Hay Buffet

December is here and things are slowing down here on the farm...thank goodness since Christmas will be here in less than a month.  I am never ready for that day and I know it's coming every year.  Oh well, maybe I'll start getting ready for next Christmas next September.  Yeah right!

Lime has been applied to the fields and it really would be nice if it would rain to help it go into the ground.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem to want to rain and now the wind is blowing a gale, drying out what little rain we received the other day.  

Of course, I'm feeding the horses hay this time of year.  I'm lucky that I don't feed hay year round like a lot of people, but then paying for the diesel fuel to run the irrigation pump to water the pastures has gotten expensive, too.   The horses go out at night and have the all they can eat "hay buffet" round bale.  I know there are many, many people that would never begin to feed their horses the way that I do, but the way I feed horses is actually a more natural way.  Instead of grazing on grass while in the pasture, they graze on hay.  The hay is in a feeder so that it doesn't rain on it and they can't walk through it so I have very little wasted.  I feed very little grain, unless a horse is in heavy work and let's face it most of today's horses do very little work, but that's a discussion for another day.

This method has worked for our barn for many years.  Think about it.  It may work for your horse, too.