Compressed Hay

[Marsha Cassada]

What exactly is that? Is it good?

I'm offered compressed timothy or orchard. $15 a bale.

 

[charlottein]

I bought some that was compressed timothy. The quality was not as good as regular hay - there was some waste due to some weird shriveled brown clumps of grass - not weeds though. But I only tried the one bale, so maybe other bales would be fine. The benefit I saw was that it fit easy in my car and takes up a lot less space.

 

[drmatthewtaylor]

I'm not sure if 'compressed hay' has an industry standard definition, but around here hay buyers buy hay bales to be broken and then re-baled. Some systems actually dry or add moisture to the hay so its all consistent. When its re-baled it is compressed extra hard so more hay will take up a smaller volume in shipping.

In the end the practice is benign, good hay to start off will compress nicely, poor hay will compress fine but be no better than what it started out as.

Dr. Taylor

 

[Boss Mare]

I've bought compressed Alfalfa bales before. If we're on the same page -- the 50 lb. bales I purchased were compressed in neat little maybe 1'x2' bales. I found there to be a lot of waste because of the extra leaves and "powder" stuff. Even though pound for pound they were the same as regular size bales my horses ate the compressed hay in a quarter of the amount of time, the lack of texture and bulk I assume.

 

[susanne]

We have quality compressed hay available to us, but they offer everything BUT orchard grass, so we have only purchased from them once.

The only thing I dislike was the very compressed rattlesnake that came in the bale...

 

[Charlotte]

I've been buying Standlee brand Compressed timothy or sometimes alfalfa and have been very satisfied with both. Having said that, Standlee brand products have been consistently good for me. I do find that there are sometimes more 'fines' with the compressed bales so I like to feed them in something and not on the ground or stall floor (mats)

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I've been buying Standlee brand Compressed timothy or sometimes alfalfa and have been very satisfied with both. Having said that, Standlee brand products have been consistently good for me. I do find that there are sometimes more 'fines' with the compressed bales so I like to feed them in something and not on the ground or stall floor (mats)

Are you getting Standlee compressed bales from REd EArth? That is where I learned of the hay and was planning to pick up some tomorrow.

 

[Boss Mare]

The Standlee brand is the brand I have bought before. Overall quality was good, just a little wasteful if not fed into a container and as mentioned my horses ate it quicker.

 

[REO]

My only experience with it is that it was really full of dirt. But also that fine green netting that was on the big round bales that they fed into the machine. I'd have to go through every little bit of each bale because I didn't want my horses eating those fine plastic strings! And dead critters UGH. We don't buy those any more, just the one time was enough!

 

[Becky]

I buy compressed Standlee hay and it is top quality.

Marsha, I get Standlee compressed alfalfa from TSC. Red Earth has the Standlee Timothy. It's top of the line hay. As fine and green as alfalfa.