Amount of Hay

[mightymiracles]

I was curious how you guys determine your need of hay for the year. I have always been told with the large horses about 100 bales will get you through till spring per horse. While I have had horses 10+ years, I have found this to be pretty acurate, even for my draft I give myself a little extra. How do you guys in the Northern states figure out your need per horse with the mini's? Is there a general rule of thumb?

 

[shadowpaints]

i have it figured out i think for us. i buy 1 1/2 ton of hay PER mini for a year . we have 6 minis so that is 9 ton i always add a ton or two in there just in case i need it, but we also buy a ton of alfalfa pellets too and 10 bags of beetplup and that is generally what grains we go through although we are going to start feeding a pelleted grain year round we have a great hay guy and he alsway makes sure the hay we get is the best... we pay 120 a ton but we load it and take it home right outta the feild..

of course i also have 4 big horses and 15 goats lol so thats not all the hay we go through a year.. the big horses are on pasture most of the summer. but in the end we end up buying 25 ton to be safe LOL

hope that helps??

 

[Little Wolf Ranch]

100 bales of hay PER HORSE?

Are we talking about round bales or square? If we are talking round bales - YEAH RIGHT! I buy 30 round bales per year and it keeps up 2 riding horses and 6 minis!

I don't know how to calculate by "standards" but I feed "by the wheelbarrow full" - each riding horse gets one full wheelbarrow and each mini gets a half a wheelbarrow per day.

. . . . . . I sure hope you aren't getting 100 round bales per horse!!! I just about had a stroke!

 

[rubymtminis]

I agree with Shadowpaints. In Arizona we fed two Quarter Horses approximately 120 bales for 11 months. We had it figured out to 6 tons for two horses which we paid $120 a ton for alfalfa from the prison farm. Or we could pay $120 a ton for good mix if we got it out of the fields ourselves in Coolidge. That was very difficult in 100+ degree summer temps! Moving north I thought yeah! abundant hay fields and lower hay prices again! Wrong! We had one heck of a time finding decent hay for the minis, so resorted to the exorbitant prices at the feed store, no local ranches sell their hay here. This year we plan on visiting Idaho to buy hay. So wish us luck.

 

[mightymiracles]

100 round bales....lol goodness no! we figure 100 square bales per light riding horse or for one of our smaller drafts and 125-150 for our larger drafts just to be safe. It depends on how hard our winter and if spring comes in April or if we dont get decent pasture till May.

 

[Mona]

You can roughly figure on feeding 5 minis the same amount of hay as one "biggie".

 

[nbark]

Boy am I jealous!!!!! I pay $370 for a ton of alfalfa/timothy mix bales from Canada. This is approximately 40 bales. That gets my one mini hay for four months. I give one flake in a.m. and one in p.m. Now have two minis, so this is going up. We also pay $5.50 a bag for shavings. Partial shots just cost $130.00. Farrier is $50 a visit.

So you folks have it cheap where you live, lol.

 

[Irish Hills Farm]

I estimate 35 square bales per miniature horse, per year. So far it's worked for me and I generally have some left over at the end of the year.

 

[chandab]

When I was boarding my saddle horses, self-board, I figured 3 ton per horse per year (dry lot situation, so fed hay year round). It came out fairly well to meet my needs, they got 1.5-2% of their bodyweight in hay per day (a little more in winter, a little less in summer). The minis, I figure about 1 ton per mini per year.

We raise cattle, and do put up our own hay, but most is not suitable for horses (too much alfalfa, or too coarse), so I still have to buy some hay for the minis (and my senior big gelding, the other saddle horses do fine on our homegrown round baled hay). I buy small squares for the minis and supplement it in winter with our homegrown hay in round bales. Last year, my FIL put up a bunch of small bales for me, but the minis don't care for the type of grass in them, so this year I'll be buying their hay, so I don't waste as much. [Thank goodness for the cows, they'll eat anything the horses don't, so nothing goes to waste; but I hate to pay for hay that ends up going to the cows, so really need to watch the quality of what I buy.]

 

[Karin - NaKar Miniatures]

I did a little figuring of my own. I have ~70 minis and have been using ~65 bales/month. They are fed hay twice a day. I come up with .92, which I would say is 1 bale of hay/mini for 1 month.

Does that sound right? You guys think it should be more/less?

Just wanted to add that they also get pelleted feed. Not just hay.

 

[Magic]

I figure to feed 2% of their body weight, so I estimate each one's weight, add it all together, and then figure out the 2%. It's worked out very well. I do estimate high to be sure we have enough, but we also grow our own hay now and so far haven't had to buy any extra. Pregnant mares, growing horses, the one old mare in her 20's, and working horses get supplemental feeds such as grains, soaked beet pulp, and also hay pellets if needed.

 

[Magic]

I did a little figuring of my own. I have ~70 minis and have been using ~65 bales/month. They are fed hay twice a day. I come up with .92, which I would say is 1 bale of hay/mini for 1 month.
Does that sound right? You guys think it should be more/less?

It really depends on what size your bales are. And what size your minis are. Our hay bales are about 60 pounds each, and we feed approximately 3 bales per day, (half in the morning, half at night) so about 90 bales each 30 days. Our hay is a grass/alfalfa mix. We have 34 minis, and about half of our minis are B-sized, the other half A sized. My horses are all in great shape, none too fat.

 

[nbark]

I think the next question on this is are the minis turned out on grass pasture during the day. Looking at the avitar pictures I see a lot of pasture these minis are in.

If not, then my minis are getting WAY to much hay if I go through one ton (40 bales) per mini in four months and also feed a pelleted food twice a day.

 

[Minimor]

It does depend on size of bales, amount of pasture...here we don't have a whole lot of pasture most summers, so we feed hay year around, and seem to go through 80 bales per Mini in 1 year. Any pasture they get is "extra" and doesn't have a whole lot of effect on reducing the amount of hay we use. If we have a year with a lot of rain our pasture will cut down on hay requirements, but if it's an average or dry year then it doesn't make any difference at all.

Back when we were at a different place & had plenty of pasture for our big horses, then yes, 100 bales per horse would pretty much see us through the winter. On this place, again our big horses had to have hay year round, so figuring roughly I'd say we would need 260-300 bales/year per horse.

Our small square bales tend to be in the range of 55-65 lbs each.

 

[~Lisa~]

So much depends on what other feed your horses get and if they have pasture.

We do not have pasture to speak of although the horses are convinced the 1.5 acres of weeds are wonderful

on avg I go thru 1 bale very 2 1/2- 3 days depending on the actual weight of the bale and how tightly it is baled. Our bales are about 70 lbs. I am feeding 10 horses total one of those is a 13.2 hand pony.

They only get hay once a day (except the mare who has a foal at her side) and at night get beet pulp and grain.

 

[chandab]

I did a little figuring of my own. I have ~70 minis and have been using ~65 bales/month. They are fed hay twice a day. I come up with .92, which I would say is 1 bale of hay/mini for 1 month.
Does that sound right? You guys think it should be more/less?

Just wanted to add that they also get pelleted feed. Not just hay.

If it works for you and your horses look good, then its probably just fine, especially since you are also feeding pellets.

One bale per month per mini doesn't sound like much hay, but how big are your minis and how big are the bales? There is a big difference between sizes of bales... 40-50# square? 65-75# square? 100-110# square? 600# round? 1000# round? 1400# round?

I've been feeding round bales lately, so not sure how much I'm going through daily. But, when I was feeding squares at the start of winter, I went through almost one 70# square bale per day for the 8 minis (7 B-size, 1 A-size); I feed 5-7# hay per day per mini (2-3# for the A boy). They get hay and a ration balancer, so I feed plenty of hay, especially in winter (today it was 23 below when I woke up, and 12 below an hour later when I went out to feed, it might be zero now, just after 2pm).

 

[rubymtminis]

Oops, forgot to add we found here we feed our minis 1 1/2 tons per mini per year, 80# square bales of Timothy. We also feed alfalfa pellets, Source, flax, then the carrots, apples, and some pasture in summer. Their feed is varied by constantly watching their weight. They maintain a good weight and if I could ever figure out how to post my pics then you could see they are muscled and not overly fat.

 

[Coventry Lane Farm]

We use about 600 square bales a year for 23 horses consisting of miniatures and shetlands, which we have our own farm and get it right here and we have round bales made for the Texas Longhorns and soon to add a small herd of miniature beef cattle this fall.

 

[Shari]

So far with Two minis, Icelandic and a Donkey. 90- approx 65lb bales... sets us up, from July through the winter to about May/June of the next year depending on the winter we have. We have our place hayed and sell half, so nothing comes out of our pocket... was outstanding fine hay last season too!

I know it sounds low and I sure don't stint the food. But they also have 10 acres to feed off of during the day. Only time I feed hay is when it snows, very cold, foggy or we have to go to town for some reason.

Will add Alfalfa chop to the unlimited hay when the temps get below 20*. Only use 1 to 2 bags of Alfalfa chop in the winter.

Added: When they are not over weight... I have to watch them like a hawk.. they are all air ferns. Any time the Vet comes,,, I always get... they sure are well fed.

Maggie is 250lbs

Theia is 315lbs

Dyfra is 700lbs

Donkey I will have to go look up but I am pretty sure she is around Theia's weight

 

[zacharyfarms]

I weigh my minis hay each day...I know some of you are shaking your head...but I do. I have 24 and they get 1 1/2% of their approx body weight for those on maintenance, 1% on those on restriction and 2% for last trimester broodmares(eating special hay) and hard keepers which I rarely have. Their weight averages out to 200 lbs each (most of mine are under 30" tall) So they get 3 lbs of hay alloted for each. They are fed in groups so it is easy to weigh the groups total and put it in the feeders. Most of my bales weigh between 38 and 45 lbs. When I budget for hay I count on the 38 lb bales and order enough for 2 bales per day.