Hay Bale Bundle

[3 Horse Ranch]

My brother has 3 horses and is now blind, so it became my job to provide the hay for them. I am nearly 70 and stocking the barn with enough 70# bales did not appeal to me. So I built a covered hay feeder on skids that I can drag from pasture to pasture depending on which needs organic fertilizer. We found a source for 700-800# 3x3x8 squares and handle them mechanically. The three horses go through a bale in 8 to 10 days so it is pretty easy to keep them in hay. They sometimes like to throw some hay on the ground, so I usually wait until they clean up their mess a little before I bring out another bale.

 

[Xfaxman]

UPDATE, This years hay bundles:

The two 21 bale bundles fit side by side on the tilt trailer:

Used the bale spear this year:

Put the first bundle on the dolly:

 

[Xfaxman]

Speared the second bundle:

Set it on the first:

Rolled them to their new home in the corner of the horse barn :

It is so awesome to go get 42 bales, bring them home, unload them stacked in the barn and never picked up a single bale by hand .

 

[EddieWalker]

You have a pretty good system. I'm still in that trial and error phase. It's only been 5 years of errors, so I'm sure I'll keep learning for another 5 years or more!!!

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

It is so awesome to go get 42 bales, bring them home, unload them stacked in the barn and never picked up a single bale by hand

Just finished getting our winter supply in. We just moved into the Okanogan valley so we aren't sure how much hay to stock for winter. In western Washington, there was always a little green grass in the winter for the horses, but here it's just sparse dray grass so after they knock it down, here it will hay only.

Because of the lateness of the move and the draught, we were unable to locate any hay locally, so we went back to last years supplier 225 miles away.

The last of 5 loads of 800# bales.