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Lack of hay??!

9K views 60 replies 20 participants last post by  honeyloaf72 
#1 ·
I am in central TX and this area is in a severe drought right now. Hay is getting hard to find....Even the local feed store was out of it this weekend and not positive on the ETA of the next shipment -- YIKES! My previous supplier informed me today that he's out and doesn't expect more for another month or so. The biggest problem I am running into is that I am a one-horse show, so to speak, and most of the sellers I'm finding who DO have hay, want to sell large quantities of it. I have neither the money in hand nor the storage space for 200+ bales! I've still got grass on my property, but of course that won't last if we don't get some rain.

My horse is "idle" at the moment, recovering from a bad trim...:evil:... and I am giving him around 2 lbs. daily of a 12%-protein pelleted feed (he's around 1,000 lbs). I know his diet can't consist solely of pellet feed, and I don't like to over-grain a horse that isn't working, but I'm starting to get anxious over the hay situation. Is there anything else I can add to supplement his diet?.....he's turned out 24/7, so he's grazing, for the moment, but the pickings are getting sparse.
 
#2 ·
I know the feeling. I am having the same issue :-(. I finally had to break down and buy a load of alfalfa pellets from the feed store. We've still got some decent quality grass hay, but it just doesn't have enough real nutrition to keep the weight on horses that I'm working. Hay pellets can take the place of actual hay with very few issues, even though they don't have the coarse stem roughage of real hay. I really wouldn't want to feed a horse nothing but hay pellets for his entire life, but for a short term fix until some hay gets cut this season, it will work.

Plus, the pellets that are just compressed hay don't have the added sugar or molasses of some other feeds and there is no grain, just hay.
 
#5 ·
Tractor Supply should stock alfalfa bales, or some similar roughage, and if not should be able to order some. I know they're extremely pricey though. They also carry Standlee products with everything from alfalfa pellets, beet pulp shreds, timothy pellets, etc. Again, good for the short-term, but not a permanent solution. TSC can also order quite a few different things...

Not sure if you have a Tractor Supply by you, but that's be my first recommendation, especially considering I work for them :)
 
#6 ·
I feed prairie hay - mostly native grasses (native to Oklahoma, anyway) with a little bermuda mixed in. This makes for a pretty fair hay - much better than what I fed last winter, anyway. This winter my horses didn't lose any weight, and my skinny ones gained weight. However, to insure that they got enough protein, we supplement with alfalfa pellets. We tried the cubes, thinking it would give them more chewing satisfaction (we did soak them for about 1/2 hour first) but the horses didn't like them nearly as well as the pellets, so we went back to the pellets.

TSC also has a chopped hay you can buy - it's in a little plastic bag that looks like a fairly small hay bale. You can measure it with a scoop. Friend used it when her horse developed an abcessed tooth - it got pulled, but the horse's mouth was really tender for a couple of weeks. She had to feed the chopped hay and soaked alfalfa pellets mixed together. The hay is sprayed with molasses, so I don't think I'd want to give it to my horses on a regular basis.

We can get hay around here, but it's pretty pricey. We picked up 5 round bales of prairie hay for $25 each, but that was a special price, and it has more johnson grass in it than I like. Fortunately, the horses seem to be skipping the johnson grass...for now. Pasture isn't coming on like it should (though we have chances of rain every night for the next several nights - may have to resort to the crazy lady rain dance!) Pasture not coming on also means that the hay in our own fields isn't coming on. Scary thought! If hay is high now, what will it be like this coming winter if this dang drought doesn't break?:shock:
 
#7 ·
alfalfa cubes
beet pulp
chopped hay

you don't want to feed more then about 4 to 6 lbs of beet pulp a day the rest of the "forage' needs to be grass or alfalfa cubes or pellets
 
#8 ·
You can use hay cubes or hay pellets. If you're used to feeding grass hay, look for timothy, bermuda, or either mixed with alfalfa. Get a scoop or bucket and figure out how much by weight it will hold. If you have okay grazing, then supplement with 3-5 lbs a day, split in to two or three feedings. If grazing goes completely, or it's just dry short grass, you'll want to feed as much as you would with hay. For a 1,000 lbs horse, that would be 15-30 lbs a day. If you use alfalfa mixed with timothy or bermuda, you'll feed on the lower side.

Cubes provide more fiber and generally take longer to eat. You can spread them in an area in your pasture so your horse has to hunt around for them. Spreading them around will help prevent choke too, as those big dry cubes can cause choking issues if your horse bolts his food down. If you're worried about choke, you can wet the cubes down and let them break up for about 20-30 minutes before you feed them.
 
#10 ·
Wow that's cheap compared to here!! A horse-quality round bale, 5 x 5.5 (if you can find it) runs around $65. Square bales of Coastal from the feed co-op are $9. My last private supplier had squares for $6, but I don't expect to see that again for a long time.:-( Alfalfa, from anywhere, runs close to $13.....*sigh*
 
#11 ·
Alflafa is $12 here, but not many people buy it, so it's scarce. I paid $42 a roll delivered for 4x4 rolls, so I was happy to get the 4x5's for $45 delivered. They're tightly net wrapped, so very heavy too. The 4x4's were string wrapped and not that heavy... My 9 horses and a pony ate through 4 of those in barely a week! I hear the feed store is going up to $8 a bale on their next load. I am so glad I found rounds!
 
#12 ·
Ouch....reading those hay prices! Makes me very, very thankful we have wonderful hay fields & bale our own. We had an excess of our tim/orchard last year (so did everyone around here) I sold it for $3 a square bale. Wish I still had it, I'd send you guys a truck load :(
 
#13 ·
Ouch....reading those hay prices! Makes me very, very thankful we have wonderful hay fields & bale our own. We had an excess of our tim/orchard last year (so did everyone around here) I sold it for $3 a square bale. Wish I still had it, I'd send you guys a truck load :(
During regular cutting season I was buying nice Bahai squares (about 50-55 lbs) for $4 delivered, $3 out of the barn. High quality Bermuda squares (60-70 lbs) normally goes for $4.25-5.00 out of the barn normally, $6.50 at the feed store. I got some coarse mixed grass for $3 delivered, but won't be buying that again... It was some nasty hay! The horses ate it fine, but I had to feed 30-50% more than usual to keep their weight up, and they all got hay bellies... The bales were heavy, but had lots of "straw" and weeds in it. The goats really loved it, lol.

But, the hay producers didn't get as many cuttings this year, so everyone ran out! What hay is left is being sold high. I don't blame them for wanting more $ for the hay, but it sucks for those of us that ran out a lot sooner than we though... I plan on pre-purchasing hay this year and having my guys store it for me. I'll need about 100-120 round bales for 12 months. Wow, I really don't need any more horses, lol.
 
#15 ·
We're all getting worried about our hay situations. Fortunately for those of us in Oklahoma, we have fairly good chances of getting some decent rain over the next few days. Hope we get enough to break this dang drought. I'm really glad we feed prairie hay - the native grasses that make up the bulk of it are pretty drought tolerant, and even a little dab of rain can make for a fairly decent cutting. Hopefully, we'll get enough hay for the next year out of our own fields and not have to buy more before the winter is over and the grass comes on next spring. We've got a very few round bales left - but it looks like we may fall about a month short, unless the rains bring on more grass. If not, daughter and hubby will have to bite the bullet and buy more hay in a couple of weeks.

We really need to downsize our herd, but daughter and her hubby don't have the heart to choose which ones have to go, and our situation isn't bad enough for me to force the issue...yet. Here's to hoping it doesn't get that bad!
 
#16 ·
If I had extra I'd go hoofprints! We got that storm last night too, hope it mellowed before you guys got it! We had 80 mph straight line winds and hail, no actual tornado touchdowns though, thank goodness! A few trees down in the woods and a few pieces of sheet metal to replace on the hay barn roof & at least 10 acres of our pasture is under water. I'm totally game for a road trip to hot & dry!

Hope you find some good hay at a reasonable price luvs2ride! I will wish our forecast your way...9 of the next 10 days have rain of some degree in them.
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#17 ·
Luvs, how many horses do you have? I'm trying to figure out how much hay I'll need for the year for my seven - and hoping/praying daughter and her hubby don't "rescue" anymore!
 
#18 ·
Luvs, it does suck when you have a pretty large herd, I feel your pain.

Our herd of 15 goes through 2 large round bales about every 4 days. We've been feeding decent quality grass since alfalfa is impossible to find. To add insult to injury, I just found out yesterday that our supplier (who we've been using for about 10 years) is no longer going to stock alfalfa :-(. Now, I have to find a new supplier that I can afford *sigh*.

I would certainly take a semi load of those $3 bales if anyone feels like a road trip.
 
#21 ·
I would certainly take a semi load of those $3 bales if anyone feels like a road trip.
I'm sure I could find the hay for you, but don't know anyone with a semi. I've got a 1-ton & a car-hauler sized flat bed, but that wouldn't be enough to last your herd long.

I feel awful for all of you, it's been a long time since we've had a bad year.
 
#22 ·
Hmmm no semi just a 2 horse! Hubby and I are thinking of moving to florida in the fall and I'm sure we'll be dealing with the same thing...this area we're so spoiled with hay so it's super cheap. My friend has a couple fields of it so she gets hers for free!
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#24 ·
Dang, you guys count yourselves lucky! Alfalfa is running up to $16 a bale here currently (about 100 lb. bales) and I have never even seen a round bale in-the-flesh. (They don't seem to bale hay like that here in Arizona?).

I think 100 lb. bermuda bales are in the $13 range. It used to be that bermuda cost more than alfalfa, but now it's alfalfa that is the highest.

To add insult to injury, we don't have any sort of pasture. We are at the mercy of feeding baled hay year-round. :-(

So those of you who have pasture and/or round bales, you are lucky ducks!
 
#26 ·
I won't tell the hay prices here you guys would chase me off LOL

I pay on average $30 for a 1200lbs round

and about $2 for grass 2string squares and about $4 for alfalfa squares
 
#29 ·
Hay sellers around here always claim their bales weigh more than they do. That's why we prefer to grow our own. Not necessarily the best quality since it's just prairie hay, but the horses do better on our hay than what we buy for some odd reason. Besides, I hate putting out a bale of their hay only to find it full of johnson grass, sticks and leaves. Some people will bale garbage if they think they can make a buck on it!

We probably under estimate how much our hay weighs. We have a very old ford tractor that can barely lift them under the best conditions. Sometimes, all we can do is put the tractor in reverse and push the bales into the pens. Pulling the twine off of the biggest ones is a real chore, because it takes at least two big strong men to roll the bale off the twine if it hangs up on the bottom and we can't pull it through.
 
#33 · (Edited)
OP here.....Sort of a funny aside to this topic:

I mentioned in a previous post that our feed co-op had run out of Coastal hay, so I had to buy one alfalfa to get me through. Well dang but if my horse didn't LUV that stuff!!....cleaned up every last stem and leaf at every feeding. So the feed co-op got more Coastal in and I picked up a supply. By now the alfalfa is gone, so last night he's back to the usual. If a horse can turn up its nose at a food, he did!!.....lol! As of this morning, he still had hardly touched the stuff! Oh well, sorry pal, you can't have Fillet Mignon every day! :-o

ETA: and just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with the new hay -- clean, soft and sweet.
 
#36 ·
Ha you guys that complain about alfalfa hay being 13 to 15$$ a bale LOL ***shaking her head*** it's 25. a bale here in southern Mississippi. :) yep and it doesn't look that good IMO. We NEVER get 2nd or 3rd cut alfalfa like i used to pick up in the fields for .75 cents a bale as a kid.....(and 25. a bale is NORMAL price it might be more now) my grass starts coming in in early march so i haven't bought hay since this last November.
We are in the Middle of a TERRIBLE drought. i have Bahaia seed to overseed part of my pastures that are currently in natives but without some rain soon theres really no point. the grass has stopped growing... I'm really concerned. we have had MANY chances for rain but it has not rained here in about a month!
I'm using all my water from the well just to keep horses and cows watered and to water the garden. i have everything mulched deeply and that helps but the garden still needs water about every other day.....and animals are drinking a lot casue everythings SO dry and hot.......
Do you all think global warming is causing this or is it just natural weather patterns?
 
#37 ·
Ha you guys that complain about alfalfa hay being 13 to 15$$ a bale LOL ***shaking her head*** it's 25. a bale here in southern Mississippi. :) yep and it doesn't look that good IMO. We NEVER get 2nd or 3rd cut alfalfa like i used to pick up in the fields for .75 cents a bale as a kid.....(and 25. a bale is NORMAL price it might be more now) my grass starts coming in in early march so i haven't bought hay since this last November.
We are in the Middle of a TERRIBLE drought. i have Bahaia seed to overseed part of my pastures that are currently in natives but without some rain soon theres really no point. the grass has stopped growing... I'm really concerned. we have had MANY chances for rain but it has not rained here in about a month!
I'm using all my water from the well just to keep horses and cows watered and to water the garden. i have everything mulched deeply and that helps but the garden still needs water about every other day.....and animals are drinking a lot casue everythings SO dry and hot.......
Do you all think global warming is causing this or is it just natural weather patterns?
Hasn't rained here since last June!!! Not measurable rain anyway....just a quick shower with the odd passing thunder-storm, but most of those pass well north of us.
 
#38 ·
HOLEY CRAP!! BuddyTheElf you have my sympathy! seriously how do you all make it with NO rain??? where does your water supply come from? I see your in Texas WOW i had no idea that Texas was in such a severe drought. I'm really sorry. depending on where you are in Texas you probably can't grow alfalfa either, even in the best of times. My family survived the Oklahoma dust bowl and those stories are a part of my collective family heritage. i remember my great grandmother telling those stories when we were kids. we grew up on the farm. To hear Ma and Poppie (that was what we called our great grandma and grandpa) tell about the black blizzards and how it didn't rain for years and years on end....... ( I want to say 7 years with no real rain not positrive on the # of years but it was a LOT) its really an eye opener! and as everyone now knows that was mostly man made, that drought brought on by removing all the vegetation of the native grass prairie fore farming. then with no plants to do what they do .... no rainfall . i hope thats not what we are facing now!
 
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