haylage/hay - which should you feed more of?

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ImogenLouise

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Hi, I have recently read contradictory articles about how much haylage you should feed, compared with hay. One article - a horse and hound piece about laminitis - said it is important to feed a greater weight of haylage (than you would hay) as it contains more water than hay does, and you need to ensure adequate fibre intake. However, another article i read in a horsey mag - don't remember which one- said the opposite, that you should feed less haylage than you would feed hay, as it's more calorific.
What does everyone think? Is there somewhere i can find out the truth?!
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Neither are wrong - it depends really on your horse.

So for instance, my little cob x mare would be allowed to have adlib hay but never adlib haylage as it's simply too fattening - and she is just the type to be prone to laminitis.

However, another horse I had was a TB and would always be fed adlib haylage as weight was never an issue for him.

So essentially - if you have a good doer never give adlib haylage. If it is an average or poor doer let them have adlib.
 
Depends on your horse!

If you have a horse that isn't prone to getting too fat then you should really feed the same amounts of haylage as you would hay (by volume), however this in effect would mean you fed more haylage by weight to account for the higher water content.

If you have a fatty like mine I restrict his haylage a bit but put it in a very small holed haynet, it lasts him all night it's just he doesn't get a chance to wolf it all down in one go!
 
It is a difficult one as both facts seem to be true! Our horses would also eat it really fast because of the water content and put on weight with it really easily... Ended up feeding half hay, half haylage to compensate for lack of fibre and to give them something that would last longer through the night and now we've moved to a new yard, feeding just hay again which we can give ad-lib. A lot does depend though on the water content of the haylage you are feeding - some are really 'wet' and others quite dry and this can also vary from bale to bale with home produced haylage. Sorry I can't be more helpful!
 
Just looked the article up and basically what its saying that as haylage has changed it contains less protein and energy so therefore there are less worries of providing too much energy or calories! The main things I would worry with haylage is the quality, unless its baled or stored correctly you get very poor quality dry dusty mank! I remember we had one bale that had more thistles in it than anything else, not good for ponies, or hands making haynets!
Bascially the market has grown for haylage for horses so farmers produce it just for that purpose so it's more tailored to their needs!
 
If you are feeding weight for weight, then yes you should feed more haylage than hay as it weighs more. However, common sense is needed as for instance rye grass haylage compared to meadow grass hay would be like feeding rocket fuel. We always feed our big horses ad lib, but if they have haylage they get high fibre/low calorie haylage - not a ryegrass mix.
 
thanks for your replies! I'm just concerned because my new horse is on a yard which only feeds haylage and he finishes his net at night in no time at all - 2 hours tops!
He is the type - cobX - to put on weight easily, and with the spring grass coming through I'm sure he will be prone to being over weight if I'm not careful..
From what everyone's saying i think he'd be better off on hay, but no-one else at the yard seems to be concerned about it. Perhaps will try the 2 haynets suggestion so it lasts a bit longer!
 
He's on part/full livery so it's not me that's measuring out the haylage. I had just thought it wasn't much and asked if he could have a bit more soon after I moved him to the yard.
I'm going to check tonight how much they're giving him- have just bought one of those spring weighing things.
They also give him haylage in the morning - i don't know how much - after his feed and before turning out.
I should note that he hasn't lost weight since I got him 2 months ago and will be going out overnight, coming in during the day when it gets warmer.
 
Three things.

It is up to you how much your horse gets fed. Depending on how big he is start him on around 11lbs of haylage given as late as possible as see how you get on with that.

I wouldn't want him to have haylage before he went out - just put him out by 8.00am.

You can feed a hay replacer such as High Fi lite alongside his haylage which will increase his chewing time.
 
I feed adlib whichever I use, but if the horse was on a contolled diet then in therory the volume would be the same, but if you go by weight then a higher weight of hayalge. This is because hay contains 20% water by haylage contains about 50% which makes it heavier.
 
You're supposed to feed more haylage than hay because it contains more moisture than hay i.e if you feed the same quantity of hay and haylage the haylage will weigh more than hay because it's wetter, usually the ratio is 1.5 haylage=1 hay. As they usually do better on haylage they don't need as much hard feed. If the horses eat it very quickly, (theres usually less chewing on it than with hay!) try to get a haylage net which has really small holes so it takes them longer to eat.
 
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