Horse owners have three choices when it comes to buying and feeding hay: small square hay bales, large round bales, and large square bales.
All of the different bale types can be made up of any type of hay. You can find any of the three types containing alfalfa hay, bermudagrass hay, timothy hay, or grass/alfalfa mixes. They can each be from first, second cutting, or third cutting.
High Quality Hay
No matter the type of bale you choose, it’s important to make sure it is high-quality hay.
Good horse hay, whether it is alfalfa or grass, is hay that
- Has few weeds (none that are poisonous to horses)
- Has low moisture content. This refers to the primary moisture that is left after drying in the field, not moisture introduced during storage. The higher the moisture content, the higher the chance that the hay will mold. The chances of a bale of hay molding are miniscule if baled at less than 15 percent moisture. Over 25 percent moisture, and there could be severe heat damage to the bale and fire hazard due to the heat produced by mold growth.
- Horses are very sensitive to mold and can only handle less than 500,000 colony forming units of mold per gram of feed. Above that, there is danger that they will get very sick if they eat the feed.
What are the differences between the three types of hay bales?
Different Shapes
Small and large square bales are actually rectangular bales, and round bales are short cylinders.
Size of hay bales
Small square bales, or “two-string” square bales, are relatively small bales. They usually measure roughly 14inx18inx36in.
Round bales are really big bales that usually measure roughly 5ft wide and 5ft tall.
Large square bales are big bales that usually measure roughly 36inx40inx7.5ft.
Weight of hay bales
Small square bales usually weigh between 30 and 70lbs, with 50lbs being the average weight.
Round bales usually weigh between 900 and 1,700lbs.
Large square bales usually weigh between 1,000 and 1,500lbs.
Bale of hay cost
Small square bales tend to be the most expensive option per ton of hay.
Round bales tend to be the least expensive option per ton.
Large square bales tend to cost somewhere in the middle between small square and round bales per ton.
What are the important factors to consider when deciding how to feed hay to your horses?
Size of the hay bale impacts how you store it and feed it.
Weight of the hay bale impacts how you move it.
Shape impacts how you store it.
Small square bales
Small square bales are a popular option for horse owners with fewer horses or smaller farms. They are easy to move and stack by hand, and easy to store.
small square bales in our hayfield, ready to be stored in the barn.
Storage of small square bales
- Small square bales can be stored stacked on top of one another inside an enclosure or under cover. Make sure they are well protected from the elements, as the high exposed surface area means heavy loss of usable hay if it gets wet.
- If possible, elevate the bales off the ground or barn floor using pallets to provide air flow. This will prevent any loss from the bottoms getting moldy.
- If you don’t have any pallets, you can cover the ground with a tarp or open a bale and scatter it over the floor before stacking the rest. This will at least allow for some airflow underneath the stack.
Storing small square bales properly can ensure you lose close to 0% of the hay you bought before you feed it. Hay can be stored indefinitely and still be good to feed to horses. It will probably lose some of its green color and become a bit dusty over time, but this doesn’t impact the nutritional value of the hay. Studies have shown that the vitamin content of the hay slowly decreases over time, but it can take 5 years for the vitamins to decrease substantially. This is true of any type of properly stored hay bale.
Regardless of the bale type or how long it has been stored, it’s always a good idea to have your hay analyzed for nutrient content, so you know how to balance your horse’s diet. It’s easy to do this by collecting a sample and sending it to a lab.
Feeding small square bales
- Small square bales are easy to peel flakes off of to stuff into hay nets, hay bags, and feed as loose hay.
- It is also easy to load a whole bale into a feeder by hand.
- There is lots of good guidance and research available on selecting the right small square bale feeder to minimize hay waste. Here is some from the University of Minnesota.
Large round hay bales
Large round hay bales are often fed on farms with many horses that live outside. These have to be moved with a tractor, as they are much too large and heavy to be moved by a person.
Hay producers in many parts of the united states (including where I live) prefer to make large round bales instead of small square bales. This is because round bales are less labor intensive to make. They take less time and less manpower and are therefore more efficient for the farmers to make money from.
Storage of round bales
Storage of round bales can be a bit trickier than small square bales, as they are so much bigger, and are round instead of rectangular.
- Ideally, round bales should also be stored indoors to protect them totally from the elements.
- If storing round bales indoors, put them up on pallets, just like the small squares, and stack them on the cut ends (flat ends).
- When stored indoors, you can expect to lose about 2-7% of your hay before feeding it.
- Round bales can also be stored outdoors.
- If storing them outdoors, try to buy the densest bales you can (heavy relative to their size). Dense bales will have less of the hay exposed to the outside. They will shed more precipitation and protect against too much loss.
- Never store the bales under trees.
- Try to cover them with a tarp if possible.
- Try to store round bales on a well-drained surface, like pallets or gravel.
- Store them on their round side, lined up with cut ends (flat ends) touching each other.
- If you can stack them, make a pyramid with the round sides contacting the ground and each other.
- What the round bales are wrapped with also matters. A study by the University of Minnesota found that bales wrapped with sisal twine lost nearly 20% when stored outside. Bales wrapped with plastic twine lost 11%, and bales wrapped with net wrap lost only 7%. Net wrapped bales shed water better and help to keep moisture from penetrating the interior of the bale.
Feeding round bales
Many farms with a large number of animals outside elect to feed round bales in the fields where the animals live. A tractor with a bale spear attachment is used to move the bales from where they are stored, out into the fields where they will be fed.
- They can be set down on the ground for the horses to eat as-is, or placed in a feeder and/or net.
- If no feeder is used with a round bale, up to 57% of the hay in the bale may be wasted.
- Horses usually prefer not to eat moldy hay, and hay from a round bale that is not contained in a feeder or net quickly falls to the ground where it can mold or be trampled on.
- Placing a round bale in a covered feeder, and inside a net will lead to the least amount of waste. For more information, University of Minnesota extension also has guidance on round bale feeders.
- You can also peel flakes off of a round bale to stuff hay bags and nets, but this is much messier and leads to more waste than with small square bales.
Large square bales
Large square bales are not as popular with horse owners as either small squares or round bales.
Storage of large square bales
Large square bales are more difficult to store than small square bales or round bales.
- Because of their shape, they should not be stored outside.
- Should be stored indoors similar to small squares and stacked using a tractor.
Feeding large square bales
These can be fed like small squares or round bales, but it is more difficult to peel flakes off of the large rectangular bales of hay.
You can move them into the fields with a tractor, but even more will be wasted during feeding than with a round bale, because of the rectangular shape.
Hay cubes and pellets
When baled hay is scarce, as is sometimes the case in some parts of the world, you can also feed hay in the form of hay cubes or hay pellets.
These can almost always be found at a feed store.
Hay cubes or pellets usually come with a guaranteed analysis, so you can be sure they are high quality. However, they are very expensive compared to baled hay. If your horse can eat baled hay, cubes and pellets are probably not the most economical option to provide the majority of their forage.
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