• How much Hay?

  • protection from sun and weather

    Hay-Shade will protect your valuable hay quality

    When horse owners are anticipating a harsh winter, most of us scratch our head and try to estimate our needs.  Each horse and the size of the herd may change from year to year. I found this short article in a Culpeper Coop Newsletter given out with my bill.  It had some merit and I saved it for future reference becauseHorse Fly Net sells a Hay-Shade.

    Here is the article:

    • “Expect to provide hay equal to around 2% of you horse’s weight each day or 22 pounds for an average size horse of 1100 pounds.
    • Multiply this by the number of days that you will need to supply hay, basically the period of dormancy from the first heavy frost until the soil warms in the spring.
    • To reach a final total, add a little extra to see your horses through extremely severe weather when extra hay will assist horses in staying warm.”

    Remember that it is better to have too much than too little and have to go scrambling. Hay that is kept dry and out of the sun is good next year and can always be used for horses that need to stay in a dry lot during spring when the grasses in the field are dangerously high in nitrogen and could cause foundering.

    Karleen

    copyright Horse Fly Net, LLC