What happens to a round bale when it's fed with a hay net vs without one?Updated 4 hours ago
This is one of the questions we get asked most about round bale hay nets, especially from anyone new to slow feeding. It makes sense to wonder what actually happens to the net as the bale gets smaller. Does it sag, bunch up, or become unsafe once most of the hay is gone?
The short answer is no. Round bale hay nets are built to move with the bale as it's grazed down. As long as it's fitted and secured properly, the netting keeps settling in around whatever hay is left, keeping it contained and cutting down on waste right to the very last bit.
Below we've broken down exactly what to expect as the bale shrinks, how the net behaves along the way.
These photos were taken over a 1-16-day period. A huge thank you to one of our wholesalers, My Hay Guy (Sunshine Coast), for documenting how two round bales over the same general timeframe behave, with and without a hay net. The images taken show exactly what happens in each scenario, one fed loose with no net, and one fed inside a round bale hay net.
My Hay Guy used a 4x4 round bale knotless hay net, 40mm hole size, for this sequence. Which was Rhodes hay only.
The photos below show exactly what happens to the net, and how the animals feed from it, as the bale is worked through over time.
A Hay Bale fed with No Net
Fed loose, the bale is pulled apart quickly. Hay is spread beyond its original footprint within the first few days, and a large portion becomes trampled, soiled, or lost to the ground rather than eaten. By Day 7, the bale is effectively finished, through a mix of consumption and waste.
A Hay Bale fed with a Hay Net
Held together by the net, the bale is grazed down steadily rather than pulled apart. It's still being fed from cleanly at Day 16, more than double the time of the un-netted bale, with significantly less waste along the way.
Why the difference is so big
A hay net doesn't change how much your horses or livestock eat. What it changes is how much of the bale actually reaches them, rather than ending up trampled, soiled, rained on, or scattered across the paddock.
Fed loose, a round bale gets pulled apart from the outside in. Animals walk on it, drag mouthfuls away from the bale, and leave hay sitting on wet ground where it quickly turns soggy and unappetising. None of that hay disappears because it's been eaten. It's simply lost, and you end up buying more hay sooner than you should need to.
A hay net stops that cycle. It holds the bale together as it's grazed down, so animals are feeding from a contained area rather than spreading hay out with every mouthful. Whatever isn't eaten straight away stays clean, dry and accessible instead of being trampled into the ground. That's the real reason a netted bale routinely lasts more than double the time of the same bale fed loose. It's not that anyone is eating more slowly. It's that far less of the bale is going to waste along the way.
Over time, that difference adds up to real savings, less hay bought, less time spent replacing bales, and a lot less hay sitting wasted in the mud.
A huge thank you to My Hay Guy (Sunshine Coast) for sending these images through and letting us share them with you. Photos like these do a much better job of showing the difference than we ever could with words alone.