Grass/ haylage in winter

[Flowerofthefen]

Does anyone manage their ' poor doers' on grass and haylage alone over winter? We do our own hay but it's quite course and I never think it looks good quality. I end up feeding a fair bit of hard feed to maintain their weight, it costs a fortune. The older chap could so with something a bit softer to eat as well. Over winter they usually go out fir the morning, hay in field, then come into ad lib hay. Our new yard has loads of grass so I won't be putting hay out as I know they won't eat it. I was hoping to feed ad lib haylage when in but I'm not sure if this alone would maintain their weight? I would be looking to buy a Heston of haylage, I assume it would be around £30 , and I would assume for 2 big horses it would be one a week? Any experiences would be greatly appreciated.

 

[blitznbobs]

Nope my poor doer needs a shed load of hard feed, she gets a choice of hay or haylege every night in her stable and has 2 feeds a day with stud nuts and linseed…

 

[santas_spotty_pony]

You will end up feeding more haylage than hay because of the high water content.

 

[Irish-Only]

Soaked grass nuts are brilliant for getting/keeping condition on. There should be a warning on the bag “don’t feed to good doer’s “.

 

[blitznbobs]

Nope my poor doer needs a shed load of hard feed, she gets a choice of hay or haylege every night in her stable and has 2 feeds a day with stud nuts and linseed…

I can do this without much wastage as I have a food disposal machine (aka fat cob) that gets her left overs… never a morsel left once he has finished!

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Soaked grass nuts are brilliant for getting/keeping condition on. There should be a warning on the bag “don’t feed to good doer’s “.

Tried these, they love them but end up feeding loads.

 

[Lucky Snowball]

My poor doer has two feeds daily and ad lib haylage with grass but he does work quite hard.

 

[Goldenstar]

You will just have to see .
I have never owned a horse who could not maintain body weight in winter on good quality haylege .

Haylege is usually but not always higher energy per kilo than hay despite the fact in contains more water .
However it will usually ( but not always ) contain less fibre and you may have to add something into the diet to allow for that .

I have had horses hunting two days a week on haylege with nothing except a mineral supplement.
No one can tell you what will work because there are so many variables .

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

You won't know until you try my Arab's have wintered on just hay they only ever really get a token feed of a few handfuls of chaff and balancer and supplements anyway.

I don't ride mine much in January and February anyway so they don't need much bucket feed, they drop a bit of weight but nothing drastic.

If I wanted to feed a poor doer now I would feed Equijewel not the cheapest but you don't need much and you don't have to continuously feed it all year round, so it might be worth looking into feeds that you don't need sheer volume for them to work.