That'll Teach Me

Ever since we started using round bales, I've been using hay nets. I've learned that even with a hay net, you  need to use a hay ring. We'd purchased an old hay ring that was a bit dilapidated (ok, a lot). But for $25, you're not going to say no. Well, there's a learning curve to putting bales in a round bale feeder and one that isn't all that strong can't take too many hits or bales dropping on them before they are more of a suggestion rather than the real deal.  So least to say the hay ring for the  mares and Junior is more of a suggestion rather than the real deal.


I am still learning the art of putting hay  nets on and keeping them secured. The mares have the ability to pop the darn hay nets off. Usually it's not a big deal and I can either get them back on or let them go because it's not that big of a deal.


We had rain all of last week. And lots of it. It was almost knee deep around the hay ring. In that time, they also decided to take the hay net off. I hadn't been able to find it for two or three days. But we needed to put hay in last night after getting our hopefully last load of hay. So I knew I had to look for it.


I found it. Buried. Luckily it wasn't buried too deep but it was buried with some of the hay still in it, in more than ankle deep mud. The other portion of it was still in the hay ring but Mayhem had taken to standing in the hay ring to get out of the  mud so she'd compacted everything down even farther.


It took a bit to get the net out of the mud. Least to say, that'll be the last time that I let a hay net get buried in the mud. Or what we'll call mud. It's a good thing I hadn't eaten before going out. I gagged a few times. I had no idea that the mud was that bad. I dont' really like using hay rings because they stand around it all the time and churn up the earth around it, and when it rains, it gets deep. It's one disadvantage to a round bale and with the amount of rain we got, that didnt' help either.


So after dragging the hay net to dry ground, I had to get the hose out and hose down the mud and muck. Because there's no way they would eat the new bale without having a clean hay net on it. Let me just say, a dry hay net is heavy. A water logged hay net is almost impossible to throw on a bale.


But that'll teach me not to go out right away and either re-securing the hay  net or simply pull it off the next time a horse pulls the net off a hay bale and starts standing on it.

Junior

Rabbit and Mayhem

I know the pics are from this January, but wanted to post pictures of the culprits for my hay net incident.