Friday, December 9, 2016

The Hay Saga



I've been dealing with a super annoying hay saga over the past month. It has me at my wit's end - I am SO irritated by the entire thing!



It started out innocently enough. I net all of my hay in slow feeders, and have done so for years. Simple, right? A good idea? 



I have to hang my haynets at a certain height, because I found out pretty quickly that little Uma in particular likes to paw at the nets, and her tiny little feet tend to get stuck in the holes. It gets old finding a tiny mule standing out in the field doing a stationary can-can kick. You can only walk out of run out of house in a panic so many times before you decide they need to be higher. Unfortunately, they can't be TOO high, because then the mules can't reach them. There really isn't a height where she can reach with her mouth, but can't reach with her feet. 


Not comfortable for eating

And then, there is the destructive force of nature known as Pmare. Pmare is so smart that she takes all of these softer nets and carefully and systematically shreds them until she forms giant holes in them. She is so smart that she can undo the repairs I make to the nets as well. Once she creates a giant hole, not only does she wolf down all the hay in record time - completely defeating the purpose of a haynet - but if it is muddy out, she drags half of it onto the ground and smashes it into the dirt. She completely defeats the dual purpose of haynets - keep the hay fed out in a steady slow stream, and keep it from getting pooped and peed on.


Hay around here ain't cheap. A bale of timothy costs me about S40. Yes, S40. I'm not kidding you. At some point, I decided that this was ridiculous and unaffordable, so for the littles I also added in some coastal. The main show horses live exclusively on timothy, orchard, and some alfalfa, but the smalls get coastal too as it is much less expensive (grown locally). Even though I'm a northern snob and had a hard time letting go of my distaste for coastal, as long as I find the best hay that I can it works fine.


Pmare's net shredding finally got old after she tore holes in ALL of the nets one day, and wasted a bunch of expensive hay. I promptly went to the store and bought the smallest holed nets I could find, 1" x 1". Tear THOSE up, I thought gleefully.


And, they worked! Not only did they slow her way down, but nobody was able to destroy them.


Until one day I looked in Zoodle's mouth, and noticed that the nets has been cutting his gums. In order for the material to be tough enough to stand up to Pmare, it had to be so rough that it damaged poor Zoodle's wee little gums. 

Poor baby!


That was the end of that. I threw in the towel. This elitist hay snob from the north went right out and got a roundbale, for the first time in my life.


And even THAT wasn't without drama. Finding a supplier of really good quality horse roundbales is NOT easy. My first supplier was awesome but doesn't normally sell singles, so it was no good to keep going back there. My second supplier promised me the moon and stars, and the bale ended up being moldy and smelly. The third time was a charm - I think I finally found a supplier of horse quality, tested and certified, barn stored hay that will suit my needs. Although that said, he hasn't called me back yet after I left him a message this morning....





One more word to the wise about unloading roundbales. If you are the ultimate clutz like I am, and also have a knack for breaking windows on accident, I'm just telling you now that it will probably happen. 

One expensive roundbale


Because my life is a comedy of errors, that's why. 


17 comments:

  1. Ouch! I feed everything in heavy duty nets and I've never had any issues with gums (but after you posted it on IG I ran out and checked). That is the pits, poor little Zoodle.

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  2. You need a creep area of the field that PMare can't reach, so she can have her hay in an indestructible and the littles can eat from the softer nets. We had a donkey passthrough (bottom board was 33" off the ground) for years, until we had more donkeys and they destroyed the barn. Sentenced to life in the pasture from then on :)

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    1. You guys underestimate the force of nature that is Pmare.... she can destroy ANYTHING if there is food to be had on the other side!

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  3. I'm with Bif, maybe a creep feeder for the littles?

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  4. Gah! How frustrating -_-

    I was like you - with the hay nets and square bales. But it was just so time consuming. I've since switched to roundbales with a net.

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  5. This all sounds so familiar. Tearing open large holes, undoing the repairs, scarfing all the hay + stomping what wasn't scarfed. Tiny holed nets messed with my guys gums too. Now I switch between fabric trailer bags (square holes) and a med holed net bags. I catch what falls out in a trough and re-bag any leftovers. Also switch between the fabric hay bags and really sturdy med holed bags. They all seem to be doomed eventually...

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  6. Holy shit $40 for a bale of Timothy?!?!?!?!?!

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  7. I'm with Karen. $40 for a single. bale.???!!! Like one bale and you give $40? I won't even tell you how much I paid per bale this year.

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  8. Woah, all of this sounds so frustrating!!

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  9. That is a saga. I hope that last guy calls you back!

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  10. Why not just go to 3x3x8's? Better quality and more affordable.

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    1. I've been desperately trying to find some tim/orchard/alf 3x3x8s but am having no luck. I found once source in all of Texas but they are out of stock. So all I get is the same quality as the squares and the rounds, which all are cut from the same fields so the quality is the same. The rounds are really much better than I expected, which I was pleased with. Unfortunately in Texas, tim and orchard are nearly impossible to find because we have to have them shipped in from Washington or Colorado, which gets very pricey.

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    2. Timothy is in short supply all over. It's due to a very strange season. With that being said- give my guys a call, they should be able to give you a lead: (920) 904-1463

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  11. I'm reeling from the revelation that you pay $40/bale. For a square bale? A regular square bale?
    At that point isn't it cheaper to order a truckload from out of state? Last place I bought from in IL was $4/bale.

    Fingers crossed you find a (cheaper) solution!

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  12. Oh my goodness gracious. I'm sure you could drive to Idaho and take a truckload home for cheaper than $40 a bale!

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