calekio
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Post by calekio on Jan 18, 2013 14:26:25 GMT 1
So currently all my little ponies are now getting hay twice a day.. I've considered large bale of haylage thinking its more easier to store as its wrapped... higher calories so so less hard feed and maybe wouldn't have to feed as much haylage compared to hay?
however... my con's are.. they'd still have to get hay daytime when severe lammi mare is with them.. risk of her getting a few left over strands of haylage... my other cushings pony is currently out at night so he'd get haylage (although he'd had haylage before).. and because i'd still need hay... i'd end up with big round bales of both hay and haylage...
thought? I think i may have just answered my own question writing this... lol
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Post by Catrin on Jan 18, 2013 14:31:45 GMT 1
My horses with LGL and one with pre–Cushings all have adlib haylage, which has far less sugar than the hay that the other two eat.
We get the large rectangular bales because of the storage, freshness, conistent quality and because I have never managed to keep hay mould and dust–free in UK and don't want to lose another horse with COPD.
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calekio
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Post by calekio on Jan 18, 2013 14:34:13 GMT 1
Oh really?? See i always saw haylage as the evil thing for lammi prone ponies... due to higher sugar level...
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Post by jennyb on Jan 18, 2013 14:42:47 GMT 1
Depends on the haylage, you can get very varying fibre and sugar levels. I won't let Gazdag near it, he adores it but went bonkers on it once and was unrideable, he was quite dangerous!! However, he is exceptionally sensitive to feed and just has to have the plainest, most boring low sugar feed I can find for him.
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Post by rrosie on Jan 18, 2013 14:49:45 GMT 1
My EMS, laminitic pony won't eat anything other than haylage in the winter and does well on it. The other two mares are on a mixture, mainly to make them eat slower as they just inhale straight haylage! Generally I have not found it to be heating and I believe that you actually have to feed more haylage than hay as contains more water and so is heavier. The super duper bagged stuff seems to be much stronger than our locally made big bales. Rrx
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Post by clara81 on Jan 18, 2013 15:06:50 GMT 1
I've got both my ponies on haylage but neither of them have had lami (though the Sec A does get a bit footy over stones if she has too much grass). The haylage I get is ace- it looks like an ordinary bale but when you take the wrapping off it's six small bales, like hay, so it's really easy to get into/pull off and it's really easy to fill nets!
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Post by specialized on Jan 18, 2013 15:13:00 GMT 1
It does depend on the haylage, how it is made and the grass it is made from. If you get hay or haylage made from cow pasture it will be much higher in sugar, but haylage will often be lower in sugar than similar quality hay as some of the sugars are used up in the chemical reaction that preserves it. We are currently using haylage we made last summer which is like meadow hay because it was baled dry and wrapped for convenience of storage. You do not need to feed more haylage by volume - only by weight.
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Post by jill on Jan 18, 2013 15:51:43 GMT 1
My haylage was made in August (remember last summer???) so isn't very high in food value - in fact I can shove as much as I like at my lot and they don't put on too much weight. None of them are laminitic though - but I have fed some soaked so that is a possibility as well. I have been working out how many nets of hay I fill from one big (6 string) bale and it seems to equate to well over 15 generous small bales, so can be good value if you can find some big enough bales. And it keeps okay, in the square bales, so long as you leave the slice on the front tight against the ones behind. Mine last a month, more in summer.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2013 16:51:22 GMT 1
As specialized says you'd need to feed the same volume, and generally a large round bale of hay is the same size as a large round bale of haylage so it wouldn't really make a lot of difference.
Before feeding anything to a severe lami pony I'd get it tested for sugars. If what you're feeding turns out to be 10% sugar or less I wouldn't change it without knowing that what you're swapping to is equal or lower. It only costs about £8 from Dodson & Horrell for a basic analysis.
In theory the haylage making process uses sugars to preserve the forage (by making it acidic) but most haylage I see is so dry that clearly hasn't happened, it's basically just wrapped hay, and quite of lot of it is just as dusty as hay. Also worth noting sSome lami horses can't seem to cope with the acidity of haylage but there's no way of telling until you try it.
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Post by Catrin on Jan 18, 2013 17:50:57 GMT 1
Oh really?? See i always saw haylage as the evil thing for lammi prone ponies... due to higher sugar level... In theory, haylage should have less sugar as that is what is used up in the fermentation when the haylage is made. www.silvermoor.co.uk/blog/?p=80 and rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/all-about-hay-and-haylage.htmlWe have had the same supplier for eleven years, and he makes the haylage from meadow grass. When we had it tested it had a sugar content of 8%. We now test each batch, not for % content, but to compare it with hay or previous batches of haylage. So far this year all our haylage shows negligible sugar, whereas in the hay it is highly evident when dry and less when soaked. When soaked overnight it shows hardly more than the haylage, but by then a lot of the nutrients have leached into the water.
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Post by specialized on Jan 18, 2013 19:18:27 GMT 1
Interesting figures Catrin, flies in the face of those old theories that haylage is generally bad for laminitics.
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Post by june on Jan 18, 2013 20:29:59 GMT 1
Haylage can be bad for laminitics because it is more acidic rather than because it has too much sugar. Some laminitics are sensitive to the additional acid in their gut. It is ok for most of them but not all of them.
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Amanda Seater
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Post by Amanda Seater on Jan 18, 2013 23:50:05 GMT 1
catrin - where do you get yours tested for sugars?
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calekio
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Post by calekio on Jan 19, 2013 7:45:03 GMT 1
Interesting. But with regards to the high acid level... I suppose only way of finding out if a laminitic could cope with it would be to try and hope they didn't get laminitis? The big difference to me with hay vrs haulage would I think be the storage, haylage be easier for storing outside under a tarp... But that said.. One dry summer I remember feeding haylage to my mares as I couldn't get hay.. Was dry, ment to be more like hay.. And one of my girls got laminitis for the first time.... Made me weary after that....
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Post by Catrin on Jan 19, 2013 10:14:42 GMT 1
catrin - where do you get yours tested for sugars? I sent a batch for full analysis to www.bioparametrics.com that gave me a complete analysis for £55. Since then, I have done a comparative analysis between batches or with hay myself. Ideally you need some Benedict's solution or a year 7 child to take it to school and do the test in science for you. I use copper sulphate instead. Our local RA is Head of Science in a local High School, so she refined the test for me. Save me typing it out again, here's what I wrote and the pics last September ihdg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gh11&action=print&thread=124524
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