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Originally Posted by GypsyandMarlin She is getting the best quality hay that there is around where we live. The hay season wasn't so good this past year unfortunately so even if I tried I couldn't find anything that is much better than what she has now. |
Here in OK last year we had the drought from HADES and crap hay cost $200 per large round bale and small squares were between $13 & $26 for a 50 lb bale, depending on what you could get.
I did not count on the hay to feed the horses, I treated it like nothing more than useless filler. I switched over to a complete feed, Purina Omolene 400 for a while until I couldn't get that anymore then switched to Purina Senior which I'm still feeding until hay comes in, in June. Each mare foal combo gets approx 8 lbs of Senior per feeding plus 1 oz stock salt & 1 oz of vitamin/minerals.
The trick to feeding well is to take into account the quality of what you have and make up for the lack in other areas by feeding another quality feed. It's expensive, no kidding about that! I'm spending over $1000/month to feed 7 adults and 3 foals and that is not including anything but feed, no other supplies thrown in the figure. BUT, everyone will come out of the drought healthy and in good flesh, and those who do dapple are all dappled out in their coats.
If/When the hay goes back down some from the prices from last year, and is up in quality then I can go back to feeding mostly hay and just a little bit of Omolene 200 to each horse, 300 to the lactating mares & foals. My feed bill will go down to around $40-50/month per horse and that I can live with a whole lot better, but sucking up the feed bill in the meantime and keeping them healthy is still a lot cheaper than a vet bill for a sick and undernourished horse would be.