Sigh ~~~

Have you tried supplementing your VA hay with "Source Micronutrients"? It's an inexpensive supplement that may provide what the hay in Virginia is lacking. Oregon pastures have lots of micronutrients due the volcanic soil - VA not so much.... it may help cut down on your feed bill - it sure lowered mine. The grass hay out here (NV) runs $15 - $ 19 per bale for a 110 lbs and anything that will lower the feed bill helps!

Good luck and I really hope things will look up for all of us real soon - this whole economic situation sucks and I'm tired of it - but that's a whole other subject!

I will go look that up. Wish I could get Icelandic Kelp here, I know that helps a lot too.

I brought over some very nice 110lbs of grass hay when I moved. People I have talked to around here, have never heard or seen bales of hay that big. LOL...
Personally I think the 30/35lb ...as my DH calls them, marshmallow fluff.. are a pretty useless size.

__________________
Shari

Try checking out www.allnaturalhorses.com/kelp.htm for your horses. Source is available through all the equine catalogs and runs about $30 for 5 lbs and lasts me 5 months for 2 horses. I don't feed the recommended dose because I know they get some of the nutrients in their hay already. It has helped an aweful lot. My horses stopped chewing on wood (copper deficiency), have awesome coats and hooves, are fat and happy. They get no grain at all, just a handful of senior that I wet down a bit with water for the supplements to stick (Source, salt and a joint supplement for my older mare). They get about 1.5% of their body weight in hay fed in three small meals over the course of the day to keep them from getting bored.

Marshmallow fluff .... I like that. By BIL lives back east and I can't believe the tiny bales of hay. The only thing good about them is that they are far easier to handle. My back isn't what it used to be......

Mine don't chew or anything like that.
Their hay is in slow feeder bags, because I have one mare that is a vacuum.
This gives the others a chance to eat too.

I do have a loose mineral mix out for them.
Problem will be... if DH's pay is cut, there will be no money for hay or anything else like that.
Have enough hay for the next couple of months....but after that.

We have some fencing material here, but it takes time to get it up and it wasn't what this stuff was slated for..... but they have to eat. All but one mare can go out on the grass. This will help a lot. Just hope DH will have the time to get it up before we run out of hay.

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Shari