Our Drought and the Cost of Hay

, Reviewing Chaffhaye, Pasture in a
Bag

Long, long ago in a land far away (Europe) horse folks competed in horse
events far from home and their homegrown hay. To take their local hay on
the road, it was put up wet, mixed with some molasses and bagged up.
This gave horses consistent feed that could be transported and the
horses did better than trying to change their diet on the road. That’s
the original problem haylage like Chaffhaye solved. “Pasture in a Bag”,
is now expanded to Colorado just in time to relieve some of the problems
our latest drought has caused. I go to hay auctions in the Front Range,
less hay, higher prices, sometimes there are more pickup trucks and
trailers than bales of hay at the auctions. You look in the newspapers
or online for hay and there are 3 times more “hay wanted” ads than “hay
for sale” ads.
http://www.chaffhaye.com/

While looking for hay on Craigslist.org, I found an ad for Chaffhaye.
Chaffhaye is alfalfa haylage like corn silage, hay chopped wet then
molasses added immediately to ferment like silage and bagged in air
tight bags. Now you have bagged hay that doesn’t need a tarp or barn, is
somewhat pre-digested, dust free, weed free and the alfalfa leaves are
still in the hay. Fermented alfalfa hay saves the leaves and makes the
stems more digestible.

Horses will find a way to waste hay, they’ll pull it out of the feeder
and drop on the ground. My pens are full of wasted hay, then it gets wet
underneath and full of flies. Less waste with Chaffhaye not like my
round bales that I self-fed loosing 20 to 30%. Since Chaffhaye is
pre-digested, there is less manure. I clean the pens so I can know my
horse feces, as we call it in church.

You know when you stack little bales from the field, to the stack, to
the barn to the truck, each time more leaves rubs off the bale. When you
stand on the bales as you stack the next row, more leaves comes off.
When you bale hay, it was to be dry to not mold, in a stack, rain will
go thru the bales and cause mold if you don’t tarp or barn the hay.
Chaffhaye is good in the air tight heavy duty bag for 2 years according
to Chaffhaye.

According to Chaffhaye, one 50 pound bag equals two 50 bound bales of
alfalfa. My horses didn’t go crazy the first day, the Curly nibbled on
it all day, the mini didn’t like it until the second day, then he ate
whenever I put it out. We monitored intake, waste, manure and my horses
body condition as you would want to when changing their diet slowly.

 Chaffhaye is certified weed
free, which we need for our national parks, so when you trail ride in
our mountains, you’ll be doing your part to preserve our parks natural
grass.

I travel around the country 
to horse expo’s. Hay prices around the country doesn’t go up and down,
it goes up and up. Being able to put Chaffhaye in the trailer hay rack
without tarping it will save you money on
 the road.

While reviewing the Chevy Volt hybrid car, since it didn’t have a hitch so I could tow a trailer, I thought I’d put Chaffhaye bags in the hatchback. I loaded 14 bags, a months supply for my horses and had room for more. It’s nice have a packaged hay that I could haul in anything.

Bought my Chaffhaye from Christine in Ft. Lupton at the Double C Ranch 303-249-4325 , there are 4 dealers in Colorado. Check out Chaffhaye’s website for the details on comparing costs verses hay as a complete replacement or as a supplement.  There is also a list of dealers in the US that sell Chaffhaye.

http://www.chaffhaye.com/