farmerjan
Super Self-Sufficient
Watched the latest video that @Grandmas Porch referenced... doug and stacy . I will say one thing that I disagree with after MANY years of feeding round bales. If you are in an area that gets much rain, you NEVER put round bales in a feeder with the flat side up. The rain will go right down into the hay and it will get wet, moldy and rot twice as fast than if the rounded side is up. The whole purpose of the rounded bale is to shed the rain off it... rain will run down the outside and the amount of wet permeating is 3-6 inches on a tightly rolled bale. If the rain comes and it is a soaker, with the flat side up the rain will sit and will soak in and there can be as much as 1/3 to 1/2 of the bale getting wet, and it will mold. It will not shed off it.
Many people here who have smaller animals, like sheep, will put a round bale in the barn, flat side up, and peel off the layers to feed out by pitchfork full and that is fine if the bale is protected from the weather.
What we do when the sheep need hay, is to roll out about 1/2 the bale to the cattle, and then take the better "center hay" section and put it in the feeder for the sheep... again with the rounded side up. We use a "cradle" type round bale feeder so the sheep can eat at it from the bottom, sides and ends. This just gives the real dry green hay to the sheep and the cattle can pick through the rolled out hay and the more weathered outside will go back into the field for organic matter. Of course, we feed several bales at a time so that we can make a few less trips... and feed different fields on different days due to the number of animals we have.
If you are going to feed hay with the flat side up, then you need to have some sort of "hay saver" roof over it to protect it from the weather.
Many people here who have smaller animals, like sheep, will put a round bale in the barn, flat side up, and peel off the layers to feed out by pitchfork full and that is fine if the bale is protected from the weather.
What we do when the sheep need hay, is to roll out about 1/2 the bale to the cattle, and then take the better "center hay" section and put it in the feeder for the sheep... again with the rounded side up. We use a "cradle" type round bale feeder so the sheep can eat at it from the bottom, sides and ends. This just gives the real dry green hay to the sheep and the cattle can pick through the rolled out hay and the more weathered outside will go back into the field for organic matter. Of course, we feed several bales at a time so that we can make a few less trips... and feed different fields on different days due to the number of animals we have.
If you are going to feed hay with the flat side up, then you need to have some sort of "hay saver" roof over it to protect it from the weather.
because he laughed at me. 
