We feed 1500 lb round bales of brome. They are stored outside and on the ground. We've been feeding the big rounds for over 30 years.
You would have less waste storing them up off the ground. I've seen them set up on rows of concrete blocks, railroad ties, and even on old tractor tires. With horses I would never set bales on any of these for feeding.
Some folks around here, Kansas, cover the round bales with tarps to keep the weather off of them. Others store them in hay barns, where they stack them with frontend bale forks.
For us, as fast as the horses clean them up, there's not much in the way of increased waste. Our hay supplier delivers and places the bales as we need them for $35/bale.
A round bale feeder designed for horse use is a good idea. We cut the strings off the bales when we feed them to keep the horses from getting tangled in them. The strings will do a number on their legs and without the strings they will scatter hay without a feeder. We move around where we feed the bales to keep the horses from muddying up one area. We burn off any leftover hay in the spring.
Depending on how well your horses get along at the feeder, one might be enough, two certainly would. We have one group of 6 horses that eat well together and another paddock where 3 is one too many.
It certainly takes less time to feed, especially at this time of year, when its dark both before and after work. For our horses that are outside 24/7 (not stalled), it works well. As they say, your results may vary.
Merry Christmas.
Barry Cole, Kansas
From: Amber@xxxxxxxxxxxx To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Feeding round bales Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:31:42 -0600
We live in Texas and have always fed small square bales of Coastal Bermuda. We have the opportunity from one of our boarders to start feeding round bales but we have no knowledge about how to do this. The square bales have always been stored inside our barn, but round bales would have to be outside, in the weather. Do they have to be stored up off the ground? If so, how? To feed hay this way, do the round bales have to be inside feeders? We have 5 horses. Do we need more than one feeder? When a bale gets eaten down enough to be replaced, do you have to move the feeder? Do you have to clean up left over hay on the ground? We don't know if we'd be better off sticking with square bales or trying round bales. It would save us some work at feeding but perhaps the cleanup would negate that advantage? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Amber
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