Hay Hoodies

How to use

How to fit your Hay Hoodie:

  • Place your bale, laying on its flat side, on a flat dry part of the paddock.
  • Remove the strings/netting from the bale.
  • Place your Hay Hoodie over the top of the bale.  Making sure the sides are neatly around your bale.
  • Open the ‘pocket’ and lever on the ratchet strap 1-2 clicks
  • Check your Hay Hoodies position, making sure it’s all lying flat and the hay is tucked in.
  • Fully tighten the ratchet.  The tighter and neater the Hay Hoodie is attached the better.
  • Ensure the ‘pocket’ is laying flat, then tuck up the excess strap and close the ‘pocket’.
  • If using with a slow feeder net, the Hay Hoodie can go under or over the top of the net.

As your stock consume your bale

  • Stock will graze the bale from the bottom up.  As the sides are eaten the bale will look like a ‘mushroom’, then collapse to one side, but the top of the bale will be tightly kept inside the Hay Hoodie.
  • Check your Hay Hoodie daily and tighten/adjust if necessary.
  • Once your stock have eaten some of the hay, it will become much easier to ‘roll’ your Hay Hoodie to a drier spot.  Particularly handy in wet weather and when the ground gets muddy.
  • As the bale disappears it will go to the ‘donut’ phase, where all you have left is a ‘donut’ of hay sitting in the top of the Hay Hoodie.  Once the ‘Hay Hoodie’ lays flat, adjust the Hay Hoodie to expose more feed.  Its best to expose 1/3 of the side of the top of the bale, on the side away from the weather.  Then re-tighten.  The weight of the hay now sitting in the Hay Hoodie will help hold the Hay Hoodie in place.
  • As you reach the end of the bale, completely remove the Hay Hoodie to allow stock to clean up the left overs.
  • To minimize hay waste, the Hay Hoodie needs to stay on as long as possible.  Some more playful animals will try to take off the Hay Hoodie.  It gets easier for this to happen as the bale disappears, so ensure it is tight during the ‘mushroom’ and ‘donut’ phases to reduce this occurring.
  • Hay Hoodies are ideally suited to horses but can be used for other classes of stock.  Hay Hoodies are not recommended for cattle or stock that chew plastics.