Haylage Usage?

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Holzdweaver

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I have one horse (15.3hh TB) and one pony (13.2hh ERP)

This winter i have sourced some beautiful large square baled haylage to feed my two.

They will have it adlib, well when i say adlib, its not on the ground or open, but put daily into a wooden hay feeder with a grill on the top to stop them from pulling the whole lot out and peeing on it. This will hopefully stop them gorging but should allow them to eat their fill more naturally.

only thing i can find similar for visualisation use :)
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1...90&start=42&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:44,s:0,i:205

Taking this into account, how many bales do you think i will use per month?

I was thinking two a month but need to give the farmer a total amount so he can save them for me, but now im thinking it may be more like three (every ten days)?

what do you think? :)
 
If u have found good hayledge pay for it quick!! If it helps we use a big round bale a week for 2x big eating 16.2's, a picky 16h (would get pony portions) 3 ponys and 2x average eating 15.2's. I would b worried a big bale between ur 2 will go off quicker than they can eat it :(
 
48 hours !!!!!! Don't be daft haylage will keep a good week this time of year.
A big bale will last two horses much longer than that though so will still be gone off before you can use it all.
 
48 hrs?!!! We have very dry haylage and in the colder mnths if we un-wrap it and spread it out, it will last 3 weeks before going off......

1 bale lasts my 2 three weeks so base my order on this, then add on a couple extra for extreme weather or a late spring.
 
Sidney said:
48 hrs?!!! We have very dry haylage and in the colder mnths if we un-wrap it and spread it out, it will last 3 weeks before going off......
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It sounds like you are buying bagged hay rather than haylage. Your horses would be very sick indeed if they were eating 3 week old haylage. We sometimes make bagged hay as we go through so much hay each year that bagging it helps free up barn space as it can be stored outdoors.
 
No it is definitely haylage and get it from the same farmer every year.

After 3 weeks it smells as good as when first opened and have yet had a bale to 'go off' before I have finished it. Though I do appreciate not all haylage will last as moisture levels will vary.
 
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The bales are split in two, inside the main haylage wrapper if that makes sense? so its two half sized bales wrapped together to make a large one, forgot to put that in the original post. So it shouldn't go off :)

Not going back to feeding small bales if i can help it as i was spending £6 a day all last winter as he had it ad-lib.

Thanks for the input, il ask him to save me two a month but then add another two as a just in case :D
 
Holzdweaver said:
The bales are split in two, inside the main haylage wrapper if that makes sense? so its two half sized bales wrapped together to make a large one, forgot to put that in the original post. So it shouldn't go off :)

Not going back to feeding small bales if i can help it as i was spending £6 a day all last winter as he had it ad-lib.

Thanks for the input, il ask him to save me two a month but then add another two as a just in case :D
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What a really good idea, i hope that catches on. I've got 2 horses & 4 ponies that all have big bale haylage. I don't like it open for more than 5 or 6 days & even with my 6 i've not been able to use a whole bale within 6 days, although now the grass has finally gone under a sea of mud, that is changing :-)

I think that 2 a month plus 2 extra sounds like a good plan.
 
Spring Feather said:
There's no way your two could keep up with that size bale of haylage before it goes bad. Try to find small haylage bales is my advice.
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Of course they could! The 'average' big bale of haylage is equivalent to 8-10 small bales of hay (about 200 kg.) A 15.3 TB - fed ab-lib - should polish off 15-20 kg in 24 hours, the pony at least 10 - unless they have GREAT winter grass!

As these big bales are wrapped in two separate 'bales then wrapped together, they're probably baled smaller (say 150 kg) then into a 'whole' bale of 300kg. But from a using and 'going off' point of view, you only need to think 150kg.

In winter, anything but VERY wet, messy bales will last a week after opening, especially if they've been made with an additive to inhibit any mould.

When low on grass, I had 4 yearling geldings (ID) polishing off an ad-lib big bale every 2-3 days - with virtually no waste!
 
Our haylage - which is definitely haylage, and good quality as well:) - lasts easily a week in the winter, probably would last longer but we have it set up as a "haylage club" so about 10-15 horses using it.

In the height of the summer, we can usually have one opened for a week before it starts to go unless it's very wet in the first place.

If your haylage is only lasting 48 hours, I think I'd be worried :eek:
 
I'd work out in slabs per horse (which will be far too much in big bales and will waste lots). Edit to say... Just noted how yours are wrapped. That sounds a great idea!

Remember that there is still grass out there too. When it snows, that's the only forage they'll be getting so will need to up it.

I always hay alongside as it doesn't go through them then and they hold weight better if needed. If good doers I'd just hay.
 
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JennBags said:
If your haylage is only lasting 48 hours, I think I'd be worried :eek:
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So call me old fashioned or OCD, I just like to use it within 48 hours when it's at it's most fresh. Nothing to do with the quality of the haylage, it's one of the best in the area where we get it from.
Ours is kept in an old barn for the babies, which lets in rain in a downpour, so not ideal.
We have about 14 horses in, so currently using up one big bale in a day and a half....so ours doesn't even last longer than the 36 hours mark! Couldn't even tell you how long it would last before going off.
 
I used one a month between a poor doing TB and a good doer cob but they had haynets not adlib. I have never had a problem with it keeping if I took all the wrappings off.
 
I have a 16h and 17h ISH that have haylage at night and most days too as they're on a hardstanding turnout pen, and we use 3 big round bales a month, perhaps throwing a tiny bit away, but not much. The haylage is very dry, quite like hay but sweeter smelling.
 
That sounds a great way to make haylage to be used for someone with only a couple of horses. 300 kg bales are not large bales to me hence the confusion. We do not make any bales lighter than 600 kgs.
 
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