feeding haylage - the pros and cons - help!

Laura-Maybe-IV

Laura-Maybe-IV

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Hi all I am seriously considering changing my mare from hay to haylage.

Our hay in the south east of kent is not the best it could be but it's the best that I can source. I pay quiet alot for my hay £45 and that will last me 3 weeks!!... :mad: I know with it being winter that they all eat more, but it is getting pretty expensive, but then running horses isn't cheap.

I have one horse and two ponies, the ponies however have had laminitis in the past so that does concern me slightly :confused: if they were to go onto haylage.

Does it actually save you money and if you buy a big round how long does this last? Or are smaller bags more cost effective?
Also do you cut down on your hard feed and does haylage heat them up?
 
The big bales are much more cost effective, the little ones work out very expensive, so I only buy the small ones if I am going away for a couple of days and need to take some in the lorry (it's also less messy than a bale of hay and contains more moisture).

As to laminitis, it has more to do with the quality of the grass grown, rather than the fact that it is haylage - if you took one field and made hay from one half and haylage from the other half, the haylage will have less sugar as it ages, as the sugar is used up as it ferments slightly within the wrapper, a bit like alcohol.

So what you need to check is what it was made from and when - my farmer made a lot of haylage early in the season when the grass was growing strongly, as the weather wasn't dry enough to make hay, and then much later in the season, he made hay from grass that had gone to seed.

So this year his haylage is much better and richer than his hay, but the previous year he did it the other way round so I had to avoid his hay!

If you have any very susceptible laminitis you can always buy the Marksway Horsehage Blue which is guaranteed below 5% sugar, I always have a stock in for emergencies (i.e. now that the pipes are frozen and I can't soak the old hay).

Does that help or are you more confused now? :)
 
3 weeks is pretty good for a horse and 2 ponies to get though a large round bale?! My 2 (two large horse) eat a large bale in a week and half!

Unless it's really dry stuff a large bale of haylege won't last 3 weeks. You really need to use it up within 2 weeks before it goes off. So, unless you can share with someone else, you'll prob end up wasting a fair bit.

It can be briefly soaked to wash off sugar for laminitics. It's no worse that hay although it ia tastier so they'll eat more if given the chance.
 
£45 for three weeks hay!!
Our big bale haylage cost £50 a bale to make (not a normal cost but thats what it was this year). My 3 eat a bale in 5/6 days.
 
Large round bale of haylage put in a cattle feeder with 4 horses living out 24/7 with free access lasts 4-6 days depending how.cold it is.
 
hay was costing me at least £80 a month for 1 section D and a mini shettie!! Ive just gone over to large round haylage bales at £25 a bale and LOVE the stuff. Its made from older grass so not rich but its just lovely and the horses are doing great on it. Ive dropped all hard feed other than vitamins in a handful of chaff. 1 round bale is lasting me 10 days to a fortnight
 
Thank you all, yeah I'm seriously considering it, I've been feeding my horse horsehage hoof kind high fibre and she loves it. When I actually think about it hay costs me £90 per month I didn't include my field hay in that quote so its a considerable sum.

I am considering haylage but I would have to get a bale and see how long it would last. Do you reduce your feed by feeding haylage?
 
I feed my two hay in summer, when they aren't eating much, and change to haylage in winter. It costs a lot less. My big pair eat a bale in 7-10 days, they are on it day and night.

I did think the haylage gave my pony laminitis. Now I try and buy the dryer stuff, which is more like hay really. It lasts better and I prefer it.
 
My 1 horse living out is costing me £80 a month on ad lib haylage, so I quite like the sound of your £45 for 3 weeks!!!
 
I switched to haylage when my cob mare devloped COPD/RAO. She is now allergic to all hay, soaked or not, but does brilliantly on haylage.

I learnt by trial and error. We are fortunate in that we get our big round bales from a farmer who is prepared to listen to our needs. Ergo, he makes our haylage off set aside land which has had no fertilisers on it in years, but is remarkably weedfree.

One round bale, which we reckon to be roughly 9-11 small bales (they do vary) lasts our 3 (a 17.2 steeplechaser, a Section D cob and a Section C pony who are all kept out 24/7 but with access to barns) about 8 days. He charges £30 per bale and delivers, one at a time as we have little storage space, for free. So really it has been an economy for us. The horses love it, and he makes it so that it is very much the 'hay' side (rather than the rich silage-like stuff which, though delicious to horses, is totally unsuitable for any with the slightest laminitic tendencies). We don't soak it, so there's no hassle.

The other great pro is that it's less dusty than hay - perfect for my girl.

Will be interested to hear what you decide to do.
 
Rose Folly said:
I switched to haylage when my cob mare devloped COPD/RAO. She is now allergic to all hay, soaked or not, but does brilliantly on haylage.

I learnt by trial and error. We are fortunate in that we get our big round bales from a farmer who is prepared to listen to our needs. Ergo, he makes our haylage off set aside land which has had no fertilisers on it in years, but is remarkably weedfree.

One round bale, which we reckon to be roughly 9-11 small bales (they do vary) lasts our 3 (a 17.2 steeplechaser, a Section D cob and a Section C pony who are all kept out 24/7 but with access to barns) about 8 days. He charges £30 per bale and delivers, one at a time as we have little storage space, for free. So really it has been an economy for us. The horses love it, and he makes it so that it is very much the 'hay' side (rather than the rich silage-like stuff which, though delicious to horses, is totally unsuitable for any with the slightest laminitic tendencies). We don't soak it, so there's no hassle.

The other great pro is that it's less dusty than hay - perfect for my girl.

Will be interested to hear what you decide to do.
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Thank you, yeah my TB I think is starting to get signs of RAO/COPD as she does cough quiet a bit especially when first ridden so this is another factor for putting her onto haylage, yes I have a farmer who sells dryer haylage so I will ask him for one of these drier haylages and give it a whorl :)
 
Rose Folly - I've got a drier type haylage coming tomorrow so looking forwards to giving that a try, just spoken to my farmer and he says it lasts for upto 5 weeks :-) and it is safe for my lamintics so I look forwards to seeing how it goes :)
 
Rose Folly said:
Laura-Maybe-IV - how has your new haylage gone down with your coughing girl? Hope it'll help her. My mare used to cough a lot, now I haven't heard one in 2 years! Bliss! Hope it works out for you
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Hi Rose Folly :) Yes she is really liking it which is good, plus i've cut down on my hard feed to and she is looking well, she is still coughing slightly, but less than she was I think it may take a while for her to get used to it. I've put her NAF respirator boost just to help her and that should cure it I hope!
But the haylage is lovely and she is enjoying it so fingers crossed :)
THanks for all your advice and help with it x
 
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