Clever alternatives for low sugar forage

[Polos Mum]

I have for years struggled with good quality forage supplier for fatties.

Local farmers hay is hit or miss, last year was a miss with c.50% going on the muck heap. He cut his at the weekend (I know which fields it comes off which is great so I know it's weed free) but then it rained loads on Monday so it will be rubbish / dusty.

Does anyone buy expensive branded but low sugar haylage and supplement with straw as an alternative to hit and miss hay?

I like to buy it all in over the summer - in bulk - we have storage (although it's open barn and we're high so needs to be wrapped or the moisture in the air gets in) and it stops me worrying about getting it here in bad weather.

I'm not too bothered about cost give the pain of soaking poor quality hay or worrying about them coughing and vs. the level of wastage when they don't eat half of it !!!

West Yorkshire based but I bought from Nottinghamshire 2 years ago in big bulk

Clever suggestions welcome.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Unless the farmer baled it when it was wet, I would expect his hay to be fine. Of course you know how many times it was turned and when he baled it. I would be very wary of hay that you haven't seen growing this year tbh, there seems to be a lot of buttercups growing in almost evey field that I can see here.

 

[Polos Mum]

Thanks - the weather certainly seems to have encouraged butter cups this year

Sadly the hay was quite dry (cut and turned twice) before it was soaked in the rain - from those fields it's on the dusty side anyway - it will only be good for cattle now so that's not an option.

 

[Casey76]

You can buy hay with a guaranteed analysis from Forage Plus (cost is astronomical though, when I looked last (spring) it worked out at around £12 per 20kg bale)

If I remember correctly there is a supplier in Devon who produces low s/s Timothy, which is sold nationwide.

 

[HollyWoozle]

Our 'hay man', Mark at Old Manor Farm here in Beds, produces a lite haylage and they deliver nationwide for bulk, not sure how much you'd have to buy though! I've never used the haylage but we've bought hay from Mark for years and years. https://www.oldmanorfarm.com/haylage#timothyhaylage

His forages are also analysed by Forage Plus.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

I've just switched Dolly to Timothy Horsehage as an alternative to hay. 1 bag lasts her 4 days and its £8.65 a bag locally.

 

[chocolategirl]

Unless the farmer baled it when it was wet, I would expect his hay to be fine. Of course you know how many times it was turned and when he baled it. I would be very wary of hay that you haven't seen growing this year tbh, there seems to be a lot of buttercups growing in almost evey field that I can see here.

I read that buttercup is only poisonous to horses when alive, but when cut and dried, as in hay, it’s perfectly harmless. Happy to be corrected though?

 

[chocolategirl]

I have for years struggled with good quality forage supplier for fatties.

Local farmers hay is hit or miss, last year was a miss with c.50% going on the muck heap. He cut his at the weekend (I know which fields it comes off which is great so I know it's weed free) but then it rained loads on Monday so it will be rubbish / dusty.

Does anyone buy expensive branded but low sugar haylage and supplement with straw as an alternative to hit and miss hay?

I like to buy it all in over the summer - in bulk - we have storage (although it's open barn and we're high so needs to be wrapped or the moisture in the air gets in) and it stops me worrying about getting it here in bad weather.

I'm not too bothered about cost give the pain of soaking poor quality hay or worrying about them coughing and vs. the level of wastage when they don't eat half of it !!!

West Yorkshire based but I bought from Nottinghamshire 2 years ago in big bulk

Clever suggestions welcome.

What about second cut haylage? It’ll be lower in everything in theory ?

 

[Mrs B]

H can't eat hay (even steamed/soaked) as he coughs. The big bale haylage is often far too sugary and rich and gives him squit-butt ...

So for the last month, I've been buying small, wrapped bales of soft haylage from White House Farms:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/616187751850304?bac=MTU1MzQyNTgwMDoxNDk4MjkzNzQ2OTczMDI5OjE0OTgyOTM3NDY5NzMwMjksMCwwOjIwOkt3PT0=&multi_permalinks}

It's £6.25 per bale, but less if you buy in bulk. Each bale lasts me about 3 to 4 days as if fluffs up a fair bit and he's on a diet (see below!)


It smells lovely and is like a haylage version of hay, if that makes sense! He doesn't wolf it down, which suits me just fine and I also feed him TopSpec TopChop Zero.

Again, he'll eat it if he's hungry and there's no more than a lick of that left and a few bits of haylage on the floor when turnout time arrives after a day in. He's been diagnosed with kissing spine and is now in rehab work - needs to lose 50kg in 6 weeks - and 9kg of that went in the first week.

 

[Melandmary]

I can't get Timothy horsehage locally but I have been buying the 20kg mole valley blue bag haylage which is about 6.10. My mare had about 100 kg to lose and she has lost half that in 2 months. Overnight she has about 5kg haylage mixed with 1.5kg oat straw double netted. So one bag lasts 3-4 days. The sugar content is comparable to the blue horsehage but I think there is slightly more weight in the horsehage although not always readily available and I can't afford to run out. The regime is working well and she likes it. I also feed her molichaff light and healthy which is about fine for laminitis. Vet recommended dengie but I think the alfalfa was making her jumpy so I swapped. It has marigolds and a few herbs in it for variety. Soaking hay is a pain in the butt ?

 

[Sail_away]

Easypack Timothy haylage is what I used for my asthmatic gelding at times - it was good quality and not expensive.
Horsehage Timothy is nice too but a bit richer I think, the horses love it but I wouldn’t feed it all the time to a good doer.

 

[ycbm]

The big bale haylage is often far too sugary and rich and gives him squit-butt ...

If haylage and hay are made off the same field, the sugar will be lower in the haylage because its lost in fermentation. Lots of horses find it too acid and get squits, though.
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