We fed hay cubes for close to 20 years and the horses looked great. It took
them as long to eat the cubes as it would to eat hay. When we went to rides we
gave them the cubes plus hay. I love cubes because there is no waste... I weigh
the feed and I know exactly what they are getting. The only time we
ever heard of botulism that was associated with cubes was when a certain
supplier had some bad loads of cubes where they suspect dead rodents had been
processed in the cubes.
Now we are feeding a few pounds of alfalfa/timothy cubes (supposedly about
75% timothy) plus bermuda hay and beet pulp and that is working out
well.
My vet told me that he has one barn he goes to that has lost several horses
to botulism and they never ate cubes. The people keep feeding rotten produce
they pick up from some place (markets?) and horses have died from eating this
stuff. Even though the vet told them to quit feeding the bad food, they still do
it and still lose the occasional horse.
