[DartmoorLiz]

Hi,  I'm a bit new to sheep, I'm better at ponies and I'm looking to buy good quality hay for my girls (and boy) but don't want to pay a premium for small bales.  The larger bales seem to vary in size and weight so can anyone enlighten me as to how much hay you get in the various large bale size and how much I can expect to pay for one or two.  We're understocked (2 fat ponies and a few sheep) but that makes no difference when the grass is all covered with snow or the goodness has gone from it in February. 

Its all a new language involving words like "hestons" and "semi-hestons".  Hooray for heston (whoever he or she is) but what does it mean?

[TheCaptain]

where are ya in devon? I have a friend who has a sturk of small bales in Bridport that he sells for £3 a bale...

[lachlanandmarcus]

Welcome!! You will always pay a premium for small bales as they cost more to make. However at your end they have the advantage of being easier to move and store if you don't have big sheds and machinery for moving big bales. And there will likely be less waste as small bales have to be got in straight away whereas some big bales get left for a few days or longer and get a bit weathered on the outside.


Sizes of big round bales vary as the balers from different manufacturers make them a bit different and also depends how tightly packed. However you should get a min of 8 small bales from a big bale. People say work on 10 average but I think once any wastage accounted for its safer to work on 8 or 9.


Hesstons are the strange name for large square/rectangular bales. Again sizes vary. There are also mini Hesstons which are in between full Hesstons and small bales. With Hesstons you'd need to know dimension or weight of the bales to assess how many small bales equivalent they were.


Big round bales range prob from £20-30 depending on your area and the quality. Hesstons would depend on the size, they can vary a lot.


Big rounds can be stored outside on their ends on wooden pallets with a tarpaulin just covering the top and the upper part of the sides. Don't wrap or completely cover as they may rot. I use filled 25l water containers tied to baler twine to act as weights tied to the tarpaulin eyelets to keep tarp from flying away.


Hope this helps!

[SallyintNorth]

Any bale can vary in weight for the same size, depending on how it was made.

The only way is to buy by the tonne or fraction of a tonne - however unless you are buying from a lorry that's been weighed, you can still only guess !

We work on the basis of 40 small bales to the tonne, ie., 25kgs each.  However, we make good solid bales and a lot that are sold to horsey folk will weigh a lot less than that

Large round bales are generally between 3 and 5 to the tonne.

Large hestons vary, can be as heavy as 2 to the tonne, or only half that.

Mini-hestons vary even more, but most are probably around 8 to the tonne, ie., about 5 small bales'worth each.

[Bramblecot]

Hi Captain Please can you pm  me the details of your hay supplier in Bridport as we will be looking for some more hay before long .  Thanks.

Liz,   Our bales are made very light as I cannot handle more than 20kg (the physio goes potty at me!).  It depends how you set the baler, so you would need to check a few sample bales before you buy.

[smallflockshearing]

Hi Liz, If you're understocked then I would leave them to eat the grass as long as you can.  Even with snow cover (unless several feet deep) they will scratch away and find the grass.  Even with hay they will still eat the grass!

Hesstons are unmanageable without machinery, whereas round bales of hay can actually be moved by hand by one person rolling them.  Make sure you go for hay rather than silage, as with a small flock silage will go off before they get through it.  I put a round bale on its side with 3 hurdles to control access, and stick a tarp over it so that only one side is exposed, which is where they eat from.  If you can push it onto a good-sized pallet than that will help with stringing it out as well.  Choose your ground carefully too if you aren't moving it, cos it will get poached like mad.

I'm in your neck of the woods, and pay £30 a bale from a local farmer.

[SteveHants]

Hi Liz, If you're understocked then I would leave them to eat the grass as long as you can.  Even with snow cover (unless several feet deep) they will scratch away and find the grass.  Even with hay they will still eat the grass!

That is how I know my sheep are hungry - they will actually eat hay...

[smallflockshearing]

'xactly, Steve.

How sad is this - standard figures say something like 1.5 - 2 kg of dry matter (DM) per ewe per day.  I reckon on a round bale of hay that I will get 250-300 sheep-munching-days out of it, including wastage, which puts it under those figures since a round bale must be somewhere between 200 and 350 kg, moisture dependent.  So, if you've got 5 average-sized sheep it will last ~50-60 days as long as it is reasonably well protected.  The remaining DM will come from diminishing grass, and straights or compound feeds if you give them that.  Remember that grass continues to grow above +6degC.

They don't mind that grass has lost its May vitality, and neither do I - stick a mineral bucket in and you're covered.  If you know from locals which minerals your grass tends to be short on, then choose a bucket on that basis. 

However, some sheep would rather die in a ditch than eat hay.  You can take a horse to water...

[DartmoorLiz]

Thanks everyone.  Lots to think about.  Is anyone selling near Tavistock?  I love the pallet barrier / shelter idea and weighing down tarps with water containers ... I love this forum .  Can collect on a dry day . Bridport's a bit up the line for one or two bales but if no one's nearer then ...

[Bramblecot]

Liz,

If you do make it up to Bridport, come in and have a coffee

[devonlad]

we always go down the small bale route, partly because we've only got a few sheep and it would take them the best part of a month to get through a big one- provided they even bothered with it. main reason though is access in the first place and then storing them and moving them around. Until this year although we have always dutifully bought hay for them they have barely ever touched it and we have ended up using it as bedding at lambing time, This year however we managed to make our own for the first time , and they love it. although the grass has been better at this time of year than we have ever had they absolutely scoff it up. Makes me wonder about the quality of previous stuff, and the importance of making hay (or any forage), with love and care. We did have a 100 spare bales which we eventually managed to sell off last weekend after advertising it on here ( and elsewhere since July).
I lived in Tavy for 15 years until we moved to our place near Winkleigh. So hi from Mid Devon

[DartmoorLiz]

As we're understocked, making our own hay seems the obvious choice but doing it in weekends and evenings and without the equipment or expertise I've always felt the need for someone who will do the whole process (including looking at the weather forecast) and I've never found them.  I'm encouraged by the comment that home made was more palletable than bought in.  The ponies will eat anything but the sheep are more selective.