I've been feeding round bales for years also without any problems....and have the same routine (sans the gravel-covered cloth around the hay ring...good idea). There are twelve horses in my herd and having two rings allows for the less dominant to get to their hay. And they can certainly be stored on the ground...I go through one round bale per horse a month when the forage is extremely brittle and frozen (I'm in Poolesville, Maryland) less than that when there is still some green to the grass (like now).
Since I don't have gravel-covered cloth surrounding my rings, I really don't have much of a clean up problem with respect to hay at the end of the winter. The hay that falls outside the ring gets mixed in with the snow, manure and mud and eventually is just incorporated into the soil and grass come spring. My only "problem" is that the cats and, sometimes the neighbor's goat, like to take naps in the center of the ring on nice sunny days. Huge horse jaws munching just a few inches away do not seem to phase them.
Anyway, round bales are a great way to ensure the horses have all they need for their gut and for producing heat in cold weather....and there's less labor on my part except when the forklift isn't working. Then I have to promise beers to a couple of neighbors to help me roll a new bale into the pasture....then roll the hay ring over it - the horses will waste A LOT of hay if there's no hay ring so it's worth the effort as long as the hay ring doesn't get away from you. The first time I forgot that gravity works, the empty hay ring rolled down hill and broke a fence...fun times. Ever since, I've thought ahead about hay ring placement.
Best wishes...I'm sure it will work out fine.
Ruth Anne
Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply,
to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed.
-Storm Jameson
--- On Thu, 12/25/08, Quentin & Libby Llop <qhll@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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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