Feeding Haylage In The Field Over Winter

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winchester

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I usually feed hay in the field in the winter! Would it be ok to give them big bale of haylage instead - say one a week for a group of horses - or is this dangerous in case they suff themselves when first opened?

Does anyone else do this?
 
Perfectly sensible.

Just ensure that it is in a proper round bale feeder. And you are able to move the feeding location around regularly to prevent over poaching.
 
My lot get fed big round haylage bales in winter.
The farmer normally puts in between 3 and 5 a week, (depends on how fast they eat it/the weather).
That is for a shetland, 3 welsh ponies, a section D, 2 16.2s, and a 15.3 at max (sometimes it may be less).

I'm a little peeved with the farmer as last winter, he 'dumped' it in the worst place and its left a bit of a mess, but its not the end of the world :)

They seem to pace themselves really well, I think as long as the supply remains constant, there is no need for them to 'pig out' as soon as its put in.
 
thats a lot of bales luckylotti, i use 1 a week for 4 15.1 - 16.2tb/tb types, and they stand around it all day and night i think :)

the first bale lasted 3 days OP, then by the end of the winter the odd one lasted 10 days

the small area where the bales have been is pretty much trashed, tbh
 
I was rather shocked at how much mine ate over this last winter, TBH, i think the farmer has been putting some of the smaller bales in and chargine me for the large ones!
Other winters we didnt use as much - and we had a greedy shire turned out those winters aswell.
 
That is a ridiculous amount of bales luckilotti! Do you feed in a round feeder? If not, you loose well over half of it into the mud.

We have 5 medium sized horses (14-16hh) eating hayledge adlib all winter. They go through one large bale in 5days roughly. Less in better weather. That's with a well designed round bale feeder. Before we started using it a bale would last 3days if we were lucky.

They stuff themselves full for the first bales (be it hay or hayledge) but after that it looses it's novelty and they just eat what they need. They spend plenty of time away from the feeder playing or having a snooze.

If you feed hayledge please be aware they they WILL break into new bales, eating some of the plastic wrapping and the plastic netting in the process. Which is obviously not good for them! And if you share with sheep, they're even worse for it!
 
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