Hey i have a hay question!???

Question

heh okay so what is better round bales? or square bales?

what lasts longer?

what is easier to haul and manage?

what is your preference and why?

Answer 1

keep a round bell out of the rain and somewhere where the animal can get to it. thats what i think is better. square bells are easier to move around.

Answer 2

I use round bales. I have enough horses that they go through one in 3 days. They are cheaper than square bales for me and the amount of horses I have. They are harder to haul and you need a tractor to put them in a hay ring. If you don't use a hay ring, they will waste a lot of it. You also have to have it hauled to you.  If I only had 1 to 3 horses, I would probably use square bales since I could haul enough in my pickup to last a few weeks and wouldn't have to pay a delivery charge.

Answer 3

i prefer the big round bales! they are what we use @ the place i board at! they are more convientant for us exspecially in the herd!

Answer 4

i've only seen round bales used on larg livestock farms... and since the square ones are smaller they are easier to use in a barn...

Answer 5

round bales- will last longer but are very hard to haul. most people will only use round bales if they have at least 10 head of cattle or horses

square bales- Way lighter. easier to manage and cost less but if you're feeding a lot of livestock you might wanna get round bales

Answer 6

There are pros and cons for both round and square bales.

Round-  PRO: Economically are cheaper seeing as most round bales won't run you more than $40 depending on where you are located and depending on size of bale most when torn apart can make anywhere from 13-16 square bales. Despite what another user stated, you DON'T have to store inside. Gives the horse option of free choice if set in pasture.

CON: If fed free choice must be put in feeding grazer seeing as most horses love to deficate and urinate on the hay. You need to have 2 strong people to either push off trailer and roll around barn, or a front end loader.

Square: PRO: Smaller and easier to stack and store. Easier to pull off flakes and feed out. Horse won't deficit or urinate on the hay. Usually easier to tell if weeds are in smaller bales.

CON: Expensive. They HAVE to be stored. Cannot be rained on. Harder to unload 200 square bales than to unload 16 round bales.

My preference is Large Alfalfa or Alfalfa/mix hay. I'm talking huge 3x3x8 bales or 3x4 bales. They are more economical, flake easy, have a higher PFV and most dealers guarantee larger bales.

Zephaniah-----round bales are perfectly safe for horses and despite your belief horses can get botulism from square bales as well as round bales and even feed. It seems most people fail to remember that horses are in fact intelligent creatures and if you watch a horse they will pick out what they consider "good" hay.

It's all a roll of the dice. Horse's can get botulism from eating hay, feed, and even finding an animal carcass and toying with it. But if you have a reputable feed and forage supplier that checks their hay and feed for the toxins and also are a responsible owner and get your horse his botulism vaccine than the risk of your horse in fact being struck with the toxin is rare.

Answer 7

I want to correct a few people about saying cows have 5 stomachs. This is a myth. Cows have 4 compartiments in the stomach. First the reticulum then the rumen then the omasum and then the abomasum then onward to the small intestine.

Round bales are usually used by large operations. square bales...well...there are square bales just as big as round bales so same thing as round bales just stack easier but usually for large operation and the little square bales, more commonly used by horse owners.

your questions about what last longer, well the round bale will last as long as any other bale its wieght. you will have to buy a lot of small square bales to equal one large round or square bale

Answer 8

Round bales should NOT be fed to horses.

Because of the way they are made, there is  a real danger of giving the horse botulism.  Cows, with their 5 stomachs, can handle the bacterial toxin, but many horses die of botulism every year.  I know many people swear by them and have never had a problem, but I won't take the chance.

Absolutely do not feed them outdoors unless they'll be eaten in under 3 days.   The hay molds, and that leads to breathing problems in horses - heaves, especially.

The small square bales are easier to haul and manage for most people.  It's easier to regulate how much your horse eats, and to eliminate waste from horses playing/pooping/standing in it.

Any hay fed to horses should never be allowed to get wet.  The moisture seeps inside, and even though we can't see it, produces enough mold to be dangerous.  Even if the hay was rained on and redryed before baling, the mold grows and turns to dust, which, when inhaled, damages the lungs.

Edit:  Horses are more sensitive to botulism than any other livestock, though even cows can die from it.  Botulism results from the toxins produced by an anaerobic bacteria, meaning it thrives in places where there's no oxygen, like inside a round hay bale.

Hay in small bales is a good deal less impervious to air.  Anaerobics do not generally grow there unless the hay gets wet.  Hay in large bales is a perfect environment for the bacteria, being completely anaerobic.  No hay is moisture free (usually around 15%) when baled, and large bales dry no further.  This can be enough moisture for the bacteria to thrive.  You can not see it, but it's there, producing the toxins that will kill the horse.

Other sources:  baling small dead animals; using chicken droppings for fertilizer; contaminated soil or water, and so on.  If you've got a baled rabbit in your small bale, you're far more likely to see it and not feed it!  

So there's a risk of botulism with any hay, but the risk rises immensely with round bales and even more with haylage.  There is no cost effective way to test for it.  And a single dead mouse in the center of a round bale will not be discovered until the contaminated hay around it has been eaten.  The horse won't eat the mouse, but won't detect the toxin in the "good" hay around it.

Botulism is such a deadly problem that I prefer not to take the risk.

Answer 9

I prefer square bales. They are easier for me to handle.

Answer 10

Well - are you talking round versus the big square bales  or round versus normal little square bales?

Rounds are great - they can be a great supplement to horses on pasture.  They need to be lower quality, so the horses don't over eat too much.  They can be hard to manage - you need to have a large tractor or skid steer to move them around.  Stacking can be somewhat difficult, but can be done with a tractor with a loader.  You do have to be careful with rounds because many farmers keep them outside - so you need to peal off the moldy hay on the outside.

Big Squares (800+ pounds) are easier to stack than the rounds - but you still need a tractor and loader to do it.  They don't make bale feeders for them yet - so typically they're only used on cattle farms.  The balers are much more expensive than a round or small square baler.

Small squares - ideal for stalling situations or small paddocks with limited space.  Also ideal for injured horses or horses that are prone to over eating - causing problems with laminitis.  They are significantly more work.  Baling small squares and loading them onto a hay rack, then unloading them into the barn (and of course it's always a 100 degrees out!) is a lot of work!  They must be stored inside to prevent molding.

I think that small squares last hte longest (pound per pound, not bale for bale!)- they waste less and you can regulate how much they eat.

I prefer rounds though as my horses are kept on pasture.  It does not require daily feeding and does not require having countless people bale and stack hay.

Answer 11

I prefer the square ones for 1-3 horses and the round ones for any more. The square ones are easier to handle, but they don't last as long and need to be stored. I like the round ones better overall

Answer 12

Round bales are cheaper, but harder to handle.  You need a lift to carry them.  They have to be stored inside until used, and if you feed them outside, they must be eaten completely within no more than 3 days or the risk of mold skyrockets.

Round bales are fine for cows since they have 4 stomachs and can handle mold.

For horses, unless you can store and feed them inside where rain and ground moisture can't get into them, they are not an ideal choice.

EDIT to ADD....a few years back, when I still boarded my horses,  7 horses (including mine) colicked after the barn owner switched to round bales, and fed them outside unprotected from rain and ground moisture.  Because she had a small operation, the bales sat for 5 days outside.

Multiple vets were involved, the bales were identified as the source, no question about it.  The remaining bales, from the same supplier, were being stored inside.  They were tested and fine.  They came from a supplier who also had stored them inside.  It was determined that the bales became moldy after being outside for 5 days.Every horseowner involved contributed to the extensive research that followed this tragic event.  The information is out there for anyone to access.  Round bales, or any bales of that size, are for cows.  If you risk feeding it to your horses, so be it.  Three days is the accepted limit that one should sit out.  Why take the risk?

And if anyone using them is boarding other peoples horses, I would worry about being sued if those horses colic.

Answer 13

For the average owner small squares are easier to handle and work fine.

We use big round bales. I have a tractor and move them with that. I also have my hay ring inside a run in shed and they hay does not get wet. They are put up on a pallet and then the ring is placed around them. It takes about a month for the horses to eat one. But since they are stored inside and covered while out for eating we do not have a mold problem.

We have fed this way for many years with no issues. Our vet does not think it is an issue. He wanted to know where I got my hay it looked good and he thought he would buy from my hay guy.

When you buy large rounds most people sell them either by the ton or by the bale. By the ton is cheaper we paid about $80 per ton last year.

This year we had our pasture baled.

Answer 14

I'm guessing you mean the normal £3 square bales against the big round (wrapped ?) ones

I don't use hay very often but I have used both.

The main problem I had with the round bales was mess - you have to unwrap them and then unwind the hay from them whereas with the squares you just cut the string and peel off your slices.

If you're trying to move them by hand then the rounds are difficult - you have to roll them and they always try to go the wrong way.

Sometimes the round bales can "go-off" and you can't see it until you've unwrapped it. The big ones can be weedy and it's harder to spot than in the squares.

If you have a few they are difficult to stack.