that twice a day so he is getting 4 three quart scoops a day.
The second and most important reason is the consistency in quality. One week I might buy a bale of perfect alfalfa. The next I might get something so stemmy i end up giving it away because no horse on the property is that interested. they pick out the small stems and leaves but leave 90%. SO i have to feed quadruple to get the same result.
Im about to move my guy to pasture though so Ill change him to pellets soon. no need for him to search for cubes.
Oh i guess my favorite reason to keep cubes around is they make great treats and Ive never had a horse not eat them unlike some of the more expensive horse treats you can buy :)
Edited by Alicat0909 2014-03-29 12:02 AM
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 Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | pellets here are about $11 a 50# bag so much cheaper than a bale. If we get some good wet years, the alfalfa will cheapen up some. I mostly feed the pellets soaked to an old horse with no teeth. |
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 GRD's Fan Club Advisior
Posts: 6750
Location: Lost in Texas | I'm paying $12 for a 50# bag of cubes, its $12 - $15.50 for a small bale of alfalfa. So it's just easier for me to deal with the cubes. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2236
Location: Sherman, TX | Cubes are cheaper for me..$9.95 for 50 lbs cubes at Hay-rite in Weatherford, no waste so I can feed less. Hay they waste so you need to feed more... |
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 Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4557
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | It can work for you if you feed a fat along with his grain.my barrel horse would take a week to eat one bag of cubes if I fed 8 ounces of fat with 3 pounds of beet pulp and 2 pounds of strategy.he was 15.3 and 1350 pounds and fat as hog. |
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 Bye-Bye Jiggle
Posts: 1691
Location: Where ever there's sunshine! | I love feeding cubes!!! In the past I fed bales from what ever store had them. Maybe it looked great maybe it was horrible and keeping it up and making sure nothing for into it was always a chore. With the cubes. I can ALWAYS find a good quality bag for way cheaper than the bales and I can lock them up in a metal container and know nothing is getting into them. When I dump the morning feed I start my evening feed soaking. When I dump my evening feed I start my morning soaking. Not hard at all. This gelding I have now looks great! I never got these sort of results feeding bales. My feeding is easier. My horse is not only fed but hydrated as well. My clothes aren't covered in hay neither is my barn. D there's no waste left on the ground. I'm not sure I'll ever feed bales again!! |
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 Crazy Chicken Chick
Posts: 36132
| BleuIdGrl - 2014-03-29 5:06 PM I love feeding cubes!!! In the past I fed bales from what ever store had them. Maybe it looked great maybe it was horrible and keeping it up and making sure nothing for into it was always a chore. With the cubes. I can ALWAYS find a good quality bag for way cheaper than the bales and I can lock them up in a metal container and know nothing is getting into them. When I dump the morning feed I start my evening feed soaking. When I dump my evening feed I start my morning soaking. Not hard at all. This gelding I have now looks great! I never got these sort of results feeding bales. My feeding is easier. My horse is not only fed but hydrated as well. My clothes aren't covered in hay neither is my barn. D there's no waste left on the ground. I'm not sure I'll ever feed bales again!!
Do you leave your horses stalled at night? How long does it take them to eat the alfalfa? I would like to feed it to a few of mine. I think alfalfa cubes here are higher than some others have posted, want to say $15-19??? Will have to look again.
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 Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | I like to have hay in front of mine for gut issues..unless they are pastured so I cant imagine only feeding cubes at feeding time. but id feed soaked cubes with grain and also provide hay..
I can see elderly if needed...
but horses are grazers .. |
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Regular
Posts: 60
| The cheapest route I have found even when we were in drought is buy the best quality hay big roll you can find. Keep it covered and fork off of it. Doing it this way we would feed about 8-9 horses off of 2 1/2 big rolls a month at the most. Of course the amount of hay they were forked depended on how cold it was. If it was going to be really cold I gave them plenty and when we would go out next morning to feed they would still have some hay left. We had 2 younger horses that were growing and also being worked so they also were grained on top of this but the others were on excellent quality hay and mineral tubs. |
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