Ep. 108: 4 Simple Ways to Stretch Your Hay Supply Without Sacrificing Nutrition

Episode Notes

Episode Notes: 

*** Complete our short survey by Wednesday, March 11, 2026 to be entered for a chance to win Standlee free product coupons and some fun Standlee swag – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/btb2026podcast ***

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On this episode of the Feeding Fumbles & Fixes series of Beyond the Barn, host Katy Starr chats with Dr. Kelly Vineyard, PhD equine nutritionist, to break down four simple, practical ways to stretch your hay supply without sacrificing your horse’s nutrition, including:

• Why two hay programs that look identical on paper can produce very different outcomes by the end of the season
• A simple management change that research shows can protect a surprising amount of the hay you already pay for
• The overlooked planning step that can turn hay from a seasonal stressor into one of the most predictable parts of your feeding program

Dr. Vineyard also shares real-world math examples, research-backed insights, and practical tips horse owners can implement immediately, whether you manage one horse or an entire herd.

🎧 Listen now on the Beyond the Barn podcast

Have a topic idea or feedback to share? We want to connect with you! Email podcast@standlee.com

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Episode References – 

~6:24 - Round-bale feeder design affects hay waste and economics during horse feeding – research by Dr. Krishona Martinson and others

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Resources to Learn More – 

More about stretching your hay supply:

• Podcast - Ep. 106: 5 Ways Horse Owners Waste Money on Feeding
• Podcast - Ep. 026: What Format of Hay Should I Feed My Horse and Why Does It Matter?
• Podcast - Ep. 010: What to Do When You Run Out of Hay
• Blog Post -How to Extend Your Hay Supply When Hay or Pasture Is Limited
• Blog Post - How to Supplement Your Horse's Diet with High-Quality Hay
• Blog Post -What Can I Do If I’m in Short Supply of Hay or Pasture?
• Nutritional White Paper - Hay in Short Supply? Horse Forage Alternatives from Standlee Premium Products

More about storing hay: 

• Podcast - Ep. 025: How to Plan for Hay Needs and Useful Storage Tips to Avoid Hay Loss
• Blog Post - Hay Storage for Safety and to Prevent Losses
• Live Q & A - How to Properly Store Hay and Prepare for Winter

More about feeding energy dense forage options: 

• Podcast - Ep. 007: Alfalfa Misconceptions – Myth vs. Truth Part I
• Podcast - Ep. 008: Alfalfa Misconceptions – Myth vs. Truth Part II
• Podcast - Ep. 048: Beet Pulp – What Is It and Why Do Horses Need It?
• Podcast - Ep. 093: Cracking the Code on Horse Energy - What Every Owner Should Know
• Blog Post - Counting Calories - Getting the Energy Content Right in Horse Diets
• Blog Post - Feeding Beet Pulp to Horses: Benefits, Tips, and Safe Use
• Nutritional White Paper - Beet Pulp: What Do I Need to Know?
• Live Q & A - What is Beet Pulp and Why Do Horses Need It?
• Webinar - What is Beet Pulp?
• Webinar - Should I Be Concerned About Feeding Alfalfa - Facts & Misconceptions

Product Solutions Recommended by Dr. Kelly Vineyard – 

• Standlee Timothy Grass Mini Cubes
• Standlee Alfalfa Pellets
• Standlee Alfalfa Timothy Chopped
• Standlee Alfalfa Orchard Grass Compressed Bale

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*Views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Standlee Premium Products, LLC.*

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Read full episode transcript

Katy Starr (00:01):

Hi, I'm Katy Starr and you're listening to Beyond the Barn. Join me on this journey as we bust equine and livestock nutrition myths and sit down with some of the most intriguing experts from across the country. We'll also take you behind the scenes of how premium western quality forage is grown and brought to your favorite farm and ranch retail store. I'm so glad you're here.

 

Katy Starr (00:27):

Five years, hundreds of conversations and an incredible community behind it all, Beyond the Barn wouldn't be what it is today without listeners like you who tune in, share the podcast with your friends and care about feeding animals well, we have loved bringing you practical nutrition advice and stories from people making a difference in the equine and livestock industries. To celebrate and to say thank you, we're giving away Standlee free product coupons and some fun swag. For your chance to win, all you have to do is rate and review the Beyond the Barn Podcast on Apple Podcast or Spotify and fill out our short survey linked in the show notes. That's it. Thank you for being part of our journey. We truly couldn't do this without you. Welcome back to The Beyond the Barn podcast. We're back to our Feeding Fumbles and Fixes series. It's all about learning from real life feeding mistakes and experiences, and finding simple practical ways to make improvements for your horse ownership journey.

 

Katy Starr (01:29):

In this episode of the series, we're covering some simple ways horse owners can stretch their hay supply if they discover they may run out and how to do so by not sacrificing the horse's nutrition. As a reminder, any of the topics we cover on the Beyond the Barn Podcast are more generalized and not specific to any individual horse or any specific situation. Be sure to always work with your veterinarian and nutritionist before making any drastic changes to your horse's feed program. Or you can reach out to us to talk directly with our PhD equine nutritionist. On any specifics you'd like to know, hay prices get a lot of attention and understandably so. We talk about cost per bale, cost per ton, whether this year's hay is better or worse than last year's. But here's something that doesn't get talked about nearly enough. The most expensive hay you feed might not be the hay that you buy.

 

Katy Starr (02:20):

It's the hay your horse never actually eats because once hay leaves the barn, a lot can happen to it and not all of it ends up actually being consumed by your horse. What's interesting is that most horse owners feel like they're being careful. They're not intentionally overfeeding, they're not trying to waste hay. But research and on-farm data consistently show that a surprising amount of forage loss happens without even realizing it. A little here, a little there, and it adds up fast. And here's the part that tends to surprise people. Two hay programs can look almost identical on paper. Same quality hay, same number of horses, same feeding schedule, and one can cost significantly more over the course of a season simply because of how much hay is lost along the way. If you've ever thought, I don't understand how we went through hay that fast, or I swear I just bought a load, or why does feeding horses feel more expensive every year, even when I'm doing the same things, this conversation is for you.

 

Katy Starr (03:24):

So, let's get started on discussing some simple ways we can stretch our hay supply for the benefit of our horses and likely our pocketbooks as well. Today we're talking about four simple ways to stretch your hay supply without sacrificing nutrition. Sometimes you get in a bind and realize you don't have enough hay to last all winter. The goal of this episode is to help find ways to get the most out of what you have or what is available to you without cutting back on your horse's nutrition requirements. So, Dr. Vineyard, thanks for being on today to discuss this.

 

Dr. Vineyard (04:00):

Thank you for having me.

 

Katy Starr (04:02):

So, Dr. Vineyard, way number four is know what a flake of your hay weighs.

 

Dr. Vineyard (04:09):

Okay. So, I mean we all know it's a lot easier to measure out hay by the flake instead of weighing it every time. It's less time consuming, you know, and especially if you have other people feeding, you're not going to say, you know, feed Rosie 8.3 pounds of hay. You're going to say feed Rosie, you know, three flakes of hay. However, hay flake weight can be extremely variable. So, knowing what your flakes weigh or having a good idea is going to help you sort of portion out exactly what that horse needs in that day. And you know, knowing what your target is, maybe it's, you know, half a percent of body weight or 1% of body weight in a feeding. But yeah, knowing what your flake weighs is going to kind of keep you in the guidelines and keep you from overfeeding.

 

Katy Starr (04:56):

So, what is a good solution then there for being able to stretch our hay supply by knowing what our flake of hay weighs?

 

Dr. Vineyard (05:04):

Yeah, well I would start by to determine what your flake weighs, you're going to take several different flakes and kind of get an average, you know, I like to use a maybe a garbage bag and then a hanging fish scale or a hanging luggage scale and weigh multiple flakes. Get your average, then create your daily feeding plan based on you know, how many flakes of your hay it's going to take to meet that target amount. And you know, reweigh your flakes regularly every time you get a new hay load in. But that's going to just keep you from overfeeding so you can, you know, hopefully stretch your hay when it's really most important.

 

Katy Starr (05:40):

Excellent. And then not run out of it when the time comes. Right, because we're doing this like weekly, right? And over all the months, so excellent. So, way number three, reduce waste by using a hay feeder.

 

Dr. Vineyard (05:54):

Yeah. So, a lot of times when horses are housed, you know, especially together outdoors, it's common to use, you know, throw flakes to them outdoors or use a round bale to accommodate feeding multiple horses. And this is really done for convenience. You know, make sure that horses always have hay in front of them and because we know that's really good for digestive health.

 

Katy Starr (06:15):

Right. And so, if we are not using a hay feeder and let's just say we are just tossing it out there, then what's going to happen with our hay supply?

 

Dr. Vineyard (06:24):

Well, you probably know this because you've seen it. If you're doing this and it creates a large amount of waste, there's actually studies that show from round bale waste can be actually over half of that hay gets trampled and pooped on and doesn't even get eaten. 57% of that round bale gets wasted. There's a really good study by Dr. Krishona Martinson that was published in the Journal of Animal Science in 2012 that kind of goes through the hay wastage and the how using feeders like a round bale feeder can really save a lot of waste. So, these feeders, depending on which type you buy, can save you or it can kind of pay for itself within as little as three months or up to 12 months, you know, depending on how expensive it is. And the same thing goes for square bales, you know, there are square bale feeders as well. The couple studies that have been done, it's not as wasteful as the round bales, but even using one of those feeders can save up to like 13%. So, I think it can really add up the wastage that occurs when you don't use a feeder. So, if you're in a scarcity situation, these feeders can really help stretch your hay.

 

Katy Starr (07:30):

Yeah. Oh, could you imagine buying hay and then 50% of it just out the door?

 

Dr. Vineyard (07:38):

Shocking statistic, right?

 

Katy Starr (07:40):

It hurts me you saying that. I'm like, oh, it's like a sucker punch, you know, .

 

Dr. Vineyard (07:45):

But you know, think about it. Have you ever been where you've had to like rake all of that hay away from a round bale before where the horses, I mean it's a lot, it creates like a truckload of waste and you know. You paid for all of that.

 

Katy Starr (07:56):

. Yeah. Yeah. And that's excellent. You know, being able to find a good hay feeder, like you said, paying for itself, that's such a great solution that, you know, initially it might seem like ah, that's kind of a big purchase. You know, that's a lot of money. But like down the road, gosh, when you think about if you're wasting close to 50% of your hay every day that you know that every time you put a round bale out or every time you know you're feeding a, you know, square bale or whatever like it is, it's going to add up quickly. And I don't think we see it unless we look at the big picture with that. That's such great advice. Yeah, for sure. Okay, so way number two, feed forage alternatives.

 

Dr. Vineyard (08:35):

Yeah. So, when this happens, when you kind of faced with a hay shortage and you know, local source hay is hard to come by, you've got to find an alternative because horses need forage every single day. And fortunately, you know, these forage alternatives like pelleted and cubed and chopped and packaged baled hay or like Standlee bagged forages are readily available. You know, at these kind of retailers, you know, farm and ranch stores, they generally are in stock year round. So, these can serve as either a stretcher or a complete alternative to you know, your local source hay that's kind of running short.
 

Katy Starr (09:15):

Right. Okay. So, in terms of that then what's probably the best way to feed the forage alternatives for this?

 

Dr. Vineyard (09:21):

Yeah, so generally you just substitute them pound for pound. So, if you're feeding, you know, three pounds of long stemmed hay, you could replace that with three pounds of pelleted hay or cubed hay. The one thing to be mindful of is energy density. So, for example, you know, alfalfa cubes probably are going to be more energy dense than, you know, long stem grass hay because alfalfa is more energy dense than grass. Same thing for beet pulp. Beet pulp is also a forge alternative, but it will be more energy dense on a pound per pound basis. So, just kind of be aware of that. But whenever possible it is good to keep some long stem forage in the ration that promotes chewing and extends mealtime, prevents boredom. But if you completely run out of long stem hay, you know, Standlee has those packaged bales available too. So, the compressed bales and those are a good way to kind of keep some of that long stem forage in the ration.

 

Katy Starr (10:15):

Right. And I might also add too, that as you're getting through the winter months and you get to a point where you realize, oh, this is all I have left, maybe also try not to just like run out and then be like, oh I need to go get something. If you can, you know, go ahead of time in advance enough and already know that, you know winter's not over and you're going to need more to stretch your supply, go get that earlier on so you can kind of start feeding it together and ease them into it. So, then once you get done with your regular supply, it's like a nice easier, smoother transition for them rather than just like cut and dry switching them over.

 

Dr. Vineyard (10:52):

No cold Turkey switching. That's not a good situation.

 

Katy Starr (10:56):

Yeah. Excellent. Okay. And now we have way number one to stretch our hay supply. If we're getting close to running out, calculate honestly from the get-go, right? Calculate hay needs ahead of time to prevent the need from having to stretch your hay supply in the first place if you're able to.

 

Dr. Vineyard (11:13):

That's right. And that's the key if you're able to, so let's see if I can kind of talk through this. It's definitely going to depend if you have space to store a winter's worth of hay and the budget, right? But anytime you can purchase in bulk, it's a good thing. You know, it increases the consistency, it gives you peace of mind that you're not going to run out of hay. You just want to make sure that your storage space is high and dry or else you run the risk of spoilage or mold. You know, running out of hay is very stressful . So, and then the more horses you have on property, you know, the harder it can be to find enough hay at like the end of the season of the hay season before it's time to harvest new hay.

 

Katy Starr (11:51):

And decent hay, too.

 

Dr. Vineyard (11:53):

Decent hay, right? It might have been decent when you bought it the first time, but at the end of the season it's not always decent.

 

Katy Starr (11:59):

Okay. And so, what is the best way for us to kind of calculate and prepare ahead of time? Like give us some example here of how we can approach this situation.

 

Dr. Vineyard (12:06):

Yeah, let's have like a real life math word problem here, , but basically, it obviously depends a little bit on how many horses you have, but I always start with a single horse. So, what does a single horse need in a day? And this is going to vary depending on your pasture situation. So, if you have no pasture, you're going to probably need to calculate about 2% of that horse's body weight per day. So, let's use 2% as an example. If you have some pasture, you might use a 1%, or you know, if your horse is a lactating mare, you might use 3%, but let's use two as an example. A thousand pound horse. So, 2% of a thousand pounds, 20 pounds. So, that horse needs 20 pounds a day. Then you're going to multiply that by how many days you think you're going to need to feed hay.

 

Dr. Vineyard (12:53):

Now, let's say, you know, depending on where you are, that might be for five months, that's a long time. So, that's 150 days. So, you multiply 150 days by 20 pounds, so then you get to 3000 pounds. Okay? Now personally, this is something I always do. I add 15% to that for wastage. We've talked about round bales. Your horses are not going to eat every morsel of that 2% of their body weight, right? So, there's going to be some wastage. You also may have your estimate a little bit off about how many days they need. So, I use 15% wastage. You can adjust that. So, if I have 3000 pounds, I multiply that by 1.15 to go over by 15%, that leaves me with, you know, 3,450 pounds. Okay? And at that point, I would multiply that by how many horses I have. So, let's say I have four. So, then I come up with about almost 14,000 pounds. And then I want to know tons, because most of your hay guys are going to deal in tons. So, a ton is 2000 pounds. You divide that by 2000. So, here you are, you know, 14,000 divided by 2000, you get seven tons of hay.

 

Katy Starr (14:02):

Boy, when you think about that you're like, whoa, that's a lot.

 

Dr. Vineyard (14:05):

. But doesn't that make you feel good to know you had all that hay, you know, waiting for you for the rest of the season? And then, you know, if you're curious about bales and every type of bales are going to weigh very different, you know, depending on the supplier and the variety. But let's say for example, these are 75 pound bales, you know, that divided seven tons of hay divided by 75 pounds, that's about 185 bales of hay. And so, when you think of it that way, I mean that's not completely out of range for if you have like a hay storage area. And so, you know, when you get your hay in, you got all this hay, I always say take a sample, take a forage sample, here's your good opportunity to get a representative sample. Then you have a really accurate information to balance your horse's diet on, you know, really for the next five months.

 

Katy Starr (14:56):

Yeah. And one thing that I will add, because when people are kind of looking ahead of season, because they're, I think horse owners are mostly pretty good about planning out ahead of time, knowing right at they need to start stocking up their hay supply as best as they can and everything. One thing that we don't always take into account, and I think sometimes why people do end up running out of hay in the long run, is if you're in an area that is more, has heavier winters. This is where we talked about in a previous episode about how if it's colder for longer periods of time, if you have some winter storms that are coming in and lots of snow and you actually are having to up the amount of hay that you're feeding your horses to help keep them warm, that's not something that we always think about, you know, at the front of our minds that that's where some of that additional hay kind of comes in and then we could end up running out of, you know, some of our hay later on. And so, I think adding in that 15% extra also can kind of help cover that too, just to be thinking about that.

 

Dr. Vineyard (15:55):

Or if you happen to buy a new horse during the season.

 

Katy Starr (15:58):

. you're like, oh, I just, you know, and then you're prepared and yeah. You know, win-win for everybody . Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Awesome. Dr. Vineyard, thank you so much for talking to us about, you know, four simple ways to stretch our hay supply without sacrificing nutrition as we are moving through the winter season and everything just help keep us prepared and knowing how to keep our horses fed. So, thanks for being here.

 

Dr. Vineyard (16:24):

All right, thank you.

 

Katy Starr (16:25):

Today we covered four simple ways horse owners can stretch their hay supply without sacrificing nutrition. Here are some key takeaways from Dr. Vineyard. A flake isn't a unit of nutrition, it's just a habit. When hay supply matters, knowing what a flake actually weighs lets you feed your horse intentionally instead of accidentally overfeeding and running out sooner than planned. Feeding hay free choice is the right goal for most horses, but how that hay is offered matters, using a feeder isn't about restriction, it's about protecting forage. So, more of what you buy actually gets eaten. When hay is hard to source, forage alternatives give you flexibility without sacrificing gut health. They can replace hay pound for pound, but you still need to consider calories in the forage you're replacing. And when possible, find long stem options as some of the replacement to promote chewing and prevent boredom by extending mealtime. When hay is purchased intentionally and stored correctly, it becomes one of the more predictable parts of a horse's diet. Planning ahead turns hay from a seasonal worry into a management tool, so you are prepared when you need it most. If you want to dig a little deeper into ways to stretch or store your hay supply, or about forage alternative options, we've linked some additional resources in our show notes and we'd love to hear your feedback on our Feeding fumbles and fixes series or ideas for future episodes. Reach out to us anytime at podcast@standlee.com.

 

Katy Starr (18:02):

Thanks for listening to the Beyond the Barn podcast by Standlee Forage. We'd love for you to share our podcast with your favorite people and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite listening platform. Until next time, keep your cinch tight and don't forget to turn off the water.