Haylage - white stuff?

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MagicMelon

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Ive bought HorseHage stuff for my lami pony (see post about what to feed her), its the ryegrass stuff (so ok for lami's).

Ive opened the bag and found white patches on it like mould, on one part its horrible, theres a hard white lump! Is this safe to feed???? She isnt eating it though, but when I offered a mouthfull to the other horses they ate it fine.

I know there's something on haylage when your not meant to feed it, but isnt that black mould??
 
Now I THINK the white stuff is ok. Google Horsehage as Im sure there is something on their site about this. Whether this applies to all haylages Im not sure though.
 
The white stuff is mould due the the wrapping being pierced at some stage. If its shop bought they should replace it for you. Trouble is haylage will start to go off with the slightest puncture in the wrap. You can never tell. Cows love the white stuff but it shouldnt harm your horse if she eats it (mine wont touch it).
 
The main thing to watch out for is heat and a nasty vingar smell - this combined with a lot of white could be trouble - hayledge should be cool and smell sweetish - I like the smell but some people hate it.
 
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The white stuff is mould due the the wrapping being pierced at some stage. If its shop bought they should replace it for you. Trouble is haylage will start to go off with the slightest puncture in the wrap. You can never tell. Cows love the white stuff but it shouldnt harm your horse if she eats it (mine wont touch it).

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Not neccessarily mould!

It could just be yeast, if its hard as she describes its deffo yeast as mould wouldn't go hard. In which case its safe to feed.
 
I had loads of trouble when I fed the small bagged haylage, probably because I was so paranoid about giving my horse botulism. sp. I was told if it rubs off, more like a white powder then its ok. Scared me silly though!!!
 
The white stuff is mold due to air getting into the bag if you breathe too much of the dust you can get farmers lung disease the mold has cancerous spores that stick to your inner chest cavatiy makeing you breatheless, but youd have to be exposed to it fo a long time to get it but if you can catch is the horse can too.
 
It's definately the black hot smelly stuff you need to watch for, the white stuff seems to be fine. Black smelly stuff would be the stuff that they get botulism from, I would imagine?
 
Botulism, normally from silage is when the hay is cut too close to the ground and you get clumps of muck in the bale. As I said previously, they dont like to eat it unless they are very hungry. It shouldnt do them any harm. I would take it back and get a replacement. (I make big bale haylage every year).
 
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The white stuff is mold due to air getting into the bag if you breathe too much of the dust you can get farmers lung disease the mold has cancerous spores that stick to your inner chest cavatiy makeing you breatheless, but youd have to be exposed to it fo a long time to get it but if you can catch is the horse can too.

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6410! You're supposed to be a farmer!
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Its not mould its yeast! Perfectly safe to feed! Mould smells horrid and I doubt the horse would eat it, the thing is she describes it as being hard which means it can't be mould. Just yeast.
 
The white stuff can either be mould, yeast or sugar.

If it smells fine, then its safe to feed. However any musty / unpleasant odour and its likely to be mould, in which case I wouldn't feed it.

Moulds are often on drier more stuck together material, as the mycelin ('roots') from the fungi takes all the nutrients out of the haylage and leaves it stuck together and dry.

Black foul smell haylage is generally not mould, but anaerobic bacteria. This smells horrible and should definitely not be feed.
 
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Ive bought HorseHage stuff for my lami pony (see post about what to feed her), its the ryegrass stuff (so ok for lami's).

[/ QUOTE ] I am bit confused about which version you are feeding? The Horsehage version called Ryegrass (in the green bag) is not suitable for laminitics - only the High Fibre version and the Timothy version are lami safe. See link:

http://www.horsehage.co.uk/2005/HorseHage.html
 
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Ive bought HorseHage stuff for my lami pony (see post about what to feed her), its the ryegrass stuff (so ok for lami's).



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The ryegrass mix is not the one for laminitics - the one safe for laminitics is the hi fibre one which is timothy. Please see www.horsehage.co.uk The ryegrass mix is suitable for working and competition horses - please don't feed it to your laminitic pony!
 
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The white stuff can either be mould, yeast or sugar.

If it smells fine, then its safe to feed. However any musty / unpleasant odour and its likely to be mould, in which case I wouldn't feed it.

Moulds are often on drier more stuck together material, as the mycelin ('roots') from the fungi takes all the nutrients out of the haylage and leaves it stuck together and dry.

Black foul smell haylage is generally not mould, but anaerobic bacteria. This smells horrible and should definitely not be feed.

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Wow, you know your haylage!!
 
I'm so glad you asked this! I opened a big bale of haylage today and found some whitish stuff and was going to throw the whole bale away - in the end I poked around and took off all the white stuff. I'll leave the lot next time
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Woops sorry, its the blue bag stuff, not the ryegrass!

Ok, so the white stuff is ok? It smells fine, sweet (yeuch!). She however wont touch it..... I thought she'd wolf it down - compared to hay, it looks yummy! What a waste, so now the other horses are wolfing it down.

Thanks guys, was just so paranoid as I dont use haylage ever!
 
My horse wont eat Horsehage either, much prefers soaked hay, especially if it's still green and good quality!

Tried feeding horsehage last winter to keep the weight on but she wouldn't eat it even though there was nothing wrong with it. Suits me because hay is much cheaper!!
 
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