Feeding meadow haylege:Any need for supplements?

[MissMistletoe]

My new yard feeds meadow haylege to the all the liveries over the winter months.

All i know about this grade of haylege is that it contains a varied mix of grass species and is generally lower in protein and energy and is more hay like than the richer ryegrass haylege.

Im aware that it also contains more moisture and a lower fibre content so you need to feed more than hay to increase the fibre that the horse is getting.

Ive only ever fed my two hay over winter, so this is all new to me apart from the info ive found out above.

I was wanting to know, whether, if you feed this grade of haylege to horses turned away at grass for the winter, do you supplement the haylege with anything else eg. vit/min powder/supplement/hard feed/balancer etc..?. Im assuming here that they will remain well covered over winter (weight wise), but wanted to make sure that they got all their necessary vits and mins every day.

Or, does the haylege, ideally without getting it analysed, have an adequate amount of vits and mins to keep the horses ticking over?

Im only asking because my youngster was turned away with some other youngsters last spring and they were given a large round bale of haylege in the field. The yard owner advised me to take mine off the Surelimb vit powder, as the haylege was full of vits and mins.

Also, ive heard that haylege can give horses gut problems, hence feeding them yeast to help with this. Maybe this is more associated with the richer grades of haylege???

Any ideas/experiences welcomed

 

[competitiondiva]

With regard to the gut problems, some of the richer ryegrass hayledges are a little too rich for some horses hence upsetting the gut. The meadow variety shouldn't necessarily have this effect. With regard to vits and mins, consider this if your horse was out at grass in the summer would you supplement with vits and mins? Because all hayledge is is baled grass just wrapped earlier than hay hence keeping more of it natural nutrients) so in short as with all pasture in the uk it will be lacking IMO in some area or another, in my area the grazing is short in selenium. So I would supplement to be sure.