Ever tried to figure out how much hay you need for winter? Only to end up not getting enough? Or worse, not getting enough hay and having to buy hay in the winter when prices are sky high?
With this hay calculator you can get a much better idea of how much hay you need!
Simply input the animals weight in the 2nd column, then percentage of their weight you want to feed (put this in decimal form!) in the 3rd column, finally in the fourth column put the amount of days you want to feed them (30, 60, 90, whatever). The 5th column will give you that animals hay needs in pounds.
As you put more animals in the calculator, it will automatically total all the hay you will need at the bottom!
Still have questions?
Struggling to estimate your hay needs?
The problem with guessing is that you are guessing. If you don’t have a very good idea of how much hay you need, you will probably not get enough. And have you ever bought hay in the winter? It’s double the price, IF you can find any!
With this calculator you can estimate much better how much hay you will need for your animals. While it is an estimate, you will be much closer than guessing.
Can’t remember who you bough hay from before?
Another amazing feature of this calculator is on the second page, it tracks who/where you bought hay from, how much you got and how much you paid. This is invaluable information!
No one wants to buy poor quality hay. But if you have bought hay in the past and didn’t like it, or your animals wouldn’t touch it, it’s a good idea to take those notes so that you can make sure to not buy that hay again.
Trying to track how much you have spent over time?
The second page can also give you trends at a glance simply because you are tracking how much hay you bought, when you bought it, and how much you spent.
This will help you keep track of your expenses.
Story Time!
When we first got goats, we needed hay for their first winter. We had 4 goats and didn’t need a whole lot of hay right? We bought 28 bales and it lasted us for the most part. We had to buy a couple bales here and there but for the most part we were okay. By the end of winter, we had 6 goats.
The second year, I came up with the calculator. I knew that I wanted to feed my goats based on their body weight. I figured up everyone’s weights and multiplied it by .04 (or 4% of their body weight). Since we had 12 goats at the time, I figured we would need approximately 4000# of hay for our shorter winters.
But we thought for sure we wouldn’t need THAT much hay right? We made it through last winter with 28 bales! That was only about 1400# of hay. So we got about 38 bales this time since we had more goats.
The goats ate ALL of it within 2 months.
After that I said no more! I came up with this calculator and it has been a life saver. While the number of bales is still shocking, we haven’t had an issue with not having enough hay….. ***knock on wood***
Because of this calculator and knowing how many goats I have, I know I need about 7,000# of hay to last us from October to March. That covers us not only from waste but also any extra goats that come home.
If you’re interested in buying the calculator, click that buy now button.
My name is Leigh and I am the owner of Steel Raven Farms. I am also the mom of two wonderful boys, wife to a pretty nifty man for the last 15 years and paramedic to boot. We want to bring you along on our crazy journey of Homesteading and all that entails!