Hey...MORE hay??

[sparkle]

You all are probably thinkin' "WHAT is this girl doin??" LOL

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I'm just gathering info and seeing what has worked for others.

Thanks for all your replies regarding my first question about winter feeding...

I'm going to flip this a little bit and ask the polar opposite of my original question.....

Does anybody feed round bales to minis? Like truly free choice? And if so, how are they with it?

Are they constantly munching? Do you find there to be a lot of waste? Do they have terrible tubby tummies in the spring?

And don't get me wrong....I would never with hold hay in worry of a pudgy pony...I was just wondering if there were alternative methods to add to their feeding program that would help alleviate the cost/storage, etc of hay and then dealing with the hay bellies come spring.

Believe me...none of my animals go hungry! They're lil' pork chops! LOL

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[chandab]

I do know of people who feed minis from round bales...

Have a friend that has custom made feeders for her minis for round bales; she seems to have very good luck, although some of her minis are rather pudgy but not unhealthy.

Have another friend that gives a whole round bale for her three to munch on and hers definitely aren't hurting for groceries.

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We raise cattle so have tons of round bales around and I tried the round bales last year (my first year with minis). I just forked their hay off the bale that sat outside their pen (no inside storage for round bales). I found I had a lot of waste, both on the bale and by the minis; especially by the end of the season. I have a mini mare that has to be kept on a strict diet, so she can't have free access to round bales. Personally, I found for minis I much prefer the small squares, so I know exactly what they are getting. Not too much the small squares are much less messy to feed in our extreme wind, especially in the winter. If I could get good clean straight grass hay, I might consider round bales in the future; but at this time I'm going to continue with the small squares even though in the area they are very hard to come by. [i've found one supplier and I'm going to try to stay on his customer list. Most in this area put up round bales or alfalfa mix bales that are heavy on the alfalfa.]

 

[Magic]

From all I've read, round bales can be a danger to horses in that they can get or be moldy and you wouldn't know it, if it's just sitting out in the field, so I personally wouldn't recommend it because of that. There generally is a lot of waste as well.

I think that free-choice grass hay would be ok for MOST miniatures, but even then there may be some that would eat until they "explode" :new_shocked: . It does take horses some time to get used to being able to eat whenever they want if they've not been able to in the past, so there would likely be some overeating at first until they were more accustomed to it. If there is any alfalfa in the hay, it may not be safe to give to miniatures free choice, IMO.

 

[Manda]

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[coopermini]

We have friends in FL that feed free choice round bales to the whole herd. Some are a little over done but most are just about right except maybe a little extra belly. We have fed for a few years or at least part of the year round bales. We roll them in horse barn to our hay storage area. Cut the bale open and unwrap or split the bale in half. Feed it loose not as neat as flakes or as easy to gauge how much you give each one. We never tried free choice, wife would croak right there!

We stopped leaving any round bales outside years ago. Too much waste and spoilage. After going through all the work to put up good hay why throw 1/4 away? Round bales here need to be baled drier than squares to be sure you do not get mold and dust.

 

[Joey]

I have large round bails out in the field and last year we did fork off from them and feed them. They are all healthy and in great shape. This year we got lucky and found a guy with a small round bailer. We also give a little alfalfa through out the winter. If you use round bail, smelling it will usually let you know how good it is. It if smells bad, then don't use it.