For those of you that feed hay cubes

[Robin1]

Do you soak them before feeding? or just feed them as is?

Thanks,

Robin

 

[Becky]

I feed alfalfa cubes to all of my show horses. I don't soak them before feeding. But this particular brand of cube breaks apart easily. I have bought other brands that were as hard as rocks and I think you would have to soak those for a horse to eat them (I ended up tossing them).

 

[Margaret]

Hi Robin, I fed hay cubes last winter, and I did soak them, before hand.. If I didnt, they had difficulty chewing them up... The neat thing about the cubes was that 4 or 5 cubes would soak up a lot of water, and at least triple in volume.. So it really went a long way... The last bag of cubes I bought, for some reason would not get soft enough in the water, even though I soaked them all day

.. It was like concrete! I should have taken it back, as usually a couple of hours was plenty of soaking time, for them... (I stiil have it

)... typically for a good batch, I would cover them in water, for a couple of hours, and drain off the excess, water afterwards, before feeding.

 

[Pepipony]

I feed cubes in the winter, helps the eat slower and gives them something more to do when they cant get out. I feed them along w/the grain and then Tonto ( miniMe's new name LOL) gets broken up ones. Like someone mentioned, different brands have different hardness'. The ones I get arent rock hard so they are easy to break up.

 

[mountain_waif]

....

 

[Robin1]

Which brands are the soft ones and which brands are the ones like rocks?

Robin

 

[Minimor]

I prefer soaking them in hot water all the time--they soften up much faster that way.

I always weigh/measure them out dry & then soak them.

I feed cubes from a local mill so can't say which brands are softer...I do find that from this particular mill the alfalfa cubes are quite hard; the timothy/alfalfa cubes are much softer. They also make a #3 cube that is a miniature cube, only about 1/2" to 3/5" across--I really like those, but we can't always get them. They're much nicer for the big horses to eat dry, but I still soak them for the Minis.

 

[CKC]

We started feeding cubes again since we got our newest additions.

We soake them. After each feeding we make a new batch and soak them until the next feeding. I have also, gotten a bag of cubes that was hard and wouldn't soak through. There is no way to tell until you try and soak them. I don't drain the water. They get the cubes and beet pulp soopy.

I also, like the miniature cubes, but only was lucky enough to find them one time.

 

[Becky]

Robin, the cubes I like are Top of the Rockies made by Manzanola Feeds in Colorado. They are soft and break apart easily. The ones I don't like are carried by Tractor Supply. I don't remember the brand name but they are like concrete!

I also feed alfalfa pellets to all of my breeding herd. These are 1/4" pellets made by Cross Brand Alfalfa Products in Kansas.

 

[whitney]

I feed cubes to my 32 yr old Q.H. mare. I have always SOAKED them.

 

[lyn_j]

[SIZE=14pt]I feed mine dry also unless I feel that the horses arent getting enough water. On the coldest days in winter I do add hot water... but most of the time I feed them dry and have not had any problems. The ones from Southern States have always come appart easily.[/SIZE]

Lyn

 

[Margaret]

I looked at the brand of cubes, that I have that wont soak and they are called Sacate Alfalfa hay cubes, from Sacate Pellet Mills Inc. in a white bag... I cant remember if this was the same bag that I was getting,.. and just by a fluke, they are were processed super-hard, or if the other times they were a different brand.. There is a AZ phone # on it so if you want to call them and see if they have two different kinds, their # 602-237-3809. I do buy from several feed stores so it is posssible that I got the "easy to soak" ones from a different store.