Almost out of grass horse hay-need knowledge on PROPER substitutes?

[chooniecat]

FINALLY walked neighbors pastures to see where gates are located and originally thought I would have to walk my horse down front of MY property to get to NEIGHBORS pastures(NOT a good option because my horse would then want to go in street if she escaped to get to neighbors) but figured out a way thru opening in back of my crappy pasture that gets to THEIR good fenced in pastures easily. As long as we don't get much snow I can use their property.

 

[ScottnLydia]

Just thought I'd chime in, round bales here are going for $200 to $275. I just checked. That's for grass, by the way.

It won't help in the short run, but perhaps look into growing some fodder to help stretch your hay. There is a lengthy thread on here somewhere about growing fodder for chickens, basically sprouting barley or wheat, and letting it grow for 6 or 7 days. With hay prices as high as they are here, I'm going to be doing that for my livestock.

Good luck!

 

[chooniecat]

Fortunately my neighbor has 15 acres they have baled at least 2x a year and this was just a screw up on calculatging how much I should buy from them this past spring. THIS spring(hopefully WE don't have drought) I will buy every bale that comes off their field and buy the 2nd cutting if I can because I get it for $3 a bale(put up in my loft) so can't beat that. The round bale that came yesterday is dusty/smelly compared to my 5 remaining small bales(and I am not talented at judging hay) so I won't buy from this person again.Altho the horse is eating it I am not thrilled with the quality.