Can hay be wrapped?

shannonandtay

shannonandtay

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Now after my concerns about fertilised fields (another post) our usual hay delivery turned up today but in wrapped bales the same as haylage. It wasnt as wet as haylage but was still a bit damp and had a faint smell of haylage about it. I never feed our pony haylage as his a very good doer and doesn't need the fizz and when I queried this hay/haylage I was told it was definately hay. We have the choice usually of either but have now been told we are using a different supplier so this is what we are getting. I've never known hay to come wrapped before anyone else more knowledgeable know if this is normal for hay?
 
It sounds like haylage made with the intention of feeding to horses. I would say its still haylage. I love it like that, it has the pros of both haylage and hay. Given a choice I would choose the barely damp, wrapped haylage bales. The horses do better on it (don't get the fizz or scours) and it doesn't have the dust hay can have, so no coughing.
 
Ok that makes sense, I ended up soaking it all day as I was so worried that it would be full of sugars, but then I seem to have an unfounded fear of haylage lol.
 
Oh right it was light green same as the haylage bales and although it has a faint smell like haylage you could definately tell e difference between the two. To be even more confusing it didn't really look like hay or haylage but a mix of the two.
 
Grass at any stage of dryness (or wetness!) can be preserved by excluding air. Briefly, if the grass hasn't been wilted, it's silage. If it's partially wilted, it's haylage. If dry, it's hay.

If you Google, there is a study by an American university on the Internet with all the relevant dry matters somewhere which is quite interesting.

Feeding value will depend on the stage the grass was cut, what fertilisers have been applied and how much, species of grasses, etc. and not so much on dry matter. Haylage is generally reckoned to be richer than hay because the usual practice is to fertilise heavily and cut it earlier at the most nutritious stage for feeding to cattle. Grass in that state would be harder to make into hay because it contains more water and will take longer to dry. Making silage or haylage takes some of the risk out of fodder conservation and can produce a more nutritious product -- bit it all depends!
 
Ours was wrapped last year as there was nowhere under cover to store it and, apart from two dud bales which had obviously let water in, was lovely hay, completely dry and sweet smelling without a hint of haylage.
 
I had wrapped hay last winter and still have a few bales left. It has been great and not dusty so no need to soak, so much better than unwrapped hay and I have already put my order in early for this year :)
 
The difference between dry haylage and hay is about 12 hours, if it still feels a little damp it may well be dry haylage - if you're worried send a sample off for a forage test that'll tell you.
How full of sugar was the water it had been soaking in today?

As above hay cut in June will be much richer than hay cut in September and haylage, from non fertilised fields, dried almost to the point of hay cut in September would probably be lower in calories than July hay cut from cow pasture.

as everything in the horse world it's all just shades of grey - there is no A= hay= low calorie and B= haylage= high calorie.

As with all feed changes, introduce slowly by mixing with existing hay, then monitor weight, performance, poos etc and if it all goes Pete Tong - swap back to the old stuff
 
Interesting Highlands, that isn't wrapped in the field as its made to keep out all the air - I'd more class that as bagged hay as the bags are loose and clearly have air in.
I wonder how long they recommend to keep it like that - I thought really dry hay needed to breath

I've certainly learned to my cost that if I stack nice dry hay in the barn too tightly it doesn't breath and goes bad quickly. (Same hay stacked diferently in another stable was fine!)
 
Thanks Highlands but I am not convinced about the safety of it for horses. Industrially produced will be stricter though. All I have read in the past advises against wrapping dryer grass.

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/info_haylage.htm

From here http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/dairy/as1252.pdf

"Making Baleage
The forage is cut as if for
making hay, but it is baled at
50 to 60 percent moisture rather
than at 18 to 20 percent moisture.
Baling at the proper moisture
content is the single most
important variable. Baling
haylage with too much moisture
reduces the feed quality of the
forage and reduces the amount
of dry matter stored per bag,
greatly increasing the storage cost.
Baling haylage with inadequate
moisture reduces fermentation
and increases mold production,
greatly increasing storage loss"
 
Thank you everyone that's really interesting to hear the different views, I might well send some off for analysis as its not expensive to do so and as I'm now being told that this is what we are using for the foreseeable future. It's not at all dusty and I was soaking as I thought it might be richer th an the hay we were previously getting and as pony is now out in the summer fields I was concerned about the sugars. Now that the bale has been opened for a day it seemed dryer and less haylage smelling than it did yesterday.
 
I've been trying to find out more about this but can't find anything about intentionally wrapping hay. I did find this though, which is wrapping what was intended as hay but couldn't get dry enough.

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/info_haylage.htm
"Producers should use a hay preservative on hay in the 15-30% moisture range rather than attempt to make haylage by bagging or wrapping the bales."
 
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