Hay advice please

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Skhosu

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Our hay this year has been very rotten, it seems more like silage than hay. It was baled the same night it was cut (left all day) due to the weather. Anyway, we think the horses may be coughing on it and not sure if there is a risk feeding it to them? The problem being of course we have around 20 big bales of it left!
It is very wet tooo...
 
I would cut your losses and get rid of it, before you get respiratory problems which require vets expenses.

Also if mouldy it will have poor nutritional value and could give them colic or in the worse case I believe botulism..(but i could be totally off track there)

I moved yards and took my lovely hay with me... but was given a leaky part of the barn to store it in.... result.... mouldy hay (actually green on the edges)!!!

Sorry but I wouldnt feed it!!
 
Damn...(we don't feed the white/blue bits etc. anyway btw!)
It does seem to dry out once its open but...
sigh, gotta break it to parents and find some more hay,as we use 2-3 bales a weel could e tricky!
 
Baled on the same day it was cut? No that is wrong.....it isn't hay you are feeding. Hay takes much longer to dry out. Is it bagged? If so, then it is haylage/silage.
 
It is bagged. Sorry, it is haylage we normally feed, just refer to it as hay. But I think this is more like silage, how is silage made anyway?
I presume silage is not good for them?
 
Nope. Have to admit we just normally use the haylage, don't get it analysed or anything? Sometimes we get it in, this is off our fields. IT is very wet (as in if you squeeze it you can 'feel' the moisture sot of coming out)
 
Then it is probably silage. I'm merely a hay farmer, Patches knows more about silage than me so she would be your best bet to ask.
 
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