Ad-lib haylage - how much?

Lancelot

Lancelot

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The thread abut hay\haylage from the floor or a net got me thinking...

For those of you feeding ad-lib in a stable overnight, how much do you need to use roughly? My chap is very greedy & eats quickly so there is never anything left in the morning despite my best efforts :(

I'm worried that if I really up the amount of haylage I put in for him he will get very fat very quickly. I am using haylage nets to try and slow him down so that it lasts longer but would far prefer to feed from the floor.

He is turned out during the day but the field is pretty bare and yard don't put hay out...
 
I put two large nets in and he normally eats about one - not sure how much they will weigh but they are pretty heavy! The biggest nets I could find!! :D He is 17hh TB
 
Obv not to be patronising but if he's not actually on a diet, he'll need at least 2% bodyweight of forage daily so there's your first line of attack. Is he naturally a good doer?

How long is he turned out for and I take it there's no scope to change the no-hay-in-field? Similarly, if you do want him to shift some pounds, would you be able to switch to hay and soak it?

I feel for you - I have an extremely good doer with no sense of self-limitation who might as well be a blimming hoover :mad: Would love to feed ad lib and from the floor but he has weighed soaked haynets according to time in overnight and bodyweight.
 
My chaps about 16.2hh but a draft build. He's a really good do-er and currently has 2 flaps of soaked hay from the floor plus 1 large & 1 medium net of haylage each night. I would say, in total, he's getting through a flap from a large haylage bale (so a lot!). He also has 2 small (mostly speedibeet) feeds a day.

I guess he may be throwing it down as the fields are so bare he's probably really hungry when he comes in :(
 
Ad lib means that there should be a bit left the next morning. I have mine weighed as different yard staff have different ideas about how big a big haynet should be. We started off giving her about 10kgs a night which is approximately 2% of her body weight and kept increasing it until we got to the stage where she has a bit left the next morning. She now gets 18kgs a day :eek:

But mine needed to gain weight, and could still afford to gain more without being a concern. If yours is on a diet try double netting to slow him down, or if you want to feed more bulk without putting on weight try changing to a less rich hay/haylage or mixing it with straw.
 
Lancelot said:
The thread abut hay\haylage from the floor or a net got me thinking...

For those of you feeding ad-lib in a stable overnight, how much do you need to use roughly? My chap is very greedy & eats quickly so there is never anything left in the morning despite my best efforts :(

I'm worried that if I really up the amount of haylage I put in for him he will get very fat very quickly. I am using haylage nets to try and slow him down so that it lasts longer but would far prefer to feed from the floor.

He is turned out during the day but the field is pretty bare and yard don't put hay out...
Click to expand...

I used to feed all of the horses ad lib haylage from the floor. They all ended up looking pregnant! So I now ration it and feed five times a day from the floor. The horses that don't have a weight problem eat 16 - 20 kilos of haylage a day each which is around 3% of their bodyweight and 1% over the amount recommended of 2% of bodyweight. The fatties/good doers now have their haylage weighed and put into very small holed haynets. They get it four times a day. At the moment three of them are on a diet and so are being fed 1.75% of their bodyweight in haylage. This has ensured a nice steady weight loss. Once they have reached their target weight/condition score they will have their rations increased until they maintain their weight. Note however, that none of them are on grass at present. They get daily turnout in the all weather enclosure. Come spring I will need to adjust things once again.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

I think my first step tonight is going to be to weigh the nets of haylage and the hay thats going on the floor and take it from there. Maybe I'm simply not feeding enough....
 
Hmmm. The soaked hay going in the floor weighs 3kg (unsoaked obv!). The haylage nets weigh 8kg in total. Last time I weigh taped him he was 540kg so it seems he's getting more than enough. Back to the drawing board I guess to try & make it last longer :(
 
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