Feeding haylege to a fatty ???

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Walrus

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Hello,

Does anyone feed haylege to a good doer? If so how do you manage, how much do you feed? Am considering it as hay is in such short supply but my pony is a really really good doer so I have always avoided it like the plague as I want to be able to feed enough to get the fibre into him.

Thanks

:)
 
Walrus said:
Hello,

Does anyone feed haylege to a good doer? If so how do you manage, how much do you feed? Am considering it as hay is in such short supply but my pony is a really really good doer so I have always avoided it like the plague as I want to be able to feed enough to get the fibre into him.

Thanks

:)
Click to expand...

You can soak haylage which will reduce the sugar content. Its recommended a minimum of 12hrs soaking.
Or you can feed in smaller amounts than hay & hope that it doesn't cause weight gain!

As of today my porker horse (otherwise known as a "good-doer" ;) ) will be given a slice of haylage morning & night because her paddock is literally bare.. then when she can move paddocks it will probably just be the eve slice.
 
I struggled to get hay for my good doer last year so he had to join the tb on haylage. I got him the hi fibre haylage, which is suitable for laminitics. He got a large net at night and stayed unrugged (except if chucking it down!).
 
We feed good quality clean straw with our haylage to our good doers. This winter was the first we have fed haylage, previously we have fed hay, but the suply was very difficult this year. I did get a long lecture about it yesterday from the farrier, who insists that the rise in cases of winter laminitis is a direct result of feeding haylage. Ours are still a bit on the large side, so when they have eaten the grass down and are in need of more forage, they will be given a larger proportion of staw to hay.
 
I have to feed my porky cob haylage, as she's allergic to hay, soaked or not. That was fine for two winters, but last year my normal haylage supplier farmer couldn't honour his commitments as short for his own yard. I bought some from another farmer friend. It smelt wonderful and the horses loved it, but in reality it was far too rich ...farmer is a dairy farmer and he made it more suitable for cow consumption. During the really bad weather over Christmas I was unexpectedly landed with 4 horses to look after (all out 24/7). I was so busy with everything I took my eye off the ball and just chucked haylage at them - normally I'm very mean with it. The next thing was my porker was down with appalling laminitis. So that farrier hs a point!

The dairy farmer and I had a long talk, and for this winter he's making me haylage from some some unfertilised set aside land he rents. This will be more of a belly filler than anything else. If it does turn out to be better quality than he and I think it will I will mix it with oat straw. My porker is in the stable yard 6 hours each day at present to keep her off the grass, when not out in a muzzle, and has a half flap of oat straw to keep her from collapsing from starvation!!! She quite likes it.

The 'blue' (laminitic friendly) bagged haylage is good, but it is SO expensive when you compare it to farm grown stuff. I just couldn't afford to keep mine on that all the time.
 
I've run out of hay for my fatty who stays in over night so I've been soaking haylage for a while now - had no problems & he isn't getting any bigger!!
 
I'm currently feeding a commercial high fibre haylage to an extremely good doer and so far so good, in fact I've found that digital pulses have gone down since being on it compared to 12 hour soaked hay.

I do weigh and feed according to bodyweight though and would mix with some straw if needed.
 
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