how much hay?
- Thread starter MPR
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Matt73
Well-Known Member
The short answer is...It depends. You have to look at age, weight, turnout (and what kind of turnout ie. grass, dirt, etc.). So many factors. The best advice and what has worked for me is this:
1% of body weight (at least) in forage (at least) (this means hay, grass, etc.)
not more than 50% of total intake/day should be grain
Total 3% body weight in food/day.
I feed my yearling fillies 2lbs. each grass hay/day with 1/2 lb. complete feed (sho n' gro by Buckeye) and 1 lb. sho n' gro respectively. They get an hour grass turn out in the morning.
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It does depend on alot of factors but i figure 2 flakes a day per horse in a 10 flake bale and go from there. so i say theoretically a bale every 5 days...that gives me some extra too because so many of our bales have more than 10 flakes. i like having extra hay in case of emergency. our hay is a grass/alfalfa mixture that is very soft. Again, this is just a basic way to figure out hay. factors include pasture, grain, etc.....jennifer :saludando:
If you expect to keep them in good shape as well as healthy is to find a scale and weigh your hay. My horses are at a good weight. If I actually worked them I'd have to increase the amount of food they get but they really don't "work" like they would at a trainer's place. So I feed (particularly in the winter) 1 1/2% of body weight. (There are math formulas for determining their weight.) 50% of that should be hay with no more than 1 1/4 lb grain for 250 lb horse.
That's just the way I do it. My 35" gelding is nearly 300 lb (a bit heavy) so he gets 3 1/2 lb of food with only 1/2 lb of that being grain and supplement (per day). My other 2 are younger and smaller so I'm figuring around 75 bales of hay for the year which will run me really close (makes hubby nervous).
