Haylage instead of hay.

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showqa

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I have to put my horse on haylage as he seems to be allergic to hay spores. I'm concerned about this because he's a good doer and so wondering about the quantity of haylage versus hay that he would need. Also wondering what I'll do for entertainment value, if he ends up on a lot less. Any advice please? Thank.
 
Yeah I've been doing that, but the vet was out today and insists that he has to go on haylage as even soaked (and it's good hay) it's triggering and allergic reaction.
 
You have to feed about half the amount of Hayladge. In tearms of entertainment people say putting it in two haynets help to increase eating time. Hope this is helpful.
 
Our horses have never been fed hay. Always haylage and to be honest, because it is the norm for them, they never over eat. I feed the same weight as I would hay, there are less slices as there is more moisture. Use small hole nets. I give half at 6pm and half just before bedtime - lucky enough to have horses at home. I would never go back to hay. Horses have clear lungs - never coughing or sniffling. Haylage is best and the benefits far outweigh the negatives.
 
Agree with Risky. We went on to haylage because my mare developed RAO (COPD) and could not tolerate hay at all, however long it was soaked for. She has now been on haylage for 2 years and it has completely got rid of the problem.

As our horses are out 24/7 and are fed comunally I cannot have hay on the place. My liveries understand that, and frankly we (and the horses) much prefer haylage. There is no wastage as it is so tasty, no dust either.

Because my horses are at home I feed little and often - usually on the concrete of the stable yard to which they have total access. But in bad weather we also put the haylage in small-hole haynets.

The one thing to watch out for is over-rich haylage. It is not the quantity but the 'quality' that can cause problems. My local friendly farmer made haylage for the first time last winter. It smelt fantastic, the horses loved it, but it was dairy-cow quality (i.e. far too damp and rich) and my horse went down with winter laminitis; admittedly this was thoughtto be also partly due to frozen grass.

Other than that, I'd say go for haylage every time. You can get away with feeding slightly less, but most people I know give roughly the same amount.
 
showqa said:
I have to put my horse on haylage as he seems to be allergic to hay spores. I'm concerned about this because he's a good doer and so wondering about the quantity of haylage versus hay that he would need. Also wondering what I'll do for entertainment value, if he ends up on a lot less. Any advice please? Thank.
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If you soak haylage the same as you would hay then this reduces the sugar content in it. Also put in small hole haynet's possibly even double layered.

And as others have said if possible give 1 net when horse is brought in & another later on in the night to stop them gourging.
 
to the OP i would look at your bedding and living environmernt. there is no reason why a COPD/RAO horse can not eat soaked or steamend hhay. haylage is much richer in feed value so if you end up feeding haylage your bucket intake will/should be vastly reduced.
 
I changed my tb from hay to haylage two years ago he used to eat half a bale a night but since changing he only gets 4kg which is about a slice and he will leave alot of it, i find cos its richer they dont eat so much a small bale lasts me 10 days where as hay used to be two. I would change defo. Just find a farmer who does nice haylage but is more meadow hay baled as the rye grass haylage is straw like and very rich.
 
The fact that some of it can be very rich does bother me as he is a good doer, and equally he gets very bored easily.

His living environment cannot be bettered to be honest with you. He's out in the field in the day, and at night comes up to a three sided barn with shavings beds, that opens onto a 30 x 30 stockyard which he has free access to. So I don't see how I can improve on that really.

I can see the benefits for sure, but just mindful of the pitfalls. Thanks all - great help.
 
The key is to try and find lower calorie haylages - you should avoid early cut rye grass haylage, and try to find a later cut, meadow grass type. I have fed good doers on haylage for many a year and have not had a problem.
 
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