Re: round vs square/conditioned vs non-conditioned hay

["C. Osborne" <whiteokarabians@email.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Susan Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>
To: C. Osborne <whiteoakarabians@email.com>; <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: round vs square/conditioned vs non-conditioned hay


> > Which do you think retains more nutrients longer?  Conditioned hay or
> > non-conditioned hay?
>
> That depends, what do you mean by conditioned hay?  Do you mean with
> preservatives like proprionic acid and such?
>
>

Conditioned: cut with a 'conditioner' which crimps the hay so it drys faster
vs cut with a sickle mower and raked...takes longer to try if it's not cut
with a conditioner.

> >
> > And, of the winner in that catagory...which do you think retains
nutrients
> > longer: round bales or square bales stored in the barn?
>
> Any hay stored away from sun, rain, snow etc is generally going to retian
> nutrients longer, as a general rule of thumb.
>

Yeah, that would be my guess but it seems that my actual experience is
proving me wrong in my thinking :)

>
> > Another reason I'm wondering is because I hear tips about packing your
> > horses grain for these long rides in baggies
>
> Well, I'm not sure I would even try to feed 12 pounds of grain during a
> ride.

Me either...since he's never done a ride ;).  However, I would expect that I
would need to feed him as many calories as he was taking in before the ride
so was wondering how to do that without the excessive amounts of grain.
But, feeding that amount of grain would be bad news r/t blood flow to the
organs to digest while working so hard (to mention one reason).  And so far,
it appears beetpulp and added fat are the winners in the concentrated
calories department :)

Corrine