E Q U I N E AT H L E T E
Pinching pennies Horse-keeping on a tight budget By Heather Smith Thomas
In a shaky economy and rising costs, horse owners try to find ways to trim expenses. Dave Freeman, PhD (Professor Emeritus, Department of Animal Science, Oklahoma State University) says that over the years he received many calls from people wondering what they could do to save money. “Most people didn’t want to hear my first words of advice. The easiest way to reduce costs is reduce your number of horses.” Most horsemen prefer to look at other ways to address budget challenges. The place to start is to figure out where money is spent, looking at areas of waste, duplication, unnecessary purchases, etc. There are numerous ways to save money without compromising the health and care of your horses, but you have to first know where the money is going. Reducing Feed Costs There are several ways to shrink the feed bill. You can reduce waste, buy more wisely, and extend your pasture. Dr. Bob Mowrey, (Professor Emeritus, North Carolina State University) says that if you use round bales, you could switch to wrapped bales, to protect them from moisture and spoilage. After unwrapping, feed them in an enclosed structure like a run-in shed, or use a hay tunnel or cover over the round bale feeder to keep them dry while they’re eaten. “A hay tunnel is a patented polyethylene product
You can save money by buying hay directly out of a field, and there is always savings when buying hay in large quantities.
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we tested at NC State. Using a front-end loader on a tractor, or a spear attached to a 3-point hitch on the rear PTO, you can lift a small round bale and shove it into this container, which protects it from rain and mold,” says Mowrey. Horses eat from both open ends. This allows more horses to have access to the hay at once and cuts feed loss and wastage from the typical 30% wasted (when feeding round bales) down to less than 5% waste per bale. If you don’t have equipment to deal with round bales, a spear can be added to the top of a box blade. “Most farms have a tractor blade attachment for scraping the road, plowing snow, etc. and you can put the spear on this. The box blade acts like a catch on the bottom of the bale and the spear is mounted on the top of the blade. Most small 30-horsepower tractors, like people use for pulling a manure spreader or blading the road, can move a small round bale on a front-end loader or 3-point hitch. You can’t lift it very high to stack the bales, but can move them around,” explains Mowrey. Bob Coleman, Equine Extension Specialist (Department of Animal Science, University of Kentucky) says that using hay feeders helps control waste, compared to just dumping the bales out in the pen or pasture. “Studies at Texas Tech showed that horses utilize
