haylage, a few questions

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poglet1991

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hi, my mare has just been put on haylage due to bad quality hay, shes 14.3hh lightweight cob, doesnt put weight on easily but holds her weight so thats not an issue, she is just fed a balancer and chaff. shes at uni at the minute but when she goes home at xmas i will be sorting my own haylage out, its sorted in the field so would just be for her nighttime nets (shes fed ad lib)

i would just like to know what size bale i should go for and roughly how long it will last in winter, also a rough price would be greatly appreciated.

thanks xx
 
That is a tricky one, haylage costs roughly £40 - £50 for a 300kg bale but that would be way too big for you as once opened they really need eating up within a week. I know it used to be available in 20kg bales but not seen them for ages. sorry can't help further, only suggestion would be to share with as many people as poss to make a big bale worthwhile and keep costs down.
 
i know the ones here at uni are around 3ftx3ft squares but do you think that would be too much, everyone else at home feeds hay, but i dont want to put her on hay for 4 weeks then have to go back on haylage at uni as im scared it would be messing with her too much :S
 
Ditto above, it's a tricky one! We're finding our haylage this year is quite a bit drier than last year, so as long as it's well covered, it's keeping for 8-10 days before it turns. Wetter haylage last was only keeping for a few days, a week tops.

I'm not sure what weight our bales are - they're pretty big, we pay £28.50 and these last 3 horses (15.2 - 16hh) for 8-10 days, fed overnight only & not in the field. Horses are all pretty good doers, currently at a nice weight. We pretty much get through the whole thing in this time.

We feed more haylage weight-wise than hay, because of the high water content.

If it's just for your mare, unless you could source smaller bales, I think you'd have a lot of waste. Could you find some good quality hay instead? :)
 
i can get the horshage ones but i think it wouldnt be cost effective. she wont eat the hay anymore, i dont know about the stuff at home but i know last years hay wasnt the best :confused:
 
Sorry, just saw your reply above after I posted ;) Is there definately no-one else at home who'd be feeding haylage, that you could share with?

Personally I think I'd bite the bullet, order a couple of bales of haylage and write off any waste. I know it's not ideal, none of us can exactly afford to be chucking ££ away :o But as it's just for 4 weeks, might be the easiest option. Plus if it's as cold as it was last year, you might find you'll be feeding quite a bit more by then? Especially if we have snow...
 
Groovy Grover said:
That is a tricky one, haylage costs roughly £40 - £50 for a 300kg bale but that would be way too big for you as once opened they really need eating up within a week. I know it used to be available in 20kg bales but not seen them for ages. sorry can't help further, only suggestion would be to share with as many people as poss to make a big bale worthwhile and keep costs down.
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Not necessarily, we (ex YO and I) used haylage on our 3 over the summer, we opened the bale completely and let it dry out and it lasted us a month. We checked it everyday and it was fine.

I am able to leave mine in a barn so I still do this, I use about a bale every month/6 weeks and it costs me £40, eventually after it dries out it just turns into really nice hay and hasn't upset my horses gut.
 
You'll find you might get longer than a week out of a big bale when it's cold, maybe 10 or 12 days. If it's only for 4 weeks, you'll need no more than 3 bales to tide you over. I have lots of empty nets and fill them all then wrap the bale up as closely as I can and leave it alone until all the nets are empty then fill them all up again and I find that's the best way of keeping it fresh
 
where i am you can buy 25kg bags for about £8 or 50kg bags for about £12. this suits people with either just one or two horses. i cant use the really large bales and there is no waste. i would also look for the high fibre,low protein haylage if thats available. my local agricultural shop sell loads as a lot of people own just one hors.
 
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