HelenG
Intermediate Poster
Posts: 231
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Post by HelenG on Dec 21, 2011 20:56:28 GMT 1
For all my horsey life I have only ever fed hay. I don't know enough or anything really about haylage. I hate the smell of it because i think it smells of baby sick :s and always hear from other liveries that it's gone mouldy and have to chuck it away. Jinks loves it but it makes his stomach bad with runny poohs.
I really want to know more about it though so i know if it's a better thing to put jinks on for this winter.
So can you please enlighten a haylage noob about the benefits of both hay and haylage, nutrients, sugar content, what type of grass, difference between dry and wet haylage etc.
thanks
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Post by EmeraldSapphirez on Dec 21, 2011 21:33:15 GMT 1
Haylage is fantastic if it suits your horse. I use two different types (Horsehage and Equilage) and as I work in the feed industry, get loads of feedback on others as well.
Haylage is ryegrass which is cut before it seeds. It's cut in the same way as hay but it's baled before it dries out entirely, having a typical moisture contect of about 65%, hence why it's so heavy. You can get haylages with higher and lower moisture contents. It goes without saying that you get more forage for your money with a lower moisture content.
The yeasts which form on the haylage help to preserve it but generally an open bag of haylage should be consumed within 7 days of opening.
You can get it in about 20-25kg bales up to 300kg bales and everything in between.
The pros are:
- It can come packed in convenient bales and if you get the Horsehage variety, it's also in sections inside. Great for shows. Very easy to store. (Including outside) - Although don't pierce the bags otherwise you'll know about it!
- It's totally dust free so fantastic for horses with respiratory conditions.
- It can reduce your hard feed costs as the nutritional value remains at about 90% of the full nutritional value of the grass it's cut from.
- Most horses adore it so you get little wastage. Great for fussy feeders.
Cons:
- You do have to feed more haylage to hay by weight so if your average 500kg horse requires 4kg of hay, then it'll require roughly 7-8kg of haylage depending on work etc... This is due to the moisture content of haylage.
- You should feed a forage balancer or broad spectrum supplement alongside forage (hay or haylage) especially considering the processes used to produce hay and haylage cause a depletion in vitamin e.
- It's not suitable for every horse and as with every change to their diet, you must introduce it slowly. There's a good range of haylages out there from hi-fibre varieties suitable for the majority of horses, to richer varieties usually labled as "ryegrass haylage" more suited to weight gain or horses with a higher energy consumption. There's also alfalfa/lucerne types as well.
I hope this helps you a little bit, i'm sure some other people here have plenty of advise to offer you as well. Just remember that every horse is different and some take a lot longer to acclimatise to new feed stuffs so I advise you to slowly start adding a tiny bit in with Jinks' haynet and gradually up it if you like the results.
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Post by specialized on Dec 21, 2011 22:01:08 GMT 1
Haylage is ryegrass which is cut before it seeds. It's cut in the same way as hay but it's baled before it dries out entirely, having a typical moisture contect of about 65%, hence why it's so heavy. Not totally correct. Haylage is a grass or legume crop which is cut, harvested, and stored for feeding animals. It is made from the same crops as normal hay, but with a higher moisture content, typically 25-35% and very often lower. Moisture content of 50-60% produces silage. The baby-sick smell and the runny poos tend to be more common with wetter haylage and silage. Dry, well made horse haylage will smell sweet and almost like toffee - and the driest will smell like hay. Ryegrass haylage has a much higher level of nutrients than meadow haylage so may not be suitable for many horses - hence the range of different grass types now offered by the likes of Horsehage. The main benefit of haylage is the dust-free side, reducing the need for soaking for copd sufferers, and the storage aspect - as it does not take up barn space.
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Post by tikkatonks on Dec 21, 2011 23:24:12 GMT 1
I love the smell of haylage ;D
I think the big downside with haylage is that unless you have a poor doer, you end up feeding very small nets to maintain your horse's weight, and then they are not getting the ideal quantity of fibre.
I would rather my horses have a big net of good quality hay than a tiny net of haylage.
Talking about quantity of hay/ haylage by weight really confuses people. A very small haynet of haylage may weigh the same as a very large haynet of hay, so although you are feeding more by weight, you feed significantly less by volume.
If you like to feed adlib forage haylage can cause real problems, some horses learn to pace themselves, others just eat and eat and end up obese.
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Azrael
Grand Prix Poster
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Post by Azrael on Dec 21, 2011 23:33:29 GMT 1
Our haylage is made from the same fields as the hay we buy, the only difference is it's baled wetter. It generally smells quite nice and quite sweet but we get the occasional bale that isn't so nice smelling, only had one so far this year with that horrible sick smell. I'm allergic to hay so haylage is great. Roxy coughs on some hay as well so haylage is better for her.
Mia has adlib haylage and Roxy pretty close to adlib, she's a fat porker on grass but doesn't stuff herself with haylage. This year ours have been greedier about stuffing hay in than haylage. We use a bale in 3 days so don't have problems with it going off, I've used bales for a couple of weeks in the past without any problems with it going minging.
The main good thing about haylage for us is it being wrapped so we can just store a load of big bales outside, we don't have enough space to store the same quantity of hay.
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Post by ladyndibs on Dec 22, 2011 0:01:05 GMT 1
I did use haylage and the only time I had a problem was when it was delivered in the snow, the spike had gone through the middle to lift it and the gaffer tape didn't stick, other wise always lovely, even managed to save the seeds and used them on a couple of mud patches, always kept well for at least a week but the farmer recommended using it within 5-7 days.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2011 11:32:41 GMT 1
I found Talin scoffed haylage at a stupid rate to begin with but quickly went back to eating at his normal rate.
I've had him on horsehage and upmteen other brands (when I couldn't get hay) all of which hack me off when I end up taking half of it back because it's mouldy. I've seen others get big bale haylage from all the big suppliers round here and the number of moudly bales totally put me off that too, the farmers get really stroppy if you dare complain so £££'s of it go on the bonfire. It's a complete waste of money, at least when I buy hay I can inspect it before buying and again before offloading.
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HelenG
Intermediate Poster
Posts: 231
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Post by HelenG on Dec 22, 2011 15:04:59 GMT 1
thanks i think the dry haylage sounds good then because hopefully it won't upset his stomach too much, better than steaming hay and soaking it in winter, and it has a few more calories? to help him over winter? or should i just keep with the hay. more fibre, what he's used too, no wastage as it doesn't go mouldy. Just have to figure out a feed that will help out with keeping a bit of weight on him for winter. okay more questions: is wet haylage fed to poor doers because it has more oomph in it then? and am i right in thinking that all haylage is bad for a laminitics because of it being cut soo early in the year and thus having more sugar? how is dry haylage made? doesn't it need to be wet to have the microbes/bacteria? to preserve it? somebody has also mentioned to me about it being to acidic or alkaline, can't remember which and having to use a supplement to balance it out. is it really worth the hassle when there's good hay out there?
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marvin
Grand Prix Poster
Posts: 1,069
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Post by marvin on Dec 22, 2011 15:16:51 GMT 1
I dont know a huge amount about haylage, my horse loves it, last yr I shared a largish bale of some that was quite dry and mixed it with normal hay, my horse did very well on it. Horshage haylage is nice stuff I always used the blue bag which is timothy hay I think which is less rich than the green bag one. Big downside is the price its at least twice what I pay for hay and my horse eats it at about the same rate. I only use it if I cannot get decent hay.
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Post by maryplain on Dec 22, 2011 15:25:25 GMT 1
and am i right in thinking that all haylage is bad for a laminitics because of it being cut soo early in the year and thus having more sugar? I feed timothy grass haylage to my laminitic and he does fine on it. It's very fibrous and the sugar content has been analysed at a minuscule amount (something like 0.0001%). I would have thought that most haylage will have less sugar than hay as sugar would be reduced during fermentation.
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Post by spanisheyes on Dec 22, 2011 16:47:41 GMT 1
I hate haylage, used to feed it for years and cant believe I did now! I think its far too acidic for horses and upsets their digestion. The fact that companies make haylage balancers should tell you something! I think some horses tolerate it far more than others but its definitely not for me
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Post by specialized on Dec 22, 2011 18:39:56 GMT 1
thanks i think the dry haylage sounds good then because hopefully it won't upset his stomach too much, better than steaming hay and soaking it in winter, and it has a few more calories? to help him over winter? or should i just keep with the hay. more fibre, what he's used too, no wastage as it doesn't go mouldy. Just have to figure out a feed that will help out with keeping a bit of weight on him for winter. okay more questions: is wet haylage fed to poor doers because it has more oomph in it then? and am i right in thinking that all haylage is bad for a laminitics because of it being cut soo early in the year and thus having more sugar? how is dry haylage made? doesn't it need to be wet to have the microbes/bacteria? to preserve it? somebody has also mentioned to me about it being to acidic or alkaline, can't remember which and having to use a supplement to balance it out. is it really worth the hassle when there's good hay out there? Wet haylage is more often than not fed to horses because that is what is available. We make ours as dry as possible, but it does depend on what the weather allows us to do - ideally it will be baled a day earlier than if it was going to be hay because it does need a bit of moisture to ferment in the bale and remove the oxygen. The wetter the haylage, the more acidic it will be - hence the stronger smell. We have fed our haylage to all types with never any need to feed a balancer, only the normal probiotic in our hard feed, and we have an ems livery that is fine on it without soaking, mind you we do not fertilise our hay pasture and only take one cut usually in July/August. We also supply our vet for her own horses and for the first time she can feed her cushings/lami pony without soaking. If you have a good supply of decent quality hay and have no dust problems, then maybe haylage is not for you - especially if you are only feeding one horse. The main benefit of haylage for me is the fact that it is less time-critical to make, easier to store in large quantities and much nicer to handle as I react badly to the spores in hay.
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Post by june on Dec 22, 2011 20:21:54 GMT 1
Most horses do fine on haylage but the odd one can't cope with the acidity. It is the acidity rather than the sugar levels that makes it unsuitable for most laminitics. The sugar is often lower than hay as haylage continues to ferment for a while when wrapped which uses up sugar.
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HelenG
Intermediate Poster
Posts: 231
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Post by HelenG on Dec 22, 2011 22:50:42 GMT 1
ahh see i need to learn alot so lets see if i have this right. Haylage has less sugar than hay and less dust than hay. But haylage has more calories than hay? Depending on the type of grass, haylage has less fibre so you have to feed more. Nutrients are roughly the same for both hay and dry haylage. Wet haylage has more nutrients and goodness because it's basically fresh juicy grass presevered in a bag? More questions, anyone who sells haylage has to have it analysed before it's sold? If a horse has stomach ulcers then the acid from the haylage wouldn't do them much good would it :s. Not that he has ulcers, just a passing thought i thought i'd check. I can understand now why people feed it but the thought of it being fermented left in a bag for months and then having to use it so quickly before it goes off just doesn't appeal to me. And the smell :s
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Post by june on Dec 22, 2011 23:22:20 GMT 1
It doesn't always have less sugar. It really depends on the grass when it was cut, but the fact that it ferments after cutting means sugar is used up so it can be lower sugar than hay cut from the same grass.
You feed more by weight because it is wetter therefore heavier. Again, it doesn't necessarily have more calories. It depends on the grass it was made from.
Haylage does not have to be analysed before it is sold. Some manufacturers do make it under brand names and that is analysed but many farmers make it too and that isn't analysed.
Wet haylage doesn't necessarily have more nutrients or goodness. It is just made when the grass is wetter. It tends to be more acidic when wetter and smells more strongly.
The fermentation doesn't go on forever. It goes on until the oxygen inside the bag is used up. That is why it is important that the wrapping stays intact. If the wrapping is pierced, oxygen gets in and the haylage goes off and that is why you have to use it fairly quickly once the bag is open. It is the lack of oxygen that stops the fermentation whereas with hay it is the lack of moisture. Well made haylage smells sweet and pleasant and not particularly strongly.
The pH of the stomach is lower i.e. more acidic than the haylage so it probably wouldn't have a whole lot of impact on stomach ulcers but it does depend on the horse. Some will be more sensitive to it than others.
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