| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| hazelcat74 |
Posted - 07 Oct 2011 : 5:13:08 PM
As I now have 3 horses to feed I am thinking it might be cheaper to buy large bales of hay. we pay 4.00 for small bales and can get round bales for 25 or hestons for 35. Does anyone know roughly how many small bales this is equal to and if it does work out cheaper? |
| 13 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| doug ault |
Posted - 21 Oct 2011 : 08:32:25 AM
If you buy the large hestons be very careful how you open them, leave plenty of space round the ends, cut the string from the outsides first and work your way to the centre, then stand to the side before you cut the middle string, reach over from the side to cut it because they are so tight packed all the tension is released like a spring and can pin you to the wall. |
| Judith S |
Posted - 21 Oct 2011 : 08:21:01 AM
Stemmy hay/haylage will not pack as tight in the bale and the bale will be lighter, how much depends on the baler and how it is set. The contractor can set the tension in the bale and produce a tight heavy bale or a loose light one - if you are being paid by the bale which is most profitable? |
| debsnboz |
Posted - 20 Oct 2011 : 9:04:07 PM
I have just found this thread and am interested in it. At the end of last winter when i moved to my current field, my arab and our then loan mare were getting thro a round bale of haylage in abt 3 weeks.
I decided to feed hay this year as i am mineral balancing and wanted a supply i can use all yr round without it going off! We now have our 14.1 middleweight coloured mare as well as Borris.
I had my 1st bale delivered last week. I have quite a bit of, allbeit rough, grass so have hardly used it, and have gone thro 1/2 bale already. I think that is only 12 sparse nets (2-3kg). It does not seem densly packed and does not peel off like our haylage did last winter.
It is stemmy hay. Have i got a duff bale? He said it is packed with a john dere and that is really tight. But at my calculations the whole 45" bale will only weigh less than 100kg. Have i got a problem (apart from my bank balance!!!!) |
| pam |
Posted - 09 Oct 2011 : 3:06:13 PM
large round bales and heston bales can be made in any size! And the rounds can be made with a 'soft' centre that are easy to pull apart or fairly dense depending on the type of baler used. The ones we make on our farm are 4' and probably weigh roughly 300 - 350kgs, personally I use 1 a week for 7 stabled horses. If you say an average of 2 bales per horse per week I'm easily getting the equivalent of 14 conventional bales.
Generally both rounds and hestons will be much better value for money than conventionals!
We only do round bales so I'm not so 'up' on hestons but they do come in at least 3 different sizes. I know a local farmer to us produces the smaller size which contains no more hay than the 4' rounds we do. One of the way to judge their size is the number of strings used, 4 6 or 8 obviously the more hay the more strings! |
| Magician |
Posted - 09 Oct 2011 : 2:29:12 PM
"....it might be cheaper to buy large bales of hay. we pay 4.00 for small bales and can get round bales for 25 or hestons for 35. Does anyone know roughly how many small bales this is equal to and if it does work out cheaper?"
If the small bales are really well packed- 25kg- you get 40/ton. Lighter small bales are 50/ton. Round bales are often about 200kg (ie equivalent to 8 good sizes small bales) so you get 5/ton. If they are really well packed round bales can be 250kg, ie 4/ton.
£35 per hesston sounds a very good price. Are they full sized hesston or mini hesstons? You need to find out as one is twice the size of the other. Suggest you ask the farmer how heavy they are. |
| hazelcat74 |
Posted - 08 Oct 2011 : 5:53:10 PM
Looks like defo a good idea to buy large ones then. Just not sure how many will fit in my space in the barn, 2-3 probably hope they will deliver that amount! |
| arabianrio |
Posted - 08 Oct 2011 : 4:14:29 PM
I think it must depend on the size and weight of the hay bales. Up till this year I had really heavy large bales of hay. This year I have bought the same number of bales but I realised very quickly that their size and weight is nowhere near as heavy and large as usual!:-( |
| arabian |
Posted - 08 Oct 2011 : 12:00:47 PM
last year i bought conventional size bales at 5.00 per bale but this year ive bought hestons not the half but the full heston size the farmer told me it weighs 500kilos size wise its approx 12ft long by 5ft ish wide and 5ft high i started using it on september the 19th (my mums birthday) and have hardly made a dent in it yet but thats for one horse large hay net at night and have recently started haying in the field also, the farmer told me it would be equivalent to 20 conventional bales that weighed 25 kilos each doing the maths that makes sense  i pay 70.00 for it and am more than happy to do so will let you know how long it lasts (all winter would be perfect lol ) |
| DEA |
Posted - 07 Oct 2011 : 8:19:57 PM
We switched to the large round bales a few years ago and we have never looked back, they are MUCH cheaper and my horses have a constant supply of it all winter. It depends if you can find a friendly farmer to 'bring as required' or if you have enough space to buy a few in bulk, but I would go for the larger bales |
| Paresh |
Posted - 07 Oct 2011 : 8:19:33 PM
Originally posted by complete novice
It's somewhere between 10 & 12 to a round I've been told, excuse the ignorance but what is a heston?
a heston is one of the huge square bales that you see in the fields nowadays, normaly straw up this way, never seen hay done in them, been told a heston is 3times the size of a round bale but dont know if thats right or not, it was a farmer that told me that, but I would have said more like twice the size |
| Zan |
Posted - 07 Oct 2011 : 7:15:08 PM
I reckon on 8 of the bales I use for one round bale. It will vary quite a lot depending on the weight of the bales. |
| complete novice |
Posted - 07 Oct 2011 : 6:16:16 PM
It's somewhere between 10 & 12 to a round I've been told, excuse the ignorance but what is a heston? |
| MinHe |
Posted - 07 Oct 2011 : 6:05:13 PM
That's a good price for hestons - we were up to £40 where we were. But they are a lot more work than small bales unless you always feed in haynets anyway (we don't - we feed loose)
Keren |
