Hay v Haylage fibre content?

[Penny Less]

Have not used haylage, but read that you dont give as much as you would hay becos
its richer. But, the amount of fibre going into horse must be much less? I give 15 lb hay a night, so suppose would halve that, a) less fibre, b) haylage eaten v quickly. So would I have to make up with hard feed or beet or something ?

 

[ruscara]

I was always taught that you give more haylage, because of the water content in it. Weight for weight, haylage will contain much less fibre than hay.

 

[not_with_it]

I was always taught to feed more haylage due to its higher water content.

I fill a huge net on a night and feed adlib but I do find that if the haylage is rich and wet she eats less than if its dry. I suppose it would fill them up more.
My haylage is like very good hay which suits my 2 perfectly. If you have a good supplier then they will have different types to suit the horse.

 

[Penny Less]

Good job I asked !!!!

 

[HBBambee]

Someone told me and i follow this, that if you feed the same amount of haylage as you would hay, then cut down the hard feed, because haylage having a higher nutritional content to hay could mean your horse may get a bit fizzy if the hard feed isnt cut down...

 

[TGM]

Feed the same amount of haylage as hay BY VOLUME to get the same amount of fibre. So if you give one large net of hay, then give one large net of haylage. However, one large net of hay will be lighter than one large net of haylage, because the haylage contains more water (which is why some people say you feed more haylage than hay, because they mean by WEIGHT).

This assumes that the haylage you are giving is of a similar type to the hay you have been feeding - the calorie count will vary according to the type of grasses used and the time it was cut. If you are using a significantly more calorific haylage than the hay you previously used, then cut down hard feed to compensate. If your horse is a fatty and doesn't get any hard feed then look for a lower calorie haylage.

 

[touchstone]

I was always told to feed the same amount or slightly more by weight as hay, if you feed the same amount volume wise then you could be feeding a massive amount weight wise! You should also cut down the hard feed by about a third. If you look on the horsehage website it does say that volume wise it will be much less.

 

[TGM]

If you look on the horsehage website it does say that volume wise it will be much less.

Horsehage is slightly different because it is so tightly compressed to fit into the tiny bales (plus the feeding suggestions on the bale are rather conservative becase they don't want people to have a fit at the price compared to hay!) However, if you are feeding, say, round bale hay and then switch to round bale haylage, then the volumes should be similar without having to worry about shaking it out, because the amount of compression will be similar. But if in doubt, shake the hay out, shake the haylage out and compare the volume!

 

[teddyt]

I was always taught that you give more haylage, because of the water content in it. Weight for weight, haylage will contain much less fibre than hay.

I agree with this.

Horsehage say feed the same weight as hay on the bags but i disagree because the horse would be getting much lower fibre. Mind you, they think that 1 bag will last a horse 3 days! No way!