Hay or Haylege?

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bonney

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just wondered what people prefered to feed their horses?.As i will be bringing my lot in at the weekend and i cant decide wether to buy hay or haylege.
 

we give hay to the ponios

and tbh it depends on whatever weve got

we get two big round bales of haylage at a time

and fill the haybarn up with haybales

Thyme only ever gets hay

but the rest just get whatevers in the net
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I feed haylage.....one of my horses has COPD...and vet advised haylage.....and he seems much better on it..no coughing and weezing.....much less dust...smells lovely to
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We feed low energy haylage made very locally to us. Saves having to soak my lads hay (coughs on dry) and doesn't send OH's mare into orbit.

We buy a 300kg bale which lasts the horses 2 weeks (vet ok'd it being used like this as is quite a dry haylage) and each bale is £30 - we couldn't feed equivalent amount of hay for that cost so even more beneficial

both horses in overnight all year and have ad lib haylage when in
 
both but be careful if your horses are excitable if I give mine too much he goes off his head!!!!!!!!!!!they do prefer haylage
 
Do you find your horses get bored more easily on haylage as they don't get as much in comparison to hay? I would like to feed it as Osc has to have wet hay which I don't really like, but he also has to stand in 24/7 in the winter.
 
I prefer to feed haylage as less chance of being dusty and also it retains more nutrients than hay, so is closer to a horse's natural feed of grass. I use a meadow grass haylage rather than a ryegrass one and haven't had a problem with them getting fizzy. You only feed less haylage by weight rather than volume, so not a problem with them getting bored. The extra weight is down to moisture as haylage is wetter than hay!
 
i have recently brought my old mare in after shes lived out for 26 years! and thought i'd give her ad lib yummy haylage at night and she turned her nose up at it (its good lovely smelling stuff as well!!)

so shes back on hay!!! fussy mare!!
 
hay over haylage, after someone whose knowledge i really respect told me that haylage is more acidic and could be the cause of gastric ulcers in horses... i don't know if it's true, but it's one more (or less) thing to worry about!
i use small bale hay, so much easier to handle (don't have a machine capable of carrying a big bale), locally made, lovely stuff, no dust in it at all. steamed for the comp. mare, everyone else has it dry.
 
It will cost me £15 haylege or £12 hay for a round bale.The hay is normally very good as it will be this years.I think i will buy haylege this year as it does seem more popular.
 
Mine get a mixture, Ryu has perdominatley soaked hay 4-5squares with an armful of haylege morning and night because he is fat, Bails has breathing promblems so has mainly haylege but 1 1/2 squares of hay well soaked so after he gobbles his haylege ration he has something to pick at.
 
Definitely haylage. Got the young one on small bagged local stuff (20kg bales so easy to handle and store) and the oldie has soaked hay as his tum cant cope with the haylage unfortunately.
 
I feed hay as have a native who lives off thin air. I feed him year old hay so it is more fill than having anything good in it so he does not pile on the pounds...he has it ad lib that way. Could not contemplate hayledge as he would get so fat!
 
ou hay is kind of between hay and haylege!

It is wrapped and smells like haylege, but is more like hay in the fact that you can leave a bale open a few weeks if needs be.
 
Haylage because my horse has COPD and for some reason, if ever someone else 'soaks' his hay, he coughs. When I was DIY I never had any probs and he was on soaked hay for 2years like that but since I have been a part livery, its always been a problem so now I pay extra for haylage. He also dropped weight one winter on hay and I think haylage helps keep condition on him better.
 
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