I pulled this photo of an equine round bale hay net offered for sale. It is a great idea if you have horses and have watched what they do with a round bale. They pick out what they want and pee and poop on the rest of it. So much is wasted and lost by these beasts. So I looked on line for one of these nets. Oh my they want almost $200 for just one of these. That is almost a third of the cost of what I buy hay for. Not a solution I can afford. But after I hunted a bit I did find a better idea. You can buy old fishing heavy duty nets that have been cleaned and sold for decorations. These come in several sizes and various conditions. I needed at least a two inch wide squares with heavy duty un-chewable weight to keep the net bite proof and usable. If you go to ebay you can find several vendors selling these nets. With a bit of paracord or rope I can sew up one of these around our bales. So for under $50 you can get a strong net and wrap the hay. Another option is to buy old nylon webbing and sew up a cargo net to put over the bale. But that will take time to sew and more money to buy the military surplus webbing. But I am still toying with this option if the net does not work out. Either way the days of lost hay are over for my herd.
