I've been looking for hay but because of all the rain we've had everyone's baled hay is wet and the fields are flooded.  I bought some from the farm up the road that normally has really good hay but I took it back after getting a good look at it.  It had been soaked and the outside was dry but the centers were wet.  With alfalfa that means mold in just a few days.  I think I'm going to pick up some hay cubes until I can find some good hay but I've never fed them before.  Anything to lookout for?  I don't want to change their hay, but I'm scared of getting bad hay again after our May colic outbreak. 

Has anyone had any problems using the cubes?

Thanks.

Hay cubes - come as Alfalfa cubes or Timothy or blended.

Soak before feeding. Hot water breaks them down faster than cold. Feed the same poundage as you would hay. If a horse gets 15 pounds of hay everyday, then it needs 15 pounds of hay cubes.

Horse Chow 100 is a hay stretcher. I believe several other companies make similar products.  But it cannot replace all missing hay. it does not have long stem fiber like the cubes or hay does. However, you could replace say 5 pounds of hay with a hay stretcher.  I found that the price for 50 pounds of Horse Chow 100 was very close to 50 pounds of hay cubes. So.. hay cubes for me. (Long fiber)

Alfalfa pellets are NOT the same as alfalfa cubes. Hay cubes have long fiber, but you could replace some of the hay/hay cubes with alfalfa pellets for the other parts of nutrition.

Another GREAT replacement for hay is beet pulp. Watch the molasses amounts ... (check the feed tag). Molasses is added in small amounts to keep the dust down. 85% of  horse people recommend soaking beet pulp before feeding - but it's not absolutely necessary. PLEASE check with your vet. But beet pulp also provides long fiber and bulk to the horse's gut. Soaking it in a muck bucket (to feed more than 1 horse) is easy... but it does take some time. It can ferment - so you have to keep it cool or refrigerated if there's any left over.

Thanks ya'll.  Right now I feed the Triple Crown feeds and it has beet pulp in it.  I've never soaked it but I feed very little "feed".  My old mare gets 10 lbs a day (she can't eat hay) but the rest get 3, 2, and 1/2 lbs a day with their hay.   

Now hopefully I won't be as paranoid when I start them on the cubes. 

I use the cubes when I go into the National Forest and need Certified Hay. I feed it dry right out of the bag.  Also cubes are bigger and don't seem to get lost in the dirt as fast as pellets do when I have to feed on the ground under a high line.

I once stayed a couple nights at a horse motel in St George UT. The owner feed all the horses he boarded, (both long term and over nighters) hay cubes. The only problem he said he had was that the horses ate poundage of hay cubes faster than baled hay and seemed to get bored faster since they were done eating earlier.

Sounds like you are in the same predicament we have here. An abundance of rain!! Pastures still look great, but it has been a challenge to get the hay put up. We just gave up on a prairie/brome field and are in the process of mowing it. Grass got too stemmy and the red clover is in abundance.

I'm feeding TNT Chops to my old guy since I'm having a hard time finding non-stemmy orchard grass. It contains alfalfa and timothy. Here it the link: http://tntforage.com/ Maybe you can find this in your location. I get it from Tractor Supply.

It sounds like the chaffhaye and the triple crown forage.  I can get the Triple Crown forage special ordered here, but the hay cubes are about the same price and already in stock.  I tried the chaffhaye with my old mare when we lived in TX but the picky pain wouldn't touch it.  The rest loved it. 

Being in the desert our yearly rainfall is about 10".  I think we got it all last week.

I recommend breaking down and watering the cubes.  I've heard that excessive soaking can deplete mineral/vitamin content as well, I think that you should not soak them for more than 20 minutes, so don't leave them overnight.  I do think that you have a much higher incident of choke if you feed them whole, but that can depend on your horses, too-are they the kind to swallow first, ask questions later?

As a side note, I have seen some of the video from Ruidoso, all the houses washing down the mountain because of the hurricane rain.  Hope everyone in the area is keeping themselves and their critters safe.

But wouldn't that be a concern ONLY if you threw out the water?  I know some people rinse beet pulp and hay to remove excess carbs, but they discard the water when they are doing that.

When I soak the hay cubes, they absorb the water and I do not discard any excess water if there is any.

Ahh.  The wonderful hurricane.

We have an arroyo that runs along our property and in the two years we've been here, even with the flooding rain we had two years ago (while we were moving) it has never been more than about 5 feet wide and about a foot deep.   The other night it was about 3 feet deep and 40 foot wide.  If it hadn't been for a drain we put in 2 yrs ago to go under our wall our property would have been flooded.  As it is the horse pen is still a mucky mess.

That is also a big part of the reason I can't find decent hay.  We've had a wet monsoon season and then this.

Does anyone know where to buy a despenser for hay cubes? 

As far as choking goes, I think if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen.  My yearling was choking on her alfalfa hay a couple of weeks ago.  She had never done it before and hasn't done it since.  I just reached in and pulled out what was in her mouth, she drank some water and went back to eating.  The vet said horses are like people.  Sometimes they get in a hurry and try to swallow before they chew.  The type of feed doesn't really matter it can happen with anything.  Now I just go out and check them after they are done eating and before I got to bed.