Buying Winter Hay for Horses

feeder 1
While purchasing feeders is an added cost based on the price of hay and how much can be wasted without a feeder these feeders pay for themselves in 9 to 12 months.
Researchers at Minnesota also looked at round bale feeders testing 9 feeders and a nofeeder control. The feeders tested allowed either complete access to the hay or restricted access slow feeders. They found the following amounts of hay waste
No feeder 57
Circular free choice feeders 1333
Restricted access feeders 511
Without a feeder the herd actually consumed less hay and lost weight because so much of the hay was trampled and spoiled. The payback period for these feeders was far less than the small square bale feeders because of the huge reduction in waste compared to using no feeder.
Calculating Hay Needs
To estimate how much hay to buy for the winter you can run a few simple calculations. We will assume that horses eat approximately 22 5 of their body weight in hay per day as their full ration. If your horses have higher energy needs and also receive grain meals you can subtract the weight of grain from the 2 figure based on your horses weight. We will also assume that the hay season lasts from November to March and that horses have high-quality pasture for forage during the rest of the year.
1 horse at 1100 pounds x 2 BW 22 lbs hay per day if you feed grain subtract its weight from this number
22 lbs x 150 days 3300 lbs hay per horse

Dont forget to account for wastage! Here we will assume 5 storage waste because our bales are stored inside and 13 waste from feeding small square bales on the ground.
3300 lbs x 1 05 storage waste x 1 13 ground waste 3915 lbs hay per horse
If you buy your
hay by the ton this would be 39152000 almost 2 tons of hay per horse.
If you buy your hay by the bale you will need to find out the approximate weight of each bale. Assuming a 40 lb bale 391540 98 bales per horse.

Conclusions
Forage is the most important part of your horses diet and during Pennsylvania winters hay is the most economical way to provide forage. By planning ahead and running some simple calculations horse owners can save money and ensure that they have purchased the right amount of hay to last through the winter.