Horse Feed Cost Calculator
Enter hay and grain amounts and your bale and bag prices and get the daily, monthly and yearly cost to feed a horse, plus bales and bags used per month.
Not sure how much hay? Merck’s forage guideline
At least 1.5–2% of body weight in forage dry matter: 16.5–22 lb of dry matter a day; add your hay's dry matter % to convert to pounds as fed.
The answer updates as you type; nothing is sent anywhere.
Feed cost per horse
$244.28 a month · $2,929.35 a year
$8.03 a day: hay $4.80, concentrate $2.24, other $0.99.
That uses about 12.2 bales of hay a month and 2.4 bags of concentrate.
The arithmetic
Hay per day × (bale price ÷ bale weight) + concentrate per day × (bag price ÷ bag weight) + other monthly costs ÷ 30.44. A month is 365.25 ÷ 12 days.
What this page cannot tell you
It has no feed prices — they are yours. It leaves out board, pasture rent, farrier, vet and bedding unless you add them under other costs, and wasted hay adds to the real amount used.
How to work out the cost of feeding a horse
- Enter the hay. Pounds of hay per horse per day, and the price and weight of a bale.
- Enter the concentrate. Pounds of grain, pellets or balancer per day, and the price and weight of a bag. Leave at zero if none.
- Add other monthly costs. Supplements or anything else you want included, per horse per month.
- Read the cost. Daily, monthly and yearly cost per horse, totals for all horses, and bales and bags used per month.
10 situations where a horse feed cost calculation helps
Budgeting before buying a horse
Feed is a recurring cost every day of the year; working it out first avoids a budget that only covered the purchase price.
Comparing bale sizes
Small squares and large bales are priced differently; cost per pound puts them on the same footing.
Deciding whether grain is worth it
Set concentrate to zero to see how much it adds a month.
Ordering hay for winter
Bales per month times the months you need gives the order.
Checking a boarding fee
Compare the board price with what the feed alone would cost.
Running a small barn
Enter the number of horses to get the barn's monthly feed bill.
Comparing feed brands
Swap bag price and weight to compare products.
Estimating hay from body weight
Merck's 1.5–2% of body weight in forage dry matter gives a starting amount if you don't weigh hay.
Explaining costs to a new owner or a child
Daily, monthly and yearly figures are easy to understand.
Planning when prices change
Change the bale price to see the effect of a drought year.
How the cost is worked out
The calculation is plain arithmetic on your amounts and prices: hay cost per day = pounds per day × bale price ÷ bale weight; concentrate the same with the bag; other costs are spread over a month of 365.25 ÷ 12 days. A year is 365 days. The page holds no feed prices.
If you don't know how much hay your horse eats, the optional guideline uses the Merck Veterinary Manual's statement that horses should receive at least 1.5–2% of their body weight in forage per day on a dry-matter basis. Hay contains some water, so turning dry matter into pounds of hay as fed needs the hay's dry matter percentage from a hay test.
Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Limits: real use is higher than what the horse eats because of wasted hay. Pasture, board, bedding, farrier and vet costs are not included unless you add them under other costs. The guideline is a minimum for forage, not a full ration.
Sources
- Merck Veterinary Manual — Nutritional Requirements of Horses and Other Equids — At least 1.5–2% of body weight in forage per day, dry-matter basis
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to feed a horse per month?
It depends on your prices. For example, 20 lb of hay a day at $12 per 50-lb bale is $4.80 a day, or about $146 a month, before grain and supplements.
How much hay does a horse eat a day?
Merck says horses should get at least 1.5–2% of body weight in forage dry matter a day: 16.5–22 lb of dry matter for a 1,100-lb horse.
How many bales of hay does a horse need a month?
Pounds per day × 30.44 ÷ bale weight. At 20 lb a day and 50-lb bales, about 12 bales a month.
How much does it cost to feed a horse for a year?
Multiply the daily cost by 365. At $7 a day that is $2,555.
What is dry matter?
The part of a feed left after removing water. A hay test reports it as a percentage.
Does this include board or vet bills?
No, only feed and whatever you add under other monthly costs.
Related tools
Horse Calorie Calculator
Enter a horse's weight and workload and get its daily digestible energy need in Mcal and kcal from the NRC (2007) equations, with an optional hay and grain check.
Merck Veterinary Manual (2026), NRC Nutrient Requirements of Horses (2007)
Horse Blanket Size Chart
Enter your horse's chest-to-rump measurement and get the blanket size in US inches, UK feet and centimetres, plus the Euro back-seam size, with the full chart.
WeatherBeeta horse blanket size guide
Horse Color Calculator
Enter the sire's and dam's coat color test results and get the odds of each foal color, from chestnut, bay and black to palomino, buckskin, cremello and grullo.
UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory gene pages (Extension, Agouti, Cream, Dun, Gray)
Cow Gestation Calculator
Enter a breeding or AI date and get the calving date at the traditional 283 days and at the shorter average a 101,787-mating Angus study found — with the window most calves arrive in.
K-State Extension Beef Tips (July 2026), gestation length in modern beef cattle
Sheep Gestation Calculator
Enter a breeding date — or the dates a ram or crayon colour was on — and get the lambing window from the Merck Veterinary Manual's 144–150-day normal gestation.
Merck Veterinary Manual (normal sheep gestation 144–150 days)
Honey Yield Calculator
Weigh your supers before and after extraction and get the honey harvested in pounds, kilograms, gallons and full jars, with yield per hive against USDA's U.S. average.
National Honey Board (12 lb per gallon); USDA NASS Honey, March 2026