Can You Feed Freshly Baled Hay?

Any hay that has been properly cured and dried before being baled should be stable and can be fed as soon as needed. There are no nutritional advantages to storing hay for weeks or months prior to use.

How soon can you feed hay after baling?

So how soon can you feed new hay? If the hay is cut and bailed in perfect conditions with less than 12% moisture in the bale, it should be safe to feed straight away. But due to how hard this is to get accurate; it is recommended to wait 2-8 weeks before feeding.

How long after baling hay can it be fed to horses?

In perfect conditions — where the hay has been baled at less than 12% moisture and is very dry — it is safe to feed straight away, but this isn't often the case, Tim explains: “The main reason for allowing a period of anywhere between two and eight weeks before feeding freshly made hay is to allow for a process called ...