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I've been making, feeding and selling round bales for 30 years. For 
horses I only feed bales that were made of quality dry hay, stored 
inside. I don't worry about them being out in the weather while they are 
being fed. Hay doesn't spoil very fast in the winter and even two or 
three horses will finish a bale before it goes musty. Problems from 
feeding RBs stored outside won't show up for a few years, then you're 
horses will get heavey. Might not be a problem in dryer  climates. We 
have 30" of rain a year. A round bale feeder will pay for itself very 
quickly in hay not wasted, not to mention clean up. I try to have no 
more than 6 horses to a bale We typically winter between 30 and 50).  
One of my bales weighs between 1200 and 1500# and feeds 6  1100# horses 
for a week. The larger bales are usually the best buy. The outer layers 
are the most tightly packed. I leave my feeders in the same spot all 
winter. I try to put down stone over fabric at the feeding spots. I 
think you'll enjoy feeding once a week. 
                                                                                                                
Libby Llop

Amber Roberts wrote:
> 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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