They make alfalfa cubes and oat/alfalfa
cubes here near Bakersfield, Calif. They come in a 75 lb bag for about $8.00 +
tax. I buy them bulk for $145.00 per ton and feed them everyday. Because
my horses are used to them I don't have any choke or colic problems, they are
nice to store, easy to handle, easy to transport, they also put weight on a
horse faster than baled hay, maybe because it is chopped already, I don't know.
The down side is you can't see the hay, there could be moldy hay mixed with good
hay and compressed, you couldn't tell. There can also be bottle caps, twine,
dead mice etc compressed up in the cubes. I have seen all of these things in my
cubes after the horses either don't eat the one with the mouse or leave a piece
of twine or metal or wood in the feed tub. Mostly you will see the foreign
object if you look closely as you feed.
So like all things, it is a mixed bag
to use them.
