hay vs haylage

[ldlp111]

i know this subject is getting old but as you are supposed to feed more (as in weight) of haylage to horses than hay, surely the actual amount (as in a wedge whatever) would be nearly the same as a wedge of haylage does weigh more than a wedge of hay.

 

[competitiondiva]

sorry not quite following your question. Haylage is packed with more nutrients than hay, so you feed less than you would in hay. (i.e 2 slices of hay to 1 slice of haylage) as far as quantites is concerned that depends on the horse and work it is doing.

 

[BigRed]

You really need to weigh your hay and then give the same amount in weight of haylage. Most horses really like haylage so they can stuff it really quickly making you think you didn't give them enough, which is why people often feed it in small hole nets. As previous post says, haylage is more nutritious than hay so more fattening, you should be able to halve the amount of hard feed you give when you feed haylage.

 

[ldlp111]

yeah thats i thought but someone on here said u hav to feed more to get same amount of fibre as hay

 

[BigRed]

If in doubt, go and read the marksway horshage web site, it gives you a lot of info about haylage as a product. It applies to all haylage, not just their version of it.

http://www.horsehage.co.uk/

 

[K_T]

haylage has more water content than hay, approximately 60% DM whereas hay is about 90% DM so if you fed 1kg hay you would need 1.5kg of haylage to get the same amount of dry matter. There is more nutrients in hay so you would need to cut down any additional hard feed.

 

[millitiger]

i just feed ad-lib so don't have to worry about weighing it or versus hay- whatever forage my horses are on i never limit it.