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I Need a Xanax!
Posts: 2774
   
| Not trying to hijack the thread BUT......those of you who have more than a couple horses in each pasture...how do you grain them? Do you bring them all in the barn to feed then turn them back out when they are done? Or do you dump the grain in different troughs and let them fend for themselves? Or use feed bags? Trying to get an idea what others do...how do you get each horse the grain it needs without being ran off by his herd mates? |
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Expert
Posts: 4766
Location: Bandera, TX | Willy, I think that is my problem. I sent a load back to the farm got a much better lot, but only have room for my squares to be under roof. I asked for a new hay shed for rounds two years ago. Husband is not wanting to help me on this one as "rounds are to be stacked" per he. I believe the hay is the most important thing as far as quality that I need to assist my horses with. Have broodies staying here as the ranch has not enough grasss for cattle more or less mares. Really, I've have thoughts that my hay could be a part of the problems I had with a bleeder a few years ago and I didn't want to go that route again.
OP, we branched away from your main question-sorry. I will add that I get my hay tested and try to feed the best that I can. I grain mine, I have 3 mares going into the last 4 mo. of pregnancy. They have mineral and salt free choice. I feed them a 16% (it says its 14% on the bag, but tested by Equi-Analytical) feed. I feed twice a day.
My suggestion to you is try giving her either Equi-lix or Equi-pride to engauge the digestive tract to better utilize the hay.
Remember horses can live without us as long as they have a decent pasture to do so.
I started another tread off of yours, we feed lots of horses and never had all the issues I'm seeing today. We fed very simply. |
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 World 4D Champ
Posts: 28264
 
Location: PA | Used2B - 2013-11-26 11:23 AM Not trying to hijack the thread BUT......those of you who have more than a couple horses in each pasture...how do you grain them? Do you bring them all in the barn to feed then turn them back out when they are done? Or do you dump the grain in different troughs and let them fend for themselves? Or use feed bags? Trying to get an idea what others do...how do you get each horse the grain it needs without being ran off by his herd mates?
I do not have a barn. I have 3 horses and a pony in one pasture. I have 2 "stalls" made out of panels in my pasture. I put the pony in one "stall" and my hard keeper in the other. The other two horses get the same amount of grain, so they fend for themselves. The hard keeper gets the most, and the pony gets none. I've done it before where they've all been out, and surprisingly, they all stayed at their bins and ate their grain. Only after they were done did they run others off, but by then, they were all done also. |
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Expert
Posts: 4766
Location: Bandera, TX | Used2B - 2013-11-26 10:23 AM Not trying to hijack the thread BUT......those of you who have more than a couple horses in each pasture...how do you grain them? Do you bring them all in the barn to feed then turn them back out when they are done? Or do you dump the grain in different troughs and let them fend for themselves? Or use feed bags? Trying to get an idea what others do...how do you get each horse the grain it needs without being ran off by his herd mates?
I have run-ins in my paddocks. The riding horses all come into the barn. My husband and I are "in talks" about what to do at the ranch. I hate a barn situation, much more comfortable with him building a long shed row with run in's. Our pasture is two miles long and we are fencing a long lane into the side of it. I want to make a small trap about 80-100 acres and put a feeding shed within it. (Frankly, as we get older I keep thinking of things to keep it simple and less time consuming.) The lane has gates into the three pastures it will serve. Husband is pretty handy with building anything and everything. He built a set of pens on a South Texas ranch that I loved as you had a sorting gate in the lane that narrowed coming in from the pasture. I could easily seperate horses (or cows) and put out feed in bunks so that everyone would get their fair share. |
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 Best of the Badlands
Location: You never know where I will show up...... | uno-dos-tres! - 2013-11-26 9:15 AM
Thanks Amy, I was actually wondering yesterday if I should try to a net on the colts bale to see if it would help with "dust management". I hate putting the net on by myself any tips? I LOVE the net for my broodies.
Skid loader with pallet forks is the easiest way I've found.
Or if you have a bale spear on a loader tractor that would also be easy.
One person can easily load the net, either way if you have one of those devices.
Usually I just take the outer shell off and that gets rid of the outside few inches that get some mold/weathering on them. And put the net on the good part of the bale.
Fortunately we have cattle that will eat the yucky parts of the bale, but when we don't have cattle around in the summer to eat it, we just put the bad stuff on the manure pile and it composts. |
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Best of the Badlands
Location: You never know where I will show up...... | Used2B - 2013-11-26 10:23 AM Not trying to hijack the thread BUT......those of you who have more than a couple horses in each pasture...how do you grain them? Do you bring them all in the barn to feed then turn them back out when they are done? Or do you dump the grain in different troughs and let them fend for themselves? Or use feed bags? Trying to get an idea what others do...how do you get each horse the grain it needs without being ran off by his herd mates?
The ones I do grain all get the same thing so I just dump in individual pans and they all seem to do fine.
Except my weanlings, they dump pans and buckets out so they all get fed in one feed bunk. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1430
Location: Montana | Used2B - 2013-11-26 9:23 AM
Not trying to hijack the thread BUT......those of you who have more than a couple horses in each pasture...how do you grain them? Do you bring them all in the barn to feed then turn them back out when they are done? Or do you dump the grain in different troughs and let them fend for themselves? Or use feed bags? Trying to get an idea what others do...how do you get each horse the grain it needs without being ran off by his herd mates?
It depends on the horses. Sometimes we bring them in. Sometimes we can get away with a bunch of buckets tied to a fence or rubber feed pans on the ground. Sometimes we buy cow cake sized pellets and just dump them on the ground greatly spaced out. Sometimes we have to just use alfalfa instead of grain because we get less fighting with that. It's never trouble free, especially with some horses.
Years ago I had an older broodmare choke eating grain in a bunch. Scared the heck out of me! She ended up fine and never did it again . . . . |
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Expert
Posts: 4766
Location: Bandera, TX | rockinas - 2013-11-26 11:06 AM uno-dos-tres! - 2013-11-26 9:15 AM
Thanks Amy, I was actually wondering yesterday if I should try to a net on the colts bale to see if it would help with "dust management". I hate putting the net on by myself any tips? I LOVE the net for my broodies.
Or if you have a bale spear on a loader tractor that would also be easy.
One person can easily load the net, either way if you have one of those devices.
Usually I just take the outer shell off and that gets rid of the outside few inches that get some mold/weathering on them. And put the net on the good part of the bale.
Fortunately we have cattle that will eat the yucky parts of the bale, but when we don't have cattle around in the summer to eat it, we just put the bad stuff on the manure pile and it composts.
Well, I had it on a spear yesterday and fought it for a good 15 min. Husband is convinced there worth the trouble so no problems with him doing it either. I didn't think to just let the outside area drop off... will try that next time. He actually came home last night and said "I see you won the round bale fight" without me as he stepped out of the truck. (As I was stuffing small bags for the riding horses.) We made a pact to do it together since it's a 'cinch' as a team effort. |
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 BHW Resident Surgeon
Posts: 25351
Location: Bastrop, Texas | My hay guy is pretty exceptional and reliable. No, I haven't noticed any respiratory issues. I put out 2 round bales a week. The 9 horses have all learned their place and while they do jockey around some, it seems to work well. The fact that they seem to keep moving and shift around a lot probably keeps them from burying their faces and munching a deep hole where they can inhale dust. I don't even use a feeder, but I'm thinking I probably should get a couple, because there is quite a bit of waste. |
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Expert
Posts: 4766
Location: Bandera, TX | HotbearLVR - 2013-11-26 11:24 AM My hay guy is pretty exceptional and reliable. No, I haven't noticed any respiratory issues. I put out 2 round bales a week. The 9 horses have all learned their place and while they do jockey around some, it seems to work well. The fact that they seem to keep moving and shift around a lot probably keeps them from burying their faces and munching a deep hole where they can inhale dust. I don't even use a feeder, but I'm thinking I probably should get a couple, because there is quite a bit of waste.
I love the ABS plastic black rings! Going to get a few for the ranch cattle for winter feeding. See if the dang bulls can hurt them as they kill the metal rings. |
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  More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | I use above ground hay feeders for my horses. The dust and small chaff falls through so the horses don't breath it in, Whatever good hay falls through they eat it up. I found I had a lot of waste using a bale ring. The yucky stuff settles to the bottom and normally covers up some good stuff. The horses get towards the bottom and they start rummaging through the dusty hay to find good stuff. To keep them from doing so we put a new bale on top. By the end of winter we had a lot of waste. Last winter was our first year for only using the above ground feeders. We had far less waste than in years past. You can get them to hold single or double big rounds. |
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 The Crazy Mom
Posts: 2132
Location: Ainsworth, NE | our round bale feeder is like a "cradle" and the bale is held up about 3 feet off the ground. so i took our slow feed round bale nets and draped one over the top and tied it to the 4 corners. now we just take a round bale and set it right in the feeder and the net is already in place! we dont' even have to "bag" them anymore!
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 632
Location: Missouri |  Thank you for all of the replies, I am not ignoring you all!
Ok here is my mare. She is 7 and an appendix.
With school I only get to ride 1-2 a week but she is out 24/7.
Along with the round bale she gets about 4-4.5 pounds of nutrenas safe choice perform. Its a 14% and then healthy coat on top.
She is due to be regular wormed. Last time I did a power pack was back in 2012.
Her top line is not bony but I would just like to fill it out more along with her withers and get rid of the hay belly as much as possible.
Edited by Rdcreations 2013-11-26 3:15 PM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 632
Location: Missouri | Rodeowithjoker- Do the black sunflower seeds come in a 50lb bag at the feed store? |
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More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | sonyawalz - 2013-11-26 1:07 PM our round bale feeder is like a "cradle" and the bale is held up about 3 feet off the ground. so i took our slow feed round bale nets and draped one over the top and tied it to the 4 corners. now we just take a round bale and set it right in the feeder and the net is already in place! we dont' even have to "bag" them anymore!
Your hay feeders sound like mine. I really like them. |
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Expert
Posts: 4766
Location: Bandera, TX | CYA Ranch - 2013-11-26 7:43 PM sonyawalz - 2013-11-26 1:07 PM our round bale feeder is like a "cradle" and the bale is held up about 3 feet off the ground. so i took our slow feed round bale nets and draped one over the top and tied it to the 4 corners. now we just take a round bale and set it right in the feeder and the net is already in place! we dont' even have to "bag" them anymore!
Your hay feeders sound like mine. I really like them.
My husband is not liking you gals right now... I put in another welding request. Yep, gonna try a cradle. Any issues around weanlings? |
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | Rdcreations - 2013-11-26 6:56 PM Rodeowithjoker- Do the black sunflower seeds come in a 50lb bag at the feed store?
I've only bought them in 25 pound bags but I know Matt bought a 50 pounder one time. He got it at the feed store in Bonner Springs. My local co-op only sells them in 25 pound bags. They're usually in the bird food section. And seriously with one horse, 25 pounds is going to last you a LONG TIME.
based on those pics, I think Will looks pretty good and personally I wouldn't be too concerned with her condition heading into winter. Shoot we have a 19 year old mare who is thinner than her and I was just thinking last week that Diamond looked pretty good this year compared to years past. |
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 Oh Quit Whining!
| First and foremost get your hay tested to see its nutritional value before adding supplements, upping grain etc. It's very cheap to do and some local feed co's/elevators have a hay probe you can borrow and will send the sample straight to the lab for you. Figure out what the nutritional value of your forage is and add what you need. Playing a guessing game of add this or that will only cost you $ in the long run. |
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Best of the Badlands
Location: You never know where I will show up...... | uno-dos-tres! - 2013-11-26 10:45 PM CYA Ranch - 2013-11-26 7:43 PM sonyawalz - 2013-11-26 1:07 PM our round bale feeder is like a "cradle" and the bale is held up about 3 feet off the ground. so i took our slow feed round bale nets and draped one over the top and tied it to the 4 corners. now we just take a round bale and set it right in the feeder and the net is already in place! we dont' even have to "bag" them anymore!
Your hay feeders sound like mine. I really like them. 
I still have the cradle but I only feed cattle in it now.
I use bale rings for horses now and I put my netted bales in them.
Very little to no waste and so far I haven't killed one.
Edited by rockinas 2013-11-27 8:41 AM
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 Hugs to You
Posts: 7550
Location: In The Land of Cotton | rockinas - 2013-11-27 9:37 AM uno-dos-tres! - 2013-11-26 10:45 PM CYA Ranch - 2013-11-26 7:43 PM sonyawalz - 2013-11-26 1:07 PM our round bale feeder is like a "cradle" and the bale is held up about 3 feet off the ground. so i took our slow feed round bale nets and draped one over the top and tied it to the 4 corners. now we just take a round bale and set it right in the feeder and the net is already in place! we dont' even have to "bag" them anymore!
Your hay feeders sound like mine. I really like them.
I use bale rings for horses now and I put my netted bales in them.
Very little to no waste and so far I haven't killed one.
Had the same thing happen with a bunk type feeder. The ones with the black palstic trough, low to the ground. The colt was all the way under it, laying flat, with legs everywhere. I only use rubber pans now.
If you have to feed trough style, I use plastic barrels cut in two. |
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