Let's guess the age and form of this hay :)

[Peggy Sue]

Guess the age and type of bale square or round http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/horse-forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs548.snc3/29990_1483994665832_1412830753_31328196_7244801_n. jpg (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31328196&id=1412830753)

[vicklynn]

Its not letting me pick 2 answers. Its polled as one question...

[KittySawrus]

I want to do it but can't D:

[Peggy Sue]

well Poo just guess here I guess :) I must have forgotten to hit the multi button :(

[vicklynn]

Well ok then, I guess round bale, over a yr.

[KittySawrus]

Round, under a year. I've seen like, months old hay go funnier colours.

[Peggy Sue]

This is a cell phone pic too and the phone was dropped in my water trough the other day LOL

[KittySawrus]

:L well that's just not fair then!! It could be any colour!! I'm sticking with my guess though :)

[Peggy Sue]

I will go out and get better pics here in minute :) LOL didn't think about it until you mentioned the color being "off" :innocent:

[Peggy Sue]

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs528.snc3/29990_1484065627606_1412830753_31328296_3883388_n. jpg (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31328297&id=1412830753)

[Peggy Sue]

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs508.ash1/29990_1484065387600_1412830753_31328291_7020911_n. jpg (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31328297&id=1412830753)

[WashingtonBay]

No way of knowing... The color has a lot more to do with the season it was baled than the age of it, and whether it's been stored inside, doesn't it? I answered round bale because the stems looked longer in the first pic than we usually have in squares, but it's hard to tell that too, without scale.

Are you going to give us the punch line? :)

[Peggy Sue]

giving it some time WB letting everybody have a chance...

how old do you think it is??

[WashingtonBay]

No idea... could maybe tell in person. Sometimes not, if it's been stored well. :)

If it was here, we'd know it was at least a year old because they haven't done a first cutting yet. Some might be getting ready to do it now.

[vicklynn]

No idea... could maybe tell in person. Sometimes not, if it's been stored well. :)

If it was here, we'd know it was at least a year old because they haven't done a first cutting yet. Some might be getting ready to do it now.

Its just a guess off of a pic. Come on, take a guess.

I did, and I have no clue.

[BlaiseGlaze]

round
right at a year

[Petra]

Round, over a year.

[JetLagaside]

I'm going with round as well and a year but that's always hard to tell from a photo.

[Peggy Sue]

It is a round bale that was first cutting LAST year and stored outside all year :) rip off the outside layers and insides are fine

[shewasmyshadow]

Yippee I guessed right. :D LOL.

[vicklynn]

Aww, I was right.
I remember you saying you bought hay, stripped the outside off.
I also know you feed squares.
I had no clue it was the round bale you were talking about, nor last yrs.
Nice!! Looks barn kept!

[3equines]

Must be a lot drier in your parts;).

BF and I were 'discussing' the hay situation, our combined herd will number 5 horses and we may consider buying the mega-square bales (1/2 ton bricks) or round bales this year. Only problem is that around here sometimes round bales are not cured properly and you have silage instead of hay, or they are cut so late that you have straw instead of hay.

[vicklynn]

[QUOTE=3equines;324663]Must be a lot drier in your parts;).

She made a funny:hysterical:

[Peggy Sue]

3E our first cutting is not even IN yet this year because of all the rain...

the thing with round bales is to PEEL the outside layers if they have been wet very long.... the INSIDES are good..

be careful with the HAFFIES on them though they turn into balloons :)

if they are rolled properly rarely do you lose the insides... I need to take pics of the two I haven't busted yet to let ya all see how nasty they looked on the outside

[WashingtonBay]

What happens here, that 3E is referring to, is that at least on this side of the mountains, we rarely get the kind of dry heat necessary to cure the hay well enough that it doesn't either rot or explode when round baled. Round bales from this side of the mountains are silage... cattle hay, not horse quality. It's the inside that is the most rotten.

I'm not a fan of round bales here for that reason... I bought one last year, from eastern wa... but I think it was more expensive than feeding flakes for the same period, and made a big mess of waste they didn't eat. They enjoyed sleeping on it all summer... so there's that. :)

[offgridgirl]

I'm guessing it is over a year old but it could be round or square, no way to tell from the pictures. We are down to our last couple of bales here, but the hay is "lookin" really good this year...all we need is a few days of sun and we will have a boat load of it....can't wait!! UGH...;)

[offgridgirl]

I'm not a fan of round bales here for that reason... I bought one last year, from eastern wa... but I think it was more expensive than feeding flakes for the same period, and made a big mess of waste they didn't eat. They enjoyed sleeping on it all summer... so there's that. :)

Ditto...we can get the round bales but unless you have 7 or more horses in a field to feed it is mainly wasted or ferments. Even the dairy farmers here are careful with round bales:cowboy:

[Peggy Sue]

WB getting hay up dry is the trick ANYWHERE... we should have had first cutting out two weeks ago BUT it keeps raining ... some people have cut and I have them wrote down I won't be buying from them.

I feed on average 4 head for $35 a week... where can you do squares for cheaper then that?? Mine clean up all but the outside layer when the bale is skidded. Much easier too who wants to carry hay in sub zero weather to four head of horses ... and my horses have hay 24/7

[Peggy Sue]

Heck I feed one to two horses in my dry lot and hardly any of it that was good to start with get wasted... these last four bales I will "blow" when I set them because there is so much on the outside that is bad but for $15 a bale I can't complain

I will have more waste with these four because when I blow them can't wrap them with skids... makes good fill for the pond though LOL

[WashingtonBay]

I had to go look up the old thread to remember what I paid... I remember that I decided it cost more to feed the round...

Well, round bale = one week with basically our two horses eating from it. The pony ate some, but was not eating much.

To this hay's credit, they're still eating it. It was pretty palatable hay, better than most local in terms of the amount wasted.

And I suppose this week, when our attentions were elsewhere, it was nice to not have to worry about tossing hay to the horses.

But from an economic standpoint, it cost more than the equivalent of even the most expensive orchard grass we'd have gone through in the same period.

The round bale was $50. We'd have probably gone through 3-4 of the large orchard squares that are $10 during the same period, and the actual quality would have been higher.

So... I guess my conclusion is, if I'm going on vacation and hiring a farm sitter in summer, they're not a bad way to go for low maintenance... but not necessarily the way I want to do it all the time. Not for our climate, or the way hay is packaged and priced around here.

[Peggy Sue]

our 50lbs squares average $2.50 to $3.00 and with free choice I would feed about 4 to 5 a day with this bunch... rounds are cheap around here alot of people don't have the means to move them or anyplace to set the extras...

now when I bale my hay it is cheaper for me to do sqaures I don't save enough doing rounds

[3equines]

I feed on average 4 head for $35 a week... where can you do squares for cheaper then that?? Mine clean up all but the outside layer when the bale is skidded. Much easier too who wants to carry hay in sub zero weather to four head of horses ... and my horses have hay 24/7

That is the allure of the round bale, dollars per head. BF has had round bales before, he parks it in the barn aisle and pitches the hay into the stalls so they don't get to pig out.

[Peggy Sue]

I wish I had a barn isle to set mine in LOL ...