Horse feed Storage

[oldone]

TSC has horse 12% sweet feed 50# 7.49.
I have an old chest freezer in my barn that hasn't been plugged in for 10 years. Would feed be OK to store in that? I would like to stock up. I can mix it with the goat feed which is over double that price. Mice don't get into my goat feed unless I buy sweet goat feed. So I don't buy that. I store corn in garbage cans. This horse feed is cheaper than corn.
Anyone store feed in a freezer not plugged in?

[Tallpines]

Apr 7, 2024 21:06:19 GMT oldone said:

TSC has horse 12% sweet feed 50# 7.49.
I have an old chest freezer in my barn that hasn't been plugged in for 10 years. Would feed be OK to store in that? I would like to stock up. I can mix it with the goat feed which is over double that price. Mice don't get into my goat feed unless I buy sweet goat feed. So I don't buy that. I store corn in garbage cans. This horse feed is cheaper than corn.
Anyone store feed in a freezer not plugged in?

No experience to tell about.
But …
I wound worry about mold.

[oldone]

I bought 10 bags. Thought I'd get 20 & get an extra 5% off. Didn't want to push my luck.

[krisinmi]

Old chest freezers (typically free, dead ones, lol), from my nearly 40 years of experience with horses/horse farms, are a time honored way of storing grain. So, my vote is yes for putting it in the freezer! Definitely keeps the critters out and I've never heard of/seen any get moldy. I guess it would depend on how long it's in there, but a month or two shouldn't be an issue.

[oldone]

Thanks for info. It will probably 3-4 months cause I will mix with goat feed. I won't feed straight sweet feed. If it was fall I would have bought 20 bags. Didn't want to push my luck with summer coming.

[mogal]

We have two old freezers in the barn for storing feed and are looking for another for non-feed items that benefit from mouse-proof storage. Be sure to open the freezers at least once a week to allow fresh air inside. Also, store only bagged grains so you don't get accumulations of fine particles in the corners. We make a point to remove everything a couple of times a year and vacuum out anything that might create a problem.

One of our freezers was one that quit while in service in our house. The other, someone had dumped into a ditch rather than disposing of it properly. We drove a minivan at the time and DH had to do some scrambling to move all his usual gear to the middle seat to accommodate the freezer. We had a bear of a time pushing it up and out of the ditch but at least a LEO didn't drive by, misinterpret our actions and ticket us for littering. It's not a huge freezer--with some judicious placement, we can get maybe 7 50# bags in it.

[oldone]

I put the goat feed in it well horse feed for my goats.
Thanks for info.