KMS Hayloft

daj

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 4:19 pm


I just came from getting hay (3 wire orchard grass, $32, used to be $25). A woman there said they had to wait a long time, as it had to be grown for them. I got 2 bales to bag and store. It keeps about a year, right?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 5:16 pm


Hay will retain 95% of its nutritional value up to two years after harvest if kept in dry conditions.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 9:35 pm


Dry conditions is the key. You don't want any moisture at all because humidity will encourage the growth of mold. I had put a bale of hay in a nice outbuilding and I could tell it got moldy. So be very careful about your storage area.

daj

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:25 pm


Mine will be bagged and indoors. I didn't hoard a single thing through the pandemic, but the thought of no hay is scary enough to make me start. If the hay suffers, then the pellets will too. Esp. because it probably won't be just hay that takes a hit, but the other ingredients will too. Heat, drought, extreme weather, fires... the future looks pretty rough.

daj

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 11:07 pm


Can I indulge in a bit of worst case scenario thinking? If the GP food situation were to really deteriorate, my thought would be to be prepared as best I can. If pellet making is out of reach, my next thought is making a porridge sort of thing, similar to what I now feed my pig who had stones, except I would try to approximate the composition of good pellets as best I can. How does this sound? I'm thinking of things I see in the pellet ingredient lists, like hay first, and not in any order: flax meal, maybe pea flour, brewer's yeast, some dehydrated vegetables, molasses, maybe some dehydrated herbs, etc. I would appreciate any thoughts.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 11:50 pm


Vitamin C. If you cannot get fresh vegs, you could use some vitamin C. You can even get some 100mg children's tabs and quarter them for one guinea pig per day.

daj

Post   » Sat Jul 31, 2021 1:34 am


Yeah, I think vitamin C would be pretty easy. I would probably go with a liquid. I am wondering about coming up with a substitute for pellets. If you or anyone were to go the route of concocting something, what sort of approach would you take and what ingredients would you use? It seems to me that if hay became scarce or really poor quality, others ingredients would be in the same boat, and pellets would decline in quality and nutrition. I would think having stuff like flax seeds or flax meal in the freezer would be good, as would a bunch of other things that would make for a good feed for pigs.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sat Jul 31, 2021 10:17 am


I received my order of KMS yesterday from a third party seller on Amazon.com. Haven't opened it yet; it took 5 days to get here, which wasn't too bad. I think if KMS becomes scarce I will likely switch to Oxbow GS, and maybe just cut down on it. There is no way any of my guys would eat some sort of sludge/mush/whatever that I might try to make myself. I tried this in the past with handfeeding formula, and it was a massive Fail.

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RavenShade
Thanks for the Memories

Post   » Tue Aug 03, 2021 2:41 pm


I use Oxbow for pellets. For my hay, I make sure it's in a cardboard box but not in the bags as I feel the bags keep in moisture. Worse comes I would see about buying a bale or two off the stables where Junior rides.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Tue Aug 03, 2021 3:34 pm


I think all hay shippers recommend taking hay out of plastic bags. Keeps the hay dryer and reduces the chance of mold.

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Wed Aug 04, 2021 2:22 am


When I open a bag of hay I put it in a big container that's make for pet food. I fluff it up and leave the top open. I noticed at the local humane society they have open bins that they keep the hay in.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Wed Aug 04, 2021 8:55 am


Speaking of hay...received a shipment of Oxbow timothy yesterday, and it's yellow/brown, very coarse and the boys are not eating it.

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