Haylage question

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bumblelion

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Just wondering if anyone has their good doers on haylage? I worked really hard getting the weight off my ID when I first got him in the summer. He now looks much healthier and is about the right weight. Thinking about putting him on haylage this winter for a few reasons. Anyone think I'm mad?
 
You should bear in mind that if you feed haylage you ought to reduce the hard feed quite a lot. My TB only gets a bit of hi-fi in the winter when she is fed seed rye grass haylage.
 
I have two good doers who are on meadow grass haylage, but I only give them a token bucket feed.

This chart, although for a very expensive brand of small bale haylage, is quite interesting as it shows how the calorie level of haylage varies according to the type of haylage and also compares it to hay:

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

Some manufacturers will tell you the analysis of their haylage, or alternatively you can have your own haylage analysed - Dodson & Horrell do such a service for about a tenner.
 
My ID has been on haylage for past couple of years, he gets a full haynet each night and is fine. I do tend to feed minimal hard feed tho (just cos Im a tight ar$e) so he currently gets handful of chaff, half scoop nuts and 2 carrots twice per day plus one full haynet. Weight wise it has had no different effect than feeding ahy and mentally no difference either.

Like Lizziebell said, it depends on quality of haylage, I dont think ours is that rich TBH.
 
I have my very good doer on haylage, like above, it depends on what the nutritional value of your haylage is. The haylage I have was late cut and so is stalky and takes ages to eat, it's 75% DM, low protein and low energy, perfect for my good doer who loves it, and the bonus for me is that I don't have to soak it, it's clean and none is wasted. I feed my 15.2h 490kg mare about 6kg overnight at the moment, this will go up to about 9kg over winter. She has only a token feed of fast fibre when she comes in to put her supplements in.
 
I did with mine when she was in work. However, now she's broken, I don't dare, and have (much to my annoyance) had to stock up on plain hay for her.
 
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