I've
been making round bales and feeding them to horses since 1979. We usually winter
around 40 horses and some years I have fed over 125 more horses with the hay
I've sold. My baler makes 1200-1500 lb. bales. I figure one bale will last 6
horses one week. A round bale feeder will pay for itself in less than one
season. You can afford to buy a new one when it gets banged up. I always store
the horse hay inside. I stack 3 high. Anything musty or rotten on the bottom
goes to the sheep. I try to limit the groups to 6 per bale. Horses have hay in
front of them 24/7. If you feed round bales that are stored outside, you may not
notice any problems right away but your horses will die young from lung disease.
If you can't keep them inside, bale sleeves are economical and work well. The
bigger the bale the less hay (% wise) is lost to spoilage if the bale is rained
on. Be careful handling them. Round bales are the #1 cause of fatal farm
accidents in the US. Libby (a survivor)
-----Original Message----- From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Amber
Roberts Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 4:30 PM To:
ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Feeding round
bales
We have
always fed square bales to our horses but will be round baling our own
fields. I'm wondering if we should just start feeding round bales in one
of those feeders, not just on the ground. I'm concerned about storage,
too, as we store square bales in our barn but would not be able to get round
bales inside the barn. Any comments on
this?
