Can you feed haylage with hay? If so, is there any point? Help!

FrankieBoy

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Some of you may know, Im still trying like a mad person to get weight on my 17.1 warmblood. Its just not happening.

He's on (as advised) scoop and a half soaked calm and condition, scoop and a half chaff, with a balancer, and some oil...

He usually has 8 or so sections of hay a night, But it has been suggested to me, to feed him one slice of haylage, and just 4 bits of hay a night - Together in one net.
This seems like nothing?

Will that one little section of haylage really help him gain weight if the hay is cut back so much? If its that great, should i be reducing the hard feed?
Also... Is there any point in feeding this little bit of haylage, if hes not going to be fully fed haylage?

Im getting a wee bit confused!
Can any of you help?

Tarr!
x
 
Personally, I would give him as much forage as he can eat. My horse has a large net of hay and a large net of haylage and he doesn't get through it all, but it's there if he wants it.
Have you considered a build-up mix or adding some sugar beet with Alfa A? Alpha A with sugar beet is highly nutritious. The trouble is, if you phone a feed company - don 't know if you have, then they will try to sell you all their products which may not provide the best diet.
 
I would add the haylage on top of the hay he already has... haylage has more calories than hay so may help him put on weight, but I wouldnt reduce his other forage to incorporate it!

ETS: what about barley or sugar/speedi beet added to his feed?
 
Well. Thats sort of exactly what happened.

I started him on Allen & Page's calm & condition, along with his existing feed, and when i was having no success I called their help line, and they said cut out anything but chaff and C&C, & double everything up. So i did - And still no improvement.

I just worry that a whole haynet of haylage plus one of hay along with all his hard feed will be too much...
Perhaps i should just stick to 2 nets of hay, like usual?

Confused.com =[
 
Assuming wormer is up to date i would increase forage,
give your horse as much hay or haylage as it will eat. Haylage tends to be better for weight gain imo. Dont increase the feed drastically or quickly , I would try speedi beet, alpha oil or alpha a with soya oil, along with something like build up.

It will take a few weeks before you will see any difference.
 
you actually need to feed more haylage than hay weight for weight to get the same calories. it's a myth that you should feed less haylage. haylage has a much higher water content so for the same weight you get more water and less nutrients.

and i would say just feed as much forage as he can eat - you want some left in the morning.
 
I think your first step is to go with lots and lots of forage - Perhaps introducing the haylage gradually but building it up. You can always go back to mostly hay if he starts to fizz up. Like the others have suggested, I'd change chaff to Alfa-A with sugarbeet, perhaps keep the calm&condition, maybe some oil, maybe a small amount of feed balancer. Change hard feed gradually and see how you get on?
 
So I can feed him his usual 8 slices of hay, plus one extra of haylage...with veiw to increase haylage, Keep his hard feed as large as it is (weather i change it or not [and yes i will change it slowly!] ) ...And this will not blow his brains out/cause things to swell up...etc etc etc?

Oh & yerr. My wormers are all up to date.
 
I found by gradually replacing the hay with haylage all ours kept their weight on much better this winter.If they were on 8 slices of hay I would do 6 slices of hay + 2 slices of haylage for a few days, then 4 hay + 4 haylage etc. you might want to stick to half and half so that
it is not as "whizzy" but mine are all fine on purely haylage (they have it ad lib).

You may not want to change feed again but saracen have been fab with us, they visited my yard, assessed all my horses and did a diet plan for each. We had some trcky customers including a very sharp hanoverian who needed to put weight on without becoming more difficult to ride and without exception they have all got fatter/skinnier according to our wishes and their coats look amazing.

Good luck.
 
Our horses get as much haylage as they can eat, and in the stallion's case that's two massive small holed nets a night.
He also gets a feed called prep 14 from saracen, a scoop per feed of Alfa A, speedi beet, and pink powder. I add a generous amount of oil to his evening feed.
Our farrier commented today on how fantastic he is looking, and I have to admit it's time to cut his feed down a bit as the grass will be coming too.
I would keep feeding what you are plus the oil and balancer what sounds wrong is the amount of fibre. A massive horse like that would go through two huge nets a night here plus possibly a top up at 11pm. So the reason he isn't gaining weight as quickly as you want is probably that. 8 sections of hay is plenty but if you compare that to haylage it's nothing like the same value. He's getting enough to eat by weight it's the difference between haylage and hay that counts.
Our horses who live out 24/7 have to eat haylage for at least 12 hours a day near enough non-stop to maintain their weight, and the majority this year have come through the winter looking positively rounded. (bar one who is being pts on friday
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yip i would try that.

See how you get on. My friend has the same problem with her horse, bigger horses struggle to keep the weight on i think.

Meant to ask is he warm enough? Maybe he's burning fat keeping warm?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Our horses who live out 24/7 have to eat haylage for at least 12 hours a day near enough non-stop to maintain their weight, and the majority this year have come through the winter looking positively rounded. (bar one who is being pts on friday
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[/ QUOTE ]

blimey - if i got mine to eat haylage for 12hrs a day he'd explode. he has lived out 24/7 all winter unrugged, is 22yrs old, not in work and fed one feed a day of 1/4 rations topspec and handful of hi-fi. they've had a little haylage the last month or two as they were getting bored, but certainly not dropping weight.

i do agree that haylage is better for weight gain than hay, but you have to feed it adlib to get the benefits. i have my young one on hay because the yard only give one big haynet a night and there's more calories weight for weight in the hay.
 
Tbh, if anything he's over rugged. His back ends not clipped & Hes usually in heavyweights with hoods plus extraif its really cold.

Ano warmbloods can be tempremental with their weight etc, but this is one long drawn out nightmare!

Thanks for all your advise though, I think im getting the picture now!
 
My 16.3hh ISH mare dropped alot of weight after a bout of cellulitis, I had her on A&P Calm and condition and found that it did sweet FA after being on that, alfa a and sugar beet for ages.
I've recently put her onto D&H build up, barley (recently changed to barley rings), corn oil and alfa a and it's made a god difference in the time since she's been on it
 
I'm sure he'll be fine, I have a tb mare who is the same and i think I worry about her weight too much , when I ask others they think she looks fine.
 
I think a lot of it is muscle build up. Due to Numerous problems with back and pelvis etc. He has pretty much no muscle whatsoever, Hes VERY weak behind. This is to be expected, and we're on a lunging/lose schooling plan done by my vet to help strengthen things up before i start riding him again.
But... you need the fat before you get the muscle. & He's just skin and flipping bones =[
 
QR- yes- I sed to mix the two together in a net when I was on a yard in Devon- due to them having really rich haylage but really dry hay- so i would mix the two together in a net- Shadow did fine with the mix
 
I'd agree - feed ad lib hay, and add one section of haylage at first, then gradually increase it to the amount you would like him to have.
Remember though, that haylage is made from grasses, just as hay is; the nutrient quality of haylage is entirely dependent on the grasses in the sward, at the time of cutting and baling. Unless you buy a commercial small bale haylage such as Horsehage (sp?), the only way you can tell nutritive value is by getting a professional analysis done. Good hay will be better than poor haylage. Water content in haylage can also be variable, so again it is difficult to make any useful comparison to hay in terms of amounts to feed.
I'd also agree with the others that Speedibeet is good for putting weight on, and barley, too. Perhaps it might be worthwhile giving him a mineral/vitamin general supplement for a month or two, just to ensure that nothing is missing, and perhaps linseed oil as it is good for coat shine and condition.
Hope he gets fatter soon!
S
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I have been told by a vet and a farmer that hay generally has more calories than haylage because some of the sugars in haylage are used up in the fermentation process. So in theory good hay should put more weight on than haylage.

However so much depends on the quality of both and when it was cut etc, so it is impossible to compare exactly. The main benefit to feeding both that I can think of is that haylage is often tastier so might encourage him to eat more, and is also a good way of introducing something new in the diet.

If he eats it better than hay then gradually increase haylage and see what happens. I feed all bar my laminitics as much haylage as they want, including a top up every night. If their haybars are empty in the morning, I feed more the next night. Big haylage bill, but happy nags!
 
Another advantage is that horses fed more than one forage ration have been found to have time budgets more closely comparable to 'wild' (well, feral really) horses such as Camargue ponies.
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Oh but it's flipping freezing here at 1000 feet Star so they need all that grub to keep warm, and believe it or not we have a mini shettie living out with access to that lot too..he looks great, but will be removed asap (when I can catch the beggar) to a grass free field!
I have a mix of horses in that herd, and some are a little fatter than I would rather for this time of year, but my haylage has almost run out so they will just get grass before too long. One older mare is being euthanised on Friday, she is only 18 but had a kick after being sold aged four, was operated on and then bought back to use as a brood mare, but looking at her realistically this week she is not having the quality of life I would want due to her injury and has not gained weight this winter at all, so the time has come. I always think if there are twenty fat horses and one thin one in a field it needs investigating, but in her case it's just wear and tear I think and watching her try to canter with the others decided me on the spot.
I made the point about eating such a long time after observing the new horses as they integrate here. The first winter they all lose weight due to not eating for long enough, most stand dreaming at the view and enjoying their mates. Once they click they must eat they look fine ever after unless they get ill. I think eventually they suss not to overeat except for a few of the cobs (one black and white is like a table top!)
I know yours is a good doer, show me a Weslh D that isn't!!!
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Well, he went to bed this evening, looking very pleased withimself. 2 Full haynets of hay, plus the little extra haylage.
Thanks for all your advise etc xxx
 
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