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Discussion on "Peeling" a Round Bale
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New Member:
jaynew
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Posted on Friday, Nov 5, 2010 - 3:12 pm:
Hi All,
This will be the first year, in 30 years of horse ownership, that I will be using round bales personally. I'm not 100% thrilled about using them because of a lot of the "negatives" I've seen and heard about them and their feeders. I am definitely a worrier, and I always feel that I'd rather prevent a problem, rather than take a chance.
I'm kind of having to use them in the barn situation I am in now. The owners of the barn have 14 bales of Bermuda or Tift 44 that they bought last year for last year's winter but they over bought and are using those this winter. Though they have been stored inside their barn, I feel like they have probably lost most of their nutritional value. They are also too dusty, in my opinion, and don't smell all that appetizing. AND, the owner shot a possum that ultimately DIED under one of the round bales, which is where he had his nice little nest. So that just screamed EPM to me!!
So, I have purchased NEW (2nd cutting) Tift 44 round bales that will be delivered tomorrow. I will be separating my 2 horses and feeding them exclusively from my new round bales and Bermuda square bales at night in their stalls.
Since I am new to personally having to manage and decide how to use round bales, I have a few questions. First of all, I read Dr. O's recommendation of laying plastic sheeting down to make a vapor barrier and then a double stack of pallets to stack the bales on. I plan to do this tonight. They will either be in the barn, or underneath an open "lean too" type area where they store extra farm equipment like mowers and stuff, covered with a large tarp. Even if they are in the barn I plan to cover with tarps to prevent dust from settling on them. My fiance wondered if there would be a problem caused by trapping any water/rain that may be blown in and gets ON TOP of the plastic sheeting, since it wouldn't be able to soak into the ground. Does anyone have any thoughts on this??
Also, since I only have 2 horses, and they will be in their stalls at night, I plan on peeling off the layers and putting it out in the pasture daily when they go out. That way I hope to not let the bale go bad if they don't eat it fast enough. Especially since they will be inside at night and during inclement weather. So, I know they will have to be stacked on end to do this...or at least the one I am pulling from at the time. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this process easier?
And I just thought of another question...when I stack them all in general, should they be placed on their ends, or on the rounded part?
Any suggestions for making round bale feeding easier will be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!!
Jayne
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Member:
lara
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Posted on Friday, Nov 5, 2010 - 10:31 pm:
I had some round bales that I tried to peel...it was VERY hard to peel. very. (my bales were 5x5's and 1600lbs. plus the grass blades were very long :/)
I think your storing method is fine. I wouldnt worry about them as long as you have them in the lean to and covered, and up on pallets. I personally would only use one stack of pallets for round bales, rather than 2. (just for safety, but thats me) Square bales I use 2 stacks of pallets.
If you have to move the bales...you will need to store them on their side so you can spear them with the tractor easily.
Cheers to you and good luck
leslie
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Saturday, Nov 6, 2010 - 8:11 am:
Hi Jayne, peeling is a time consuming task and it makes quite a mess, especially grass hay. Forking it into the pasture when it's windy is quite frustrating .
I see you are from Ga. so I am not sure what the weather is like there in the winter. I peeled bales for a couple years, kept a tarp on top of it and for the most part they stayed dry. I quit doing this as it was a bit of a pain, I just set the bales out now, I have 3 small horses and they go through a bale in about 10 days ( depends on the size of the bale) and haven't had a problem with spoilage, but our winters are MUCH colder than yours I'm pretty sure
If you are going to peel them setting them on end is the way to go. I really didn't mind it in the summer as long as it wasn't windy, moving the tarp and putting it back on is time consuming too. As long as you have the time and patience it works out OK, but does add a lot of time to feeding and a mess where the bale is peeled. Have you considered something like the bale buddy? If I didn't live on hills I think I'd try one.
https://www.blazingstarstables1.com/page_597765.html
Here's my discussion on bale feeders if you are interested
https://www.horseadvice.com/horse/messages/3/296898.html
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Member:
cheryl
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Posted on Saturday, Nov 6, 2010 - 9:22 am:
I've been feeding round bales for 6 or 7 years - it took me a while to figure out how to feed without any struggle - slow learner I guess - We store the bales in the barn on pallets - just one - on their sides - covered with a tarp to keep off the dust and give my silly cat a place to make all sorts of noise to scare the horses -Larr picks up a bale with the tractor - takes it outside - turns it on end - sets it on a pallet in the barn - I remove the string and basically the hay just starts falling off in layers - We have our own hay so am able to pick what bales I want to keep - I weigh all the hay the horses are fed in a small tarp I hang on a spring scale hanging from a rafter - I wouldn't go back to small squares on a bet - I usually fill the tarps when I go out to change the water and clean the pasture - makes feeding at night a breeze - Small squares are 10 times more work than the rounds - Because I weigh all the hay I'm able to check the hay as I put it in the tarp so can pick out anything - weeds - etc - the horses are fed in hay boxes so there is very little loss of hay -
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Member:
dustee
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Posted on Saturday, Nov 6, 2010 - 12:09 pm:
Cheryl - you sound totally efficient!!! Great ideas!! Dustee
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Member:
cheryl
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Posted on Saturday, Nov 6, 2010 - 1:34 pm:
Ha! ! ! Larr just read that and broke out in gales of laughter - he's still laughing - When I think back to all the work involved with small squares I can't believe I was so stubborn about trying the rounds - The only work is breaking up the center core - Feeding rounds without a tractor is not a fun thing - been there - dun that - but - it can be done with a come-along -
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Sunday, Nov 7, 2010 - 7:19 am:
Cheryl I thought peeling round bales was a pain, I wonder if it matters if they are soft or hard core. Mine are soft core pure grass hay and once the strings are off it pretty much falls apart. I do have some hard core and I don't think they would be half the problem. I'm setting big bales out this year again. I put the bales in one pasture so I can lock them off at night, open the gate and let them out in the morning, this worked well, with not alot of weight gain and not much work!
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Member:
cheryl
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Posted on Sunday, Nov 7, 2010 - 9:46 am:
We have a place set up for the bale I'm feeding - there is room all around it for the outside layer to fall off - I fork that onto the tarps to weigh it - We're feeding timothy - clover mix - I try to get the bales without much clover in them - haven't had a problem the clover in the hay - so far - I always end up with loose hay on the ground - but it's not that big of a deal - more mess than I like - but I can put up with than over having to yard around small squares - We have the soft core bales - but the hard core ones peel about the same way - I don't feed off the bale - Fox would tear the entire bale apart trying to find all the good stuff - and would probably do that overnight -
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Member:
lara
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Posted on Sunday, Nov 7, 2010 - 10:12 am:
" ...for the outside layer to fall off"
Wow...I had bloody fingers trying to peel mine. It was next to impossible, they were wound so tight. They had hard cores. My hubby even bought me a machete to try to hack thru them. I still have one bale left as I gave up trying to peel them.
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Member:
dustee
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Posted on Sunday, Nov 7, 2010 - 10:24 am:
Hubby got a chain saw?
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Member:
dustee
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Posted on Sunday, Nov 7, 2010 - 10:25 am:
Oops, and a pair of safety glasses?
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, Nov 7, 2010 - 4:10 pm:
Concerning the water and vapor barrier: the water will evaporate from the plastic leaving a completely dry surface but the ground is always releasing moisture to some degree. I certainly agree if the plastic stays wet there will be mold but in such a situation the ground would be sure to stay wet also. You need to find a way to keep the rain off the hay area.
The double pallets is based on the number of times I have seen a single pallet layer over reasonably dry ground allow mold to grow on the bottom of the stored hay but situations will vary. In any case it is important to arrange the pallets with the 3 support legs all going the same way to allow for maximum circulation.
If there is any chance of a wet ground, the hay should be stored on its side then flipped on end for use. When stored on end: you expose the center of the bale to the high moisture. When stored on its side: only the downside of the outer layer is exposed to the moisture. Also bales stored on their side shed water better.
DrO
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New Member:
jaynew
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Posted on Monday, Nov 8, 2010 - 2:52 pm:
Thanks Dr. O for the additional info on the vapor barrier, that makes perfect sense to me!! And thank you everyone else for your advice and suggestions! CherylK, that sounds exactly like the plan I hope to be able to put into action.
The hay was delivered on Saturday and I wasn't able to do exactly what I wanted. I wanted to follow Dr. O's recommendations exactly with the plastic sheeting and double pallets, but I got the feeling I was being too high maintenance again (I've been feeling that a lot at my new barn!). I should probably put in here that I am keeping my horses at my future in-laws farm. I get along with them great and love them to death but we don't see eye to eye on caring for horses. I'm an admitted neurotic when it comes to my horses and they are COMPLETELY the opposite. They have 2 fat easy keepers that they don't do anything with that they give a scoop of oats to occasionally, and I come from the show world of hunter/jumpers and Arabian and half-Arabs...I manage every detail of their life very carefully!
Anyway, I wasn't able to put down the plastic, and wound up with only a single layer of pallets. However, I got everything stacked according to the advice and covered under the machinery barn with double layers of tarp so they should be free from any rain. For the first bale the "peeling" of the layers has been exceedingly easy!! Once I found a good start to it, it came right off! It does, however, make a bit of a mess but I guess I can figure a way to resolve that. I like the idea of the spring scale with a tarp to weigh it. I currently use a newborn baby scale to weigh square bale flakes, but obviously that won't work for the rounds.
Thanks again for everyone's input!!
Jayne
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