Hay problems - 🤞sorted

[Jessey]

Poor old Jess had another acute flare up of her breathing 2 weeks ago.

My normal hay supplier keeps bringing me lesser quality bales of 2 year old hay and he’s told me his new cut has clover in it.

She’s had 3 flare ups since June and the one before last was so bad I honestly thought she’d die before the vet arrived, she was down and desperately struggling for every breath and developed colic on top.

I just used my emergency stash of prepackaged meadow haylage and got a big bale in from over 30 miles away, that turned out to be rye ? but anyway 2 weeks of haylage and no coughs and her lungs sounded clear.

I busted a gut yesterday morning to borrow a friends truck and trailer to go get some really nice small bale hay but by last night she was coughing ?

I don’t have running water, or £2.5k to buy a hay gain steamer. I’ve DIYd one but it’s not really practical

My nets just don’t fit in a dustbin! That’s a 6kg net (she gets that twice a day) and as you’re meant to steam hay for an hour doing multiple smaller loads isn’t going to work for me around my job.

Getting haylage is proving very difficult, I just can’t afford to bring in a lorry load from out of area. I’m going to pick up a small bale from someone locally in a few minutes but it’s expensive.

What container can you think of that I could make into a bigger steamer?

 

[diplomaticandtactful]

oh dear i am sorry, we are lucky in that our local guy will deliver a couple of bales of haylage at a time, previous to that we had to buy a 10-12 of them. no practical ideas i am afraid. large bath for soaking?

 

[Trewsers]

Yes a plasterers bath?

 

[Jessey]

Unfortunately without mains water soaking is unbelievably difficult. I have to pump water from a well with a 12v pump, it’s takes about 5 hours a week just to do their drinking water and the battery has to be lugged back to charge every 10 hours.

 

[carthorse]

Could you use an old chest freezer as a box to steam in? It has the advantage of being well insulated too so the heat would stay in for a longer time and do a better job.

Is rye haylage a problem for her given that the process of making it uses up a lot of the sugars?

 

[Jessey]

Could you use an old chest freezer as a box to steam in? It has the advantage of being well insulated too so the heat would stay in for a longer time and do a better job.

Is rye haylage a problem for her given that the process of making it uses up a lot of the sugars?

Great idea!

Yes rye haylage is still an issue, she went lame on day 5 of that bale and there wasn’t any other notable change in her life and she hadn’t been hooning about or anything. It happens even with tested low sugar stuff so I don’t think it’s necessarily the sugar causing the problem, but I don’t have any idea what it is. It’s happened too many times just to be coincidence now I think.

 

[carthorse]

I can understand that, I have the same problem with Little Un, the sensitivity is extreme and management is difficult because of it. I'm glad the chest freezer seems like a workable solution

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

If the old chest freezer idea doesn't work, you could try getting a galvanised feed bin to use as a steamer. But the freezer is a much much better idea.

Good luck. Jess is very lucky that you are so indomitable!

 

[Jessey]

I’m struggling to find a freezer ? I have got 1 that I currently store my extra feed in, I do also have a very large feed bin that I use for storing rugs etc in because it’s rodent proof but I’m loathe to cut into either to add the necessary steam pipe and drain.

 

[Trewsers]

I’m struggling to find a freezer ? I have got 1 that I currently store my extra feed in, I do also have a very large feed bin that I use for storing rugs etc in because it’s rodent proof but I’m loathe to cut into either to add the necessary steam pipe and drain.

That's just typical isn't it! Where we used to live people were throwing them out left right and centre lol
In fact, we had one in the out-house at the old house which gave up the ghost and I never really used it much for storing rugs like I could have done. I hope you find one soon. Presume you've tried the local skips / tip? I don't know how it works these days but if you ask nicely then sometimes they will find one for you. I know up here you can (you're not meant to really) help yourself to things like that on the local skip sites. They were un-manned before covid though, so not sure now.

 

[carthorse]

Do you have a local fb page? They often seem to come up around here, or you could put a wanted ad up.

 

[Mary Poppins]

What about a wheelie bin?

 

[Jessey]

That's just typical isn't it! Where we used to live people were throwing them out left right and centre lol
In fact, we had one in the out-house at the old house which gave up the ghost and I never really used it much for storing rugs like I could have done. I hope you find one soon. Presume you've tried the local skips / tip? I don't know how it works these days but if you ask nicely then sometimes they will find one for you. I know up here you can (you're not meant to really) help yourself to things like that on the local skip sites. They were un-manned before covid though, so not sure now.

We don’t even have a tip here now, just recycling centres which are manned and by appointment only still at the moment, but I do know a guy who works there, I haven’t spoken to him in years but I’m desperate so will message him!

Do you have a local fb page? They often seem to come up around here, or you could put a wanted ad up.

Yep I scoured Facebook and preloved etc. As mean as it sounds I’m really hoping for someone to have the bad luck of their freezer dying right before Xmas so I can

What about a wheelie bin?

My wheelie bin isn’t much wider than the black bin so still not easy to get a net in.

 

[carthorse]

As a temporary measure could you fill the bin with loose hay to steam and then put it in the net afterwards? I know it's messy and a faff, but it would get the job done.

 

[domane]

Does your hay definitely need to be steamed for the spores.... or could you get away with just wetting it? Gracie can't have dry hay because it makes her cough, so she has to have it wet, but not steamed.

 

[Jessey]

As a temporary measure could you fill the bin with loose hay to steam and then put it in the net afterwards? I know it's messy and a faff, but it would get the job done.

I’ve been doing a couple of sections, it’s just not enough.

Does your hay definitely need to be steamed for the spores.... or could you get away with just wetting it? Gracie can't have dry hay because it makes her cough, so she has to have it wet, but not steamed.

the issue is still the volume of water, I did get away with lightly soaking, rolling it around in a tub with a couple of buckets of water but that was still 8 buckets of water a day. Steaming is only half a bucket each time.

I think I’ve found some haylage that might work, it does have rye but a minimal amount (mostly meadow mix) so I’m going to pick a bale up on Monday to try (got to wait for friend to be available with his truck/trailer). I picked up 5 pre packaged bales this morning to tide us over. I’m really hoping a month or two on haylage will really settle everything down and then the good hay steamed will keep it controlled and I’ll be able to find a freezer or similar by then ?

 

[horseandgoatmom]

I hope you can find a solution.
We really don't have haylege over here.
We have bagged chopped forage
Dengi but isnt haylege long strand??

We never see rye hay either
Ours is mostly Timothy..orchard grass..
Or Alfalfa.

 

[carthorse]

@horseandgoatmom yes haylage is long strand rather than a chopped forage. It's cut at a similar length to hay but then baled and wrapped earlier so it ferments and cures to produce a different type of forage.

Rye is very common over here, in fact it's hard to avoid which is a nuisance for some of us. It became popular as a cattle grass because it's hardy and very nutritional - too much so for some horses. From a farmers point of view it's great though as it's easy to grow, easy to make into hay or haylage, and isn't as badly affected by weather as some of our native grasses. Alfalfa is really only used over here as a chopped forage though, you very rarely see alfalfa hay and even alfalfa haylage is only available through specialist suppliers and would have to be ordered in by most feed stores.

 

[horseandgoatmom]

There is not any fermented type hay for horses here that i know of

They make wrapped rounds...marshmallows...for cows

 

[Jessey]

There is not any fermented type hay for horses here that i know of

They make wrapped rounds...marshmallows...for cows

We feed cows silage, which is baled and wrapped or fermented in a clamp. Haylage has a moisture content half way between that and hay, horses can often get poorly on silage but don’t seem to struggle with the drier haylage. It’s popular here because we often don’t get consistent dry weather in the summer to dry the hay well enough before it’s baled.