New "hay selling" tactic????

[SWA]

Ok, I know I can be naiive about some things from time to time...

: And even when I "really" want to believe I'm NOT being snowed, and what I'm being told really IS on the up and up.... for some reason, I can't help but keep thinking (after the fact

) I was totally "snowed" by my feedstore guy yesterday.

Thankfully, I only bought 2 bales or rather "cubes" of this stuff, because I had never heard of "the concept" before, and wanted to be sure that I wasn't paying an arm and a leg for "total hooey".

:

Anways.... I bought two "bales" (as they called them, but "I" call them DINKY CUBES) of what they called this new concept of COMPRESSED Hay. (Not the bags of the miniature little tiny cubes you get by the bag, these were twine tied BALES, just square shaped, rather that the normal oblong rectangular shaped.)

Seems reasonable enough a name for the concept, of reducing size while sqeezing out water...or "dampness" if you will, of the same amount of hay, pounds wise, of normal sized square (rectangular) bales. These new square bales, are in fact SQUARE CUBE bales....supposedly the same amount of hay, but only half the size....because they are "Compressed" of hydration. ????? Supposedly. (When I broke a bale open though, it just seemed like your normal "non-pressed" hay that you normally get. Just LESS of it per bale.)

At the "low" price of $16.95 per bale...er...cube, no less!!! :new_shocked: These were both HEAVY weighted bales, like normal bales (Alfalfa), but size wise, they were only half the size. I'm confused on how that could be, but they were smaller, just still heavy.

: And supposedly, "non-damp"???

Meanwhile, I had "planned" on a purchasing a full load of hay upon my arrival, like always, every week. But, when they told me "this" was what they had "in stock" this week.... I was like... HUH????

So anyway, I went ahead and forked over what normaly "could" have bought MUCH MORE than just TWO DINKY, LITERALLY SQUARE CUBED BALES of this stuff.... I bring it home to my babies, and usually, when I pull in with my weekly load of hay they NORMALLY greet me with utter enthusiasm of "Whatcha got there mom, hurry, hurry, drop some for us...hurry, hurry now, c'mon MOM, don't move so slow!!"

Only, when I pull in, and they see ABSOLUTELY NOTHING over the rims of my truckbed, they just give a little nicker..."Oh mom's home, and she didn't bring us any goodies, but we love her, so we'll at least say "hi" and wait patiently till she goes in the house".

THEN....when I lower the tailgait...and they see these two DINKY SQUARE CUBES of hay, they just look at each other as if to say... what??? That's supposed to make do for "US"? :new_shocked:

:

Anyways.... so I break one open, and literally, THE WHOLE BAIL was gone, by the time I dropped my normal amount to all 6 of my babies.

Ok...so now... I'm thinking to myself.... those guys at the feed store, TOTALLY SAW ME COMING!!!!

Today, they'll get the other "bail"..."cube"...and tomorrow we'll go back to the feedstore in quest for a NORMAL full load (hoping anyways), and HUBBY will be with me to HAVE MY BACK

: , 'cause he is just totally amused at how gullable I can be sometimes, when it comes to taking some folks "at their word".

:

Is this "Compressed" way of bailing hay really a "new" concept of the times, or are these "hay dealers" just PULLING OUR LEGS, in effort to "stretch their product", so to speak???

Somebody, please tell me I am not the only DOOFUS who fell for this????

:

Or is this really "FOR REAL"??? :new_shocked:

Has anyone else ever bought "Compressed" bales, and have it ration out to normal amount, or were your rations per bale reduced by half, along with the "size" too?

EDITED for m'spellin' errorring ways.

: I need m'mornin' coffee still.

: Guess I best go put on a fresh pot now.

:

 

[coopermini]

What you got were in fact compressed bales> they were most likely normal sized bales that were compressed into abot 1/2 size or less to make for easier shipping. The compressing was not to squeze out extra water but to cut down on space for shipping. There are several compressing coops around the country that do this to ship to Japan. Usually it would be very good quality feed as it does take time and money to compress these bales and re"package them so they would not waste time on poor quality hay.

Anyone should compare hay on a weight basis ie: pound for pound as bales can very a lot from different sources just as much as quality can very.

Mark

 

[CheyAut]

I have never heard of that. HOWEVER if I understood you correctly, these tiny cubes weigh the same as your regular bales? If so, then I would say they weren't lying... and you overfed your horses! You should feed by weight, not flakes. I don't weigh my hay but I do feed by feel of weight. Some flakes are larger than others, or look the same size but are denser.

If I misunderstood, sorry

Jessi

 

[SWA]

Thanks so much Mark. This is what they were saying, that "weight" wise, they were the same, just smaller "size" wise.

:

I have never heard of that. HOWEVER if I understood you correctly, these tiny cubes weigh the same as your regular bales? If so, then I would say they weren't lying... and you overfed your horses! You should feed by weight, not flakes. I don't weigh my hay but I do feed by feel of weight. Some flakes are larger than others, or look the same size but are denser.

If I misunderstood, sorry

Jessi

Jessi,

This is what had me so confused. The weight of the bale was definatley just as heavy as the normal size ones, but when I broke it open, the flakes were very loose, just as "moist" and green and really nice, but "loose" same as normal bales. So, it has me really confused on whether or not the "amount" that I gave was the same, less or even more than "normal". How can you tell if it actually IS less or more, if the texture and weight are equal to a normal size bale?

:

When I broke the tie twine, I fully expected to have to pull the flakes apart, being that they were "compressed" and all, but I didn't. They just flaked/fell apart, like a regular normal bale.

:

 

[gatorbait4sure]

Here on Cape Cod we frequently order compressed bales of Alfalfa to supplement the rotten hay we usually get. They are VERY heavy and last for a long time as a supplement to the regular stuff.

 

[SWA]

Here on Cape Cod we frequently order compressed bales of Alfalfa to supplement the rotten hay we usually get. They are VERY heavy and last for a long time as a supplement to the regular stuff.

Hi Gator, :saludando: Actually, that was their "selling point" with it too, that it was not just condensed in size, but also in hydration for longer storing/shelf life period. That's why I expected to have to actually pull it apart, (like you do with the mini cube kind that you get in 50lb bags), and maybe even have to soak it.

: This wasn't like that though, texture wise. It was completely "normal", not condensed, nor dehydrated (at least not that I could tell).

:

Just like Jessi, I don't have a scale so have always just fed my hay by "feel" of weight too. That is why I'm so confused, I guess. The bale as it's tied, was just as heavy as a normal size bale, but when I broke it open, and the flakes just fluffed apart, I fed to what I normally "feel" the weight of the flakes to be, and by the time I got through all 6 of my horses, that was it for the bale.

:

Did yours ration out equal? Mine did not, and now I'm just confused.

Did I really overfeed?

Or did I just buy half a bale for twice the price?

:

I'm confused now.

 

[CKC]

We buy compressed bales of Colorado timothy for our rabbits(lasts a very long time) and we will get it from time to time for the horses(when quality hay is unavailable). When it opens up it is the same size as the bales of orchard grass that we get locally.

They are very small and don't take much room to store, but are just as heavy as the larger bale. It's beautiful green, leafy hay. Expensive, but beautiful.

Dru(Gator bait)... off subject, but I had to laugh I'm looking at a mini colt that I was given the option to name... been calling him Gator(AKA Gatorbait). :bgrin

Kim

 

[Becky]

My feed store has been carrying compressed bales of alfalfa and I have been buying them off and on. I find that they are heavy and are really compressed! I was concerned about mold in alfalfa baled that way, but no problem so far. They do take up less storage space so that is good. I haven't had any problems with the hay.

 

[Floridachick]

We buy compressed bales all the time. its not phooey, if done correctly. Don't overfeed it either if its compressed it should be high nutrient value. You need to know the quality your buying though. Gooduck

 

[Margo_C-T]

Tonya, you aren't the only one who has recently encounted this tactic...at one of my regular feedstores recently, checking to see what kind of grass hay they had, the compressed bales were 'promoted' to me. These are 'supposed to be' timothy,come from the west coast, have three flat plastic straps, and yes,are about 1/2 the size of a regular 'square' bale(which, BTW, are usually 15" X 18" X 36"(the last measurement-length-can vary some, because that one can be 'set' in the baler, as well as how 'tightly packed'(and therefore, how HEAVY!) the bale is, to a degree). What got me was that the hay loader was telling me and another lady how these bales probably weighed 85 lbs., implying THAT was the benefit-that they were SOOO much heavier, yet smaller. Where the 'regular' grass bales, of around 52-55 lbs. in weight, were $8.99 each- :new_shocked: -the compressed bales were $9.99. I decided to take ONE, to try...he loaded it, and away I went(wondering if I'd have to drive into the barn and just roll it off to unload it...HA! I can lift the thing with ONE hand-just barely, but I can...85 lbs.--yeah, RIGHT!! More like 50!!) Won't be getting any more of this stuff--I haven't opened it yet, have no doubt it IS prime quality hay-it IS very 'pretty', and as stated, there is more labor involved in production, so it would make sense to only use REALLY good hay---but I have no need to pay even more just for their efforts when I can still get good quality hay in the 'usual' form. If money is no object,and storage space at a premium, then it would make sense, I suppose.

A pound is a pound. NO hay is (properly, at least!) baled with a very high moisture content; if it still contains too much moisture, it will MOLD, and be ruined for use. These kinds of bales DON'T contain 'more' hay because they have managed to 'squeeze out' ALL of the moisture; they contain the same amount as any other properly-baled 'square' bale-it's just been compressed more,squeezing the same amount of hay into a smaller space, basically. You are just paying more for the technology and 'supposed' convenience.

Two things I have learned in MANY years of buying(and a few of raising) hay...buy by the ton, if at all possible(most won't sell it that way anymore, as they make more selling by the bale, esp. if they bale 'lightweight' bales.... :ugh: Also-I NEVER take ANYONE's estimation of how heavy the bales are--most people are not at ALL good at such estimations, even if they aren't being deliberately misleading(and I have run across some DOOZIES of misleading over the years!)Third, even if a bale 'looks' good outside, if you heft it and it seems extraordinarily HEAVY for its dimensions, it is most likely a BAD(read: moldy) bale. It is the added weight of that moisture and the resulting mold that makes it so heavy! This is true of either alfalfa OR grass hays, in my experience. For my alfalfa, I go quite a distance to deal with a farming family that is 100% fair, trustworthy, and knowledgable hay producers; their bales are remarkably uniform, running RIGHT AT 60 lbs. each(I buy by the ton, but being able to handle the bales is important-if the bales are lightweight, you have to handle more of them, and lightweight bales are more likely to come apart in handling, harder to stack and keep stacked w/o falling over.) I buy a year's worth at a time, and I am the one who unloads and stacks it, nowadays, so I am VERY familiar with how a 60 lb. bale(which is about all I can get to the top of a 4-5 bale high stack)hefts-and I can very well recognize when a bale falls very far on either side of that, weightwise, by hefting it! (Around this part of the country, a two wire/string 'square' bale is the norm for 'small' bales, and 60 lbs. is the 'gold standard' of weight, with good hay producers.

I am afraid that many hay suppliers have realized that people HAVE to have hay, and when choices are few, that they can charge more and more....with impunity. I can tell you that at the price you mentioned, I would very quickly have NO CHOICE but to part with almost all of my minis and my Paint mare, because I could NOT on, on my fixed income, afford to keep but a couple of them.

Margo

PS-I am buying a nice beardless wheat hay from my alfalfa producers to feed to my 'big' mare this year. It is WAY less than grass, and reads out OK on nutritional qualities. I will buy grass for the minis, as always-though they all do like and eagerly eat the wheat, I am not sure I should complete replace their grass with it.(All of my horses get some alfalfa, too, daily-and the minis all get soaked beet pulp in the evenings-so hopefully, we will be OK on fiberous feed.)

 

[SWA]

Hi,

Ok, I gave their "noon time hay" feeding for today with the 2nd "cube/bale", and this one seems to have more in it than the first one did yesterday. I dunno, maybe it's just "me"

: most likely. Normally, I can feed a single bale over 2 days worth. This 2nd "cube/bale" seems to be ample supply for that. Strange. Maybe I just got a "lucky draw" for a bum bale with the first one yesterday???

Anyways, they have the huge 1/2 ton GIANT bales in stock now, so hubby and I are going to look those over tomorrow, and we'll see what we come home with I guess.

:

Thanks so much everyone, for all your wonderful advice, I've learned much from this experience.

:

:

 

[Miniv]

Tanya,

When in doubt WEIGH your hay........I really do recommend weighing your flakes of hay. We do every time we open a new bale of hay because each bale seems to have slightly different sized flakes.

I betcha a button that you overfed your kids with that first compressed bale.

MA

 

[Minimor]

The one & only time I tried the compressed hay I wasn't impressed. The little bale had 3 plastic straps around it & then was enclosed in a plastic bag. The "bale" weighed 40 lbs. and cost me $8, at a time when I was paying $3 for a regular bale of hay (60-70 lbs). I thought the bales were timothy but turns out they were not. When I opened the first one, it was mostly alfalfa with a little bit of brome. The alfalfa was very coarse & stemmy, though chopped into short lengths. It was brown, hardly green at all, and very, very dusty. Plus had a funny smell to it, almost like it had been treated with something.

These bales came from a plant that processes hay to sell overseas to Japan; I've always heard how "perfect" the hay must be in order for them to process it for export, because the foreign purchases demand the highest quality. Well, if that hay was highest quality, the foreign purchasers are getting took, big time!

Feeding by weight one compressed bale didn't amount to much and I sure wouldn't buy it again.

 

[SWA]

Tanya,

When in doubt WEIGH your hay........I really do recommend weighing your flakes of hay. We do every time we open a new bale of hay because each bale seems to have slightly different sized flakes.

I betcha a button that you overfed your kids with that first compressed bale.

MA

:saludando: Ooooo, what color button?

: I've been hunting hi-n-lo for a pretty pearlized powder pink one with a slight golden champagne shimmer to it

: ...about 4" in diameter, floral if possible, or just a plain round one would do, if in the right color.

:

Well...on second thought,

: I never was good at wagers...so I better not chance it, LOL.

:

The one & only time I tried the compressed hay I wasn't impressed. The little bale had 3 plastic straps around it & then was enclosed in a plastic bag. The "bale" weighed 40 lbs. and cost me $8, at a time when I was paying $3 for a regular bale of hay (60-70 lbs). I thought the bales were timothy but turns out they were not. When I opened the first one, it was mostly alfalfa with a little bit of brome. The alfalfa was very coarse & stemmy, though chopped into short lengths. It was brown, hardly green at all, and very, very dusty. Plus had a funny smell to it, almost like it had been treated with something.

These bales came from a plant that processes hay to sell overseas to Japan; I've always heard how "perfect" the hay must be in order for them to process it for export, because the foreign purchases demand the highest quality. Well, if that hay was highest quality, the foreign purchasers are getting took, big time!

Feeding by weight one compressed bale didn't amount to much and I sure wouldn't buy it again.

Minimor, that would just about do me in for them too.

: These were very green though, quite nice actually, very sweet fragrant, soft and leafy. The horses enjoyed them, that I could tell. Just the first one though, went like the wind.

:

 

[JeanH]

My friend left some of her compact bales when she was returning from Pinto Nationals to Oregon. They weighed a ton and were hard to handle, but the hay was beautiful. You definately need to feed these measuring weight instead of size of flake. A compact bale lasted 5 days for 2 full sized horses when I usually go through 3 bales of regular baled in the same amount of time.

Jean

 

[SWA]

WOW Jean, that's alarming for me. I tried to judge the weight by "feel" like I always have, and it felt like I was giving normal amount, but I sure couldn't see one going that far out of the two I had.

If we end up getting more tomorrow, I guess we better invest in an actual feed scale then.

We'll see what they have when we go back tomorrow, I guess. Thanks so much.

:

 

[crponies]

Here's what I do to weigh my hay. I bought a fish scale at a discount store and had some of those nylon hay nets on hand. I put the flakes of hay in the hay net and hang it from the hook on the fish scale. It was much cheaper than buying a feed scale.

 

[Tapestry Minis]

I've finally convinced the feed store I work for to carry Alfalfa and Timothy from Standlee Hay Company out of Idaho. They have the compressed bales and yes you have to feed by weight not by flake. When you take 60lbs and put it into a smaller area each slice has to be heavier. :new_rofl:

I love them though I actually think they last me longer than the regular bales because I have less waste. It all sticks together so nicely. I can peel off a flake and stick it in my floppy bucket and not loose any in the transfer.

We hauled a whole ton of those compressed bales in part of a truck bed and front of a gooseneck trailer when we moved from Idaho to Texas...with room to spare.

 

[SWA]

Here's what I do to weigh my hay. I bought a fish scale at a discount store and had some of those nylon hay nets on hand. I put the flakes of hay in the hay net and hang it from the hook on the fish scale. It was much cheaper than buying a feed scale.

Jayne, AWESOME IDEA,

: thanks so much!

:

I love them though I actually think they last me longer than the regular bales because I have less waste. It all sticks together so nicely. I can peel off a flake and stick it in my floppy bucket and not loose any in the transfer.

Christine, "this" was what I was hoping would be the case with ours.

: Only, when I broke them open, especially the first one, they just totally fell apart, as if no "squishing" to them was ever done at all. That's what had me so confused as to what the whole purpose of compressing was then, if it wasn't really "compressed"....just seemingly HALF a regular bale, at best.

: The first bale anyways. The one I opened today was a little "better" in quantity of ration at least.

:

We'll see what they have for tomorrow when we go for more I guess.

 

[Marty]

Hi Tanya, I have used the compressed Alfalfa when I wanted to add some to my pregnant mares regular hay.

First, if you are feeling dampness, that is most likely the spray it is given to keep it from molding. Many farmers do spray their hay. Don't ask me with what it is exactly, I don't know.

Next, the alfalfa I got was the most gorgeous stuff I ever seen in my life. But honestly, I would not do it again.