Feeding haylage

[mrsmills]

Feeling a real numpty, but all my experience has been in feeding hay - this new fangled haylage is confusing me

I notice that a lot of horse owners are feeding haylage - what are the benefits over hay.

And how much do you feed - Do you feed in the same amounts as hay?

Ta muchly!

[mandal]

I have one experience of a haylage novice numpty... do not feed it to laminitis prone horses! I'm going back to soaked hay for most possibly all mine, otherwise Maisy will have to live life alone.

I know what I want for Christmas. A mountain where I can just let them go.

[Deleted]

lol, I'm the same but was forced onto haylage in the summer before this years hay was cut.

Basically it has more moisture in it so you need to feed more by weight which would probably work out at about the same volume. My horse scoffed it all quickly to start with but within 2 weeks was used to it and eating at his normal speed again.

The advantages or disadvantages depend on your horse but I found these key points:
- it's less dusty than hay
- it usually has higher energy than hay
- its more acidic
- some laminitics can't cope with it at all
- if you get a bad bale some suppliers are really narky about taking it back (though I suppose that applies to hay too, though at least you can see hay before buying it)
- haylage goes off in summer if you don't use it fast enough

[jill]

I have been making and using haylage for 12 years now, and basically as compared to hay it has more feed value. I can feed way less hard feeds and still keep my horses looking, er, a little well, even in March. I can have a bale last well over a month if it isn't too moist, and if it is in square bales - basically the front slice keeps the air out of those behind it, so don't dismantle a whole bale, that's when it goes off.
The main disadvantage I find is it is scoffed too fast - stabled horses tend to have finished early in the evening. I have some very very late cut from last year which in their opinion comes a very poor second to this years so they have emergency rations of that in their racks so they are never wothout something to eat. Straw would do as well.
It's excellent for the field horses though, they can pick at the remains of the grass when they have finished, and the haylage keeps them well and warm.
As for how much - feed according to their weight requirements, starting with about the same by volume as you would hay and adjust from there. (Don't feed by weight, as it is moist it is much heavier than hay)

[BJMM]

I am feeding haylage as the quality of local hay is so poor. We pay £35 for a big roundel of haylage. A large rectangular bale of hay is £50 and that is not top quality. A roundel lasts me around two weeks (3 horses, 1 large haynet each at night, out during the day) I much prefer feeding haylage as I don't have to soak (messy, cold, heavy ) they don't waste any as it's so tasty and it smells lush
I use small-holed haylage nets to prevent them from eating too quickly.

[Azrael]

I've been feeding haylage for years. I feed about the same amount, in size of haynet rather than weight, as I would hay. It's not dusty so saves me soaking because Roxy coughs a bit on hay. We don't have much storage space for hay so haylage is great as it can stay outside until we move the bale in to use it.

The only bad point is having the occasional nasty bale because you can't see what's under the wrap until you open it but our current supplier is great and will replace any minging bales. It does go off in warm weather but we don't usually have a problem as when they're all eating it we go through a bale in 2-4 days depending on if we have any grass or not.

[anastasia55555]

I'm with you there Mrsmills, my only experience was Toffee getting a few scraps in the field, and it sent an already fairly bonkers pony, even more bonkers lol!!! I'm thankful i can get hay, and that its good quality, phew! Feel bad for those that cant

Ohh does horsehayage count? fed a bit of that to tiny in the summer, as he was on restricted patch and wanted to give him a bit extra, didnt send him barmy though

[Mellymoo]

I feed haylage to Jospants himself, as I couldn't get hay this year. I pay £20 for a large round bale from our farmer neighbour. I feed the same volume as what he would have of hay, and he does fine on it. He is not a greedy boy though, so never finishes what I put in for him. The haylage is lovely, and it has lasted me 5 weeks so far (still another 2 weeks' worth I reckon). They key to him losing some weight this year has been the cutting out of hard feed - I figure that he doesn't need it because the haylage is nice, and he has a balancer and chaff as a feed for his vits and mins.