OT - horses bahia hay

Kept the horses at the farm for almost 2 yrs. The pasture was bahia grass.

Pasture took a beating last year because of heat and drought, so took the horses back to Dallas to let the pasture at the farm recover. Pasture in Dallas is not large enough to keep them, so been feeding hay.

Coastal is running short, so took some 5x4 rounds of bahia grass hay cut from where they used to graze.

Bale has been out for over a week. They won't eat it, just nibble at it. Go figure.

They prefer the coastal. They WILL eat the bahia, or whatever is available, when they get hungry enough.

My pastures are looking great this year. I'm just outside Houston.
We got from .5 to 2" of rain per day for about 6 days straight earlier this month. Really greened things up.

I hope so. I need to be able to feed some of the bahia rounds to make sure I've got enough to get through to next hay season.

Try not to vary our feeding much, but seems whenever we get hay from a different source it takes the horses aanywhere from 2 days to a week to decide to eat it. Like some people I know, seems they just don"t like change.

YMMV,

~Kirk

I tried putting garlic in their grain to help with the flies & mosquitoes, they wouldn't eat that either. Tried for over 2 weeks, finally gave up.

Still hoping they'll change their minds. I really need them to eat some of the bahia rounds so I'll have enough of the coastal for later on.

Have James rig up a small pump and put some molasses in the round bales. Just take a small 3/4 pipe and drill some holes on the side and make a point on the end. You stick in in the side/end of the bale. Just like your bale spear.

I have one I made that I just used a old hand pump sprayer to push the molasses with. I made the probe for it out of 1/2 inch copper water pipe. I just cut the molasses 1/2 and 1/2 with hot water to make it flow better. ( My SIL uses it for her horses. So I know it works. She then can buy good common grass hay and keep them eating it with out problems)

Just inject your bale in 4-5 places around the center. Try to get 2-3 gallons in each bale. Let it set a day or so after you do it as the molasses spreads out in the bale.

Your horses will go nuts over it and they will not be able to founder as the molasses is not high enough in protein to hurt them. Plus it will extend your hay usage greatly.

My local Coop sells feed molasses in five gallon buckets for the smaller guys.

I have a big set up that I use all of the time that is a bronze gear pump on an electric motor. I inject liquid feed supplement. I start in the late summer when the pastures get weak. It really helps save hay and keeps the cow looking good. Right now I am using it on good clean corn stalk bales. They don't need much but I have way more stalks bales than I will need for bedding. They follow me around until I set it out for them. The hundred cows will clean up one per day clear to bare ground.


The garlic in the feed will keep just about everything from eating it. Garlic is a natural repellent, Horses too. LOL I just had a flash of a horse with garlic breathe LOL I don't know of anything you can use in horses feed to keep the flies out. I would just feed a smaller amount more time a day so the feed is exposed a shorter period.

Bought three horses this summer that was being fed poor grass hay. My other horses woluld pick the alfalfa out of my first cutting of mixed hay which always is heavy grass. I gave a way one wagon load and the other one was on the wagon. When my pasture dried up I started feeding off the wagon. The new horses started eating it like candy. Must have shamed the others because they are eating hay they never would before. 3 inches of rain and every thing is turning green again and they are working the pasture for the new sprouts.

Anything that eats garlic will get fewer bug bites - man or beast. BTDT. That's why I was trying to get the horses to eat grain with garlic sprinkled on it so they wouldn't be bothered as much by flies and mosquitoes.

Hmmm. I have several pounds of dry molasses. I'll try sprinkling some on the bale. Maybe put some in a pot of hot water and make some "molasses juice" and spray on the bale.

take it all away and don#t give them anything for a day or two.. they'll eat a peanut butter and jelly sammich and like it then :shock: ...

Seriously tho... Take it all away for a day then just give them a little to nibble a day and try some again. Are you sure it's good? You know the area it was made, it's not a popular dog walking place is it? Couple fields around here just outside of town where folks let their dogs run and nothing will eat the hay from it... Whoever cuts it just uses it for bedding. Ours won't eat garlic either. You might try some sulfur or yeast, it'll serve the same purpose for bugs...

Its hay from our own fields, so I know its good.

Would be hard to take it away, its in a feeding ring and they have access from 3 sides. Pasture is real short right now, not sure what they"re eating. Its certainly not the hay. They"ve got to be hungry. They normally go through a 4x4 round in a week. This one has been out for nearly 10 days and almost none of it has been eaten.

Gonna give the molasses thing a try. May be able to get them started, then decrease the molasses until they will eat it without the molasses.

(quoted from post at 15:43:21 07/25/12)
Take it all away for a day then just give them a little to nibble a day and try some again. Ours won't eat garlic either.

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Dave
Just take all food away from your hay burners for a day or two then sprinkle the Garlic powder on the PB sandwich. :wink: That gets back to an old saying "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" UNLESS the owner been feeding the horse a lot of salt then the horse will be happy to drink.

(quoted from post at 13:05:19 07/25/12)

(quoted from post at 15:43:21 07/25/12)
Take it all away for a day then just give them a little to nibble a day and try some again. Ours won't eat garlic either.

Click to expand...

Dave
Just take all food away from your hay burners for a day or two then sprinkle the Garlic powder on the PB sandwich. :wink: That gets back to an old saying "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" UNLESS the owner been feeding the horse a lot of salt then the horse will be happy to drink.

Click to expand...

We cut them off pretty often... Only thing constant for them is water and a mineral stone. They get fed round bales in rings and if they get stupid & scatter the stuff everywhere, the ring gets covered with a tarp until they clean up the mess.

Best fly repellent is vinigar you can pour it directly into there water trough they drink and when they sweat it back out no flies or like my wife does she mixes vinigar water and pine sol in a spray bottle to give them a soaking down before a trail ride