December 2021 Polo Players' Edition- Pinching Pennies

Pinching Pennies

Horse-keeping on a Tight Budget

By Heather Smith Thomas

Pasture grazing is the most cost efficient way to feed, and using rotational grazing can greatly extend the pasture.

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 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.

You can save money by buying hay directly out of a field, and there is always savings when buying hay in large quantities.

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 35% more from a feeder, versus no feeder, especially in a protected area like a shed,” he says.

Even more is wasted if the bale is outside, subjected to spoilage from weather. Without a feeder, horses pull hay from the bale, step on it, and then won’t eat it.

“Another thing you can do is feed only the amount they need,” says Coleman. The average 1000- pound horse requires 2% of his body weight in forage (20 pounds) daily. You can’t regulate intake with big bales fed free choice, but you can when feeding small square bales, by figuring weight of the bales and daily feeding the proper amount.

Many people overfeed. If they have two horses, and 60-pound bales, they often think it’s easier just to throw a bale to the horses rather than taking time to portion it out or make it last, says Coleman. But when money is tight, taking time to figure each horse’s needs becomes higher priority.

“Is an hour of your time worth saving hay at $300 per ton? Some people feed concentrates to try to extend their hay, but this only works if you can control hay intake,” says Coleman.

If you use round bales in a feeder, you may have to make them clean it up. Some horses will eventually eat the hay they’ve stepped on but some are fussier and if they are hard-keepers and fussy they may start to lose weight.

“The biggest problem with round bales is how to control consumption. This can be difficult,” he says. There are pluses and minuses to using large bales and this is one of the drawbacks, since most horses tend to be gluttons and eat more than they need.”

Another way to save feed costs is for several horse owners to go together and form a co-op to buy hay or commercial bags of feed in bulk, at lower prices by the ton (rather than by the bale or sack), and share shipping expenses. If you don’t want to deal with big round bales, and must use the more expensive small square bales, it pays to buy large shipments, or buy it directly out of the field.

“If you contract 1000 bales out of the field, this works better for the producer and you can often pay a lower price,” says Freeman. You and your neighbors can get together and haul it. There are people who buy in bulk (at lesser cost) and turn around to sell hay at higher price to horsemen who only want 10 bales. There is always a savings when buying hay in large quantities.

Keeping hay out of the elements will save a lot of money over time. Using square bales rather than round bales is easier to portion.

“Consider building a pole barn to store hay,” says Mowrey. “If you can buy hay $2 to $2.50 cheaper per bale in summer out of the field—versus paying more

in winter, this savings will build a barn. Thirty years ago a horse breeder in North Carolina was using 90 tons per year. Hay at that time was $1.50 per bale out of the field versus $3.50 or more during winter. He paid for construction of his hay barn in less than two years, just from savings on hay.”

A small operation could justify a smaller shed to store 20 to 40 tons of hay--a year’s supply for six to 10 horses that don’t have pasture. A hay shed doesn’t need sides—just a roof with enough width to keep moisture from running down the sides of the stack.

“A co-op could contribute to building a large hay barn, where hay for farms in your neighborhood could be stored,” says Mowrey. This can be a business investment for the farm that owns the land where the shed is built, leasing out space to other horse owners. If you are shipping it in, hay can go to one location to be unloaded.

“This makes it cheaper (per ton) than buying small amounts from a middleman, and you can split the hay with your neighbors,” says Coleman. Working together can often save money, and pooling can create alliances and friendships. This can be a positive spin-off from hard times.

Neighbors can create a buying co-op. “Horse owners could pay their hay money to the co-op, and one check from the co-op could pay for hay,” says Coleman. This arrangement might be more attractive to a hay dealer or hauler than having 10 people show up with 10 checks.

Freeman says the level of success in any cooperative venture depends on how you do business.

“A partnership is only as strong as the desire of the various parties to get along together. In tough economic times, many people will change their attitudes and not be so competitive or so selfish about their own needs. They can get together and have a good time. They can all go haul hay out of the field, for instance,” says Freeman.

Maximize Pasture

Letting horses harvest forage by grazing is the most cost efficient way to feed. “Subdividing pastures and using rotational or controlled grazing can greatly extend it,” says Mowrey. “On a normal growth period in North Carolina we have grazing for about 10 months by doing this. The cost of pasture is often less than the cost of hay,” he says.

“Here, our dependence on hay can be reduced to two to three months of the year. If you inter-seed winter annuals and have a mixture where some paddocks are planted to warm season grasses and some to cool season grasses, you can have a yearround grazing plan and only need to feed hay for two

to three months, unless you’re in a drought,” he says. The horse is much more efficient grazing it, than if you try to harvest it as hay.

On a farm that has large areas fenced, just subdividing and using a pasture management plan like rotational grazing or controlled intensive grazing can greatly extend the grazing. On a small acreage where there’s not room for permanent pasture divisions, you can put in temporary step-in posts and tape electric fencing, and move the tapes to rotate the grazing areas every few days, forcing the horses to graze everything down (including their least favorite plants that they would ordinarily leave ungrazed) before moving them, and giving the rest of the acreage more time to regrow. This can improve the health of the pasture (longer recovery times) and produce more forage.

In some areas of the country hay prices are extremely high, especially with freight added on. Hay-growing regions that are in a drought may also be short on hay and the price is even higher. Thus it pays to extend grazing as much as possible. If you can manage your land more intensively, fertilize appropriately, and let horses harvest the forage themselves (managing pastures for their forage and nutritional value rather than just as turnout areas), this saves a lot of hay expense.

A person can ask local Extension people for advice on soil tests and fertilizing. “Fertilizer is expensive so you need to fertilize at appropriate rate and at the proper time,” says Coleman. “Make a plan. If it’s not the optimum time to spread fertilizer, don’t spend the money.”

Horses are efficient harvesters. The cost of putting up hay keeps increasing. If you mechanically harvest it, you also lose more nutrients. Maximizing pastures is often a better choice.

Reducing the Herd

“We may not need all the horses we have, but it can be difficult to sell one, in an over-supply market,” says Freeman. “It’s not as hard to sell a horse if it’s usable. It’s very hard, however, if you never got around to training it; you can’t even give away a horse that’s not rideable.

If you want to reduce your herd to reduce expenses, develop a horse someone will want to ride. The strength of the market is in top-end show or performance horses and broke horses that anyone can ride. If you have some unbroken horses and are complaining about expenses, find a way to get them broke, because you won’t be able to sell them any other way,” he says. A good, usable gelding may not be worth quite what you hoped he would bring, but someone will buy him. If he’s 5 years old and barely halter broke, no one will want him.

Consider Options

There are dozens of little ways to save money, adding up to large savings over time. “Pay attention to catalog sales, advertising fliers, or coupons at the feed store. If something you need comes up on sale, that’s a better time to buy it. Some businesses reduce inventory by lowering prices; if you shop around you might find things you can afford,” says Coleman. Sometimes financial crunches are also times of opportunity.

“It all comes down to having a plan, thinking about what you really need or don’t need, and becoming a conscientious consumer. There are consumer reports on many things, and people often take advantage of that, but when it comes to their horses they tend to spend more than they need to, and should be more money conscious,” says Coleman.

Many horse associations have partnerships with companies that offer savings to their members, like the USPA’s Polo Plus program. Members can save on farm equipment, paint, fans and more.

Freeman says a huge amount of money is often spent on things that have no bearing on horses’ health and well-being. “We buy many things to satisfy human desires. When you decide to trim expenses, write down everything you purchase. In one column list things you buy for the health and well-being of the horse, and be honest about it—his food and shelter,” he says. It’s also important to keep up with vaccinations. The costs of treating a disease (or possibly losing a horse to illness) could be far greater than the expense of the vaccine.

In another column list things that only pertain to your interests with that horse. “This is the hard part to cut out, but most horsemen will realize these are not necessities. Back in the old days we didn’t have all these gadgets and products and still enjoyed our horses and took good care of them,” says Freeman. Other ways to cut costs include figuring ways to keep your old equipment functional, or buy used items, if something new is out of your budget right now. Horsemen who go to competitions are looking at traveling less, or closer to home.

It is important to keep up with vaccinations. The cost of treating a disease could be far greater than the expense of the vaccine.

Reducing travel costs by sharing trailer space has been done in many sports for a long time. This will obviously continue, but now we may see more people doing it.

Other ways you might save is to plan ahead and work with your neighbors on things like farrier visits.

“If a farrier comes to an area where there are several owners, and each of you have one to three horses, it can be a better trip for him to do them all at once than coming for just one client,” says Coleman. The farrier might come more readily, especially if you can have the horses in one place, in a safe area to work, and somewhat out of the elements because this saves travel time and fuel costs.

A person can also work together with friends and neighbors when purchasing other bulk items besides hay—such as fencing materials. There are many ways to save a little money.

Turning Negatives Into Positives

Freeman says that when times are tough you often find more bargains if you shop around. For instance, you might be able to pick up a low-milage tractor more cheaply than you could a few years ago. There are opportunities in some areas because many people bought things they could not afford and are now selling them, or dealers are taking them back.

"You may be able to purchase an equipment upgrade, because some people are getting out go the force or farming business or can't make a payment on that piece of equipment. Dealerships may be reducing inventory on new equipment. Now might be the opportunity to purchase that manure spreader you need thought you could afford, says Freeman. There are always positive sides to a negative situation, and in times like these we need to think positive. Necessity can help change focus, and some of the new ways we'll do things different actually turn out well. Just because we do some things different doesn't necessarily mean it's not a good thing. People who have horses may do more with their horses now, instead of being involved with more expensive hobbies or recreations. This is why we have horses, to use and enjoy, and they can be good for our mind and spirit in hard economic times."