i think you can get mold, critters etc from square bales! But every time we ever talk about hay on these lists it always comes down to regional differences... Like here I would be terrified of alfalfa. So many horses die from it, a whole herd in a matter of hours in Birmingham just relatively so close to here, from Blister beetles... that was so sad.
If square bales were cost feasible etc I would probably feed them, but most providors around here do round bales and square you have to either go pick up in alabama or georgia or have delivered and it costs too much. I have had square bales at times and seems they went bad quicker than round, but maybe we bought too much at once. I wish I had a nice big barn to store things in! When we brought nasi home from Texas she sent three bales of hay with him, telling us how her hay man had received awards for his high quality hay, some award given out each year for best producer of top quality hay. we were astounded because to us it looked like cow hay. But when we told her he would be eating coastal hay at our house she acted like ooohhh nooooo he was being sent into hay siberia :) so all I can figure is soil nutrients, variety, all that? I dont know, it is a mystery. But maybe it just LOOKED bad and was nutritionally better. When there was a shortage last year we were forced to buy from a commercial retail store. I called and he said he had hay, but when I got there he said the hay was brown, that it was good, but just not pretty and green like coastal hay, and that was because it had a lot of bahia in it. He said a man had returned ten bales because his horses wouldnt eat it so he would let me have it for 2.00 a bale if I wanted. My horses ate it like pigs! so i guess you cant tell by appearances. our hay man is the best around here. He is the only hay man around here I have ever seen or even heard of that has each cutting analyzed and gives you a print out of nutritional analysis along with the bill. I treasure him. Janice -- even good horses have bad days sometimes.
