Feeding Haylage instead of hay

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haras

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I'm thinking about swapping my three over to haylage this winter. This is because my arab mare has always been on haylage, and I gave her hay yesterday and now she is coughing My veteran gelding always coughs in the morning if he has been in overnight and won't eat wet hay and my veteran native mare has the early signs of COPD and suffers unless her hay is well soaked.

My problem is this..... Would it be ok if I was careful with the haylage as my native mare is laminitic?

Would I get away with big bale haylage for my three or would it get wasted? They get through 5 - 6 small bales of hay a week between them. (Out in the day, In overnight (6pm - 8am)

How much can I expect to pay?

How does this compare to hay?

or should I get small bale haylage, just give it to the arabs and continue to 12 hour soak the laminitics hay and just give her haylage on the days where it is too cold to soak the hay (ie it freezes?)

Thanks!
 
if you want to swope from hay to hayledge you would have to soak your hayledge from a farmer or you can buy special haylage from horse hays that is just for lammi prone ponis i think the colour you need will be the blue bag!
 
To be honest I would continue with soaked hay for the lami. My lami is fed socaked hay and oat/wheat straw now and the weight is dropping off. The vet advised against haylage as you have to feed more due to its high water content and sugar content. Maybe try the blue horsehage instead?
 
Hi can i just ask why you have to soak haylage you get from a farmer?

I get mine from a horsey place and they get it from a farmer and it is ok i have never had to soak it.

Just wondering in case i need to soak it.

It is pretty good and isn't mouldy or nowt very good quality.
 
I would definitely recommend swapping to haylage as it will save you a huge amount of work and be much tastier for the horses than soaked hay.

I have 3 laminitics and all are fine on haylage. I spoke to my vet about it, and several farmers, and there is usually LESS sugar in haylage because more of it is used up in the fermentation process - so it can be better for lamis! Check with some feed companies if you don't believe me.

Just make sure you buy a late cut meadow haylage. You can get very high protein haylage if you buy an early cut seed crop but most farmers know what they are doing and will sell you the haylage you want.

It depends on where you are in the country as to how much it will cost. Home counties is dearest of course - I pay £30 for a big bale and £6 for a small one. I think you would get away with a large one because even if you wasted some it would be much cheaper than the smaller ones, although I like to have a stack at the back of small ones in case the farmer can't deliver (snow for example!). They say use within 5 days but I spread mine open when it's near the end and have found it easily lasts for a week, but don't quote me on that
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Go for it - horses will be pleased!
 
I use haylage 18 pounds for large bale ( roughly 8-10 small bales).

I get the lower grade as most of mine are good doers.
 
I have fed haylage for years now,the big bale kind.

I open it one end only and take a slice at a time, the only time it ever gets hot or gone off is if the other end has been opened or a horse has punctured it.

In the winter when its cold it easily keeps fresh for 3 wks opened this way.
 
the reason i say soak it if it is coming from a farmer is because it will be high in sugars and protin your lammi horse dont need these so by soaking it you will remove them but thats why i said about the horseage!
 
We have haylage included in our livery, and a few people were concerned about feeding it to the horses that tend to be over weight so spoke to our vet, who just said it's fine for them to have it, just soak it first as this will draw out all the sugars, and they've all manged find doing this.
 
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