round bale vs square bale?

Round bales of HAY are perfectly fine. It is haylage that goes off too quickly with so few eating it.

Make sure you only buy good quality and if you can't see before you pay, then steer clear!

Mostly, people just put the whole bale out on a pallet or in a feeder.

But if you are worried and want to check for mould, get someone to help you unroll sheets of it to put out each day and leave the rest of the bale undercover on a pallet to keep it dry.

If your horses are sensitive to dust, spray the first few layers when you put it out as they will be drier than the rest.

Round bales are certainly much cheaper and you should be able to find just as good quality as in your square ones.

I will never ever feed round bales.

They are baled with a higher moisture content then square bales. This makes the growth of botulism possible. You get some botulism germs during the haying process no matter what you do (the usual source is dead mice or dead bugs, but it comes from the soil too) but they're usually eliminated in the drying process. If it's not dried all the way like in the square bales, it will multiply.

Horses are more vulnerable to botulism than any other farm animal. An amount that wouldn't make a cow bat an eye will kill a horse.

You have to balance the possibility of botulism, with big med bills and the possibility of losing your horse, against the few dollars you'll save. For me, it's not worth it.

If you decide to use them anyway... be aware that whatever's left after 2-3 days should be removed and discarded. It will mold. It will decay.

I don't care how many people say they've never had a problem. That doesn't mean it's safe or reasonable. I highly recommend against them.

The round bale vs. the square bale. First things first. How many horses are you feeding and are they fed in the pasture or in stalls? Horses eat continuously. That is the way they are made. They are a grazing animal. If you have enough pasture that carries the nutrients needed you should only need to give them hay when they are stalled. If your pasture is a little lacking and you need to supplement with hay a round pale will work for that. Keep in mind that there is hay loss when feeding a round bale. They will walk on it, pee on it, use it for a bed, and pick put the best stuff and leave the rest for later. You can get a round bale feeder and this will cut down on some of the waste. You will also need to keep an eye on it if they don't go through it fast enough it can get moldy and we all know that is not good. All-in-all round bales are the way to go if your horses are keep in the pasture and you have horses to eat the round bale before it goes bad. IF you only have 2 - 3 horses and good pasture you may just want to stay with square bales.

I have fed round bales and to feed they are a royal pain, If the hay was bailed old and tall it is very difficult to pull off pieces and feed. If it has not been bailed correctly it could be bad in the center and you would not know it when you got it.

Lots of folks will put a round bale out in the field and let several horses tear it to pieces and stomp on and ruin more than they eat, But I guess if you can aford to stomp good hay into the manure good for you.

Small bales are so much easier to feed. The only way I would feed round bales again is if I could put them in a creep so the horses could reach through to get it.

Round bales are fine - so long as they have been made properly.

The issue with round bales is generally, they are more prone to mould and are often less better quality to hay, because they are larger the stuff in the middle often does not get a proper chance to 'sweat' after it's been rolled and hence can be quite bad quality and not very good for horses.

Round bales are more often fed to cows - who can cope far better with the less good quality - but if you are going to feed round bales to horses you need to know that the hay is of good quality and hasn't been slap dashedly put together.

You also have the issue of waste - whilst normal bales can be split up and limited to how much is fed, round bales are often fed all in one go - and the hay often gets stomped into the ground,and shunted around, and less is eaten which can be heavy on the purse strings. Not to mention it's a cow to clean up when you go and pick the remnants off when it starts raining.

We have 2 horses and they have a round bale in their pasture. We have square bales too but we only use them for traveling or when we run out of round bales. I remember last summer the weather was bad for like a week so the horses were kept inside with short turnouts when the weather let up. We had to feed them square bales(1 flake per horse and we did that morning, evening and night. The bins we have for the hay are clean. I had given the pony a flake that morning, at noon I went back to the barn and turned them out because it wasn't raining, I noticed he hadn't eaten all of is hay but didn't think anything of it. That nite I brought both of them in and fed them there grain and gave them both another flake. Next day he still hadn't eaten all of his hay so I figured there was some sticker weds or mold in it. I picked up the leftover hay to throw it outside and realized that there was a dead snake in it. That explained why he wouldn't eat it. So Square bales can be bad too. One thing my dad taught me on checking round bales. They make little things for checking the quality of hay but we don't have one. My dad showed that if you stick your hand in between 2 layers and if its warm then don't get that bale because a warm,moist section means there is mold. But try to get a hay ring because my two just tore the first bale apart and wasted alot of hay before I could get out there and get the still good stuff up into the hay bins.

The only problem with round bales is that they get really dusty and before you feed your horse you have to get it wet to remove the dust, but they're not that bad just a lesser quality. Square bales and more expensive but if you can afford it I would get square

Some round bales are damp or moldy on the inside, but there are good ones.

Square bales are generally better because they seem to be greener (color) and aren't moldy as often. But if you can find good round bales, they're cheaper in the long run than square bales are.

There is no problem at all with round bales and square bales are just as likely to be mouldy. If you are making up haynets square bales are quicker and easier but the square bales are more expensive and round bales are better value for money.

I use round bales and have never had a problem with them and all the people i know use round bales.

Hope this helps!

x

as long as the bale is qood quality hay and does not have mold, it's safe. just only feed as much as they will eat in a day and keep the rest stored in a clean, dry space. otherwise your bale will rot and go bad in the pasture and your horses could try to eat it.