Haylage.....would you feed it?

[L&M]

We have large round bales of haylage. When we had the last one delivered it was spiked, we nearly sent it back then, but upon opening there was only a small section that had gone off, so pulled that off and were left with what we thought was an ok bale.

However today I found some heat in the back of the bale, so have pulled the haylage out and let the air in, and quickly cooled down. The haylage looks normal, is not mouldy and does not smell musty, but equally does not have the nice 'nutty' smell that it normally has.

So would you feed it or chuck it? This issue we have is that there is at least 1/3 rd of bale left and we have no real way of disposing of it......

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[Goldenstar]

This is why I stopped with big bales getting rid of it was very difficult .

 

[LEC]

We make all our own haylage and though most of it is fine some bales tend to have some bits not that are not so good. I just tend to pick out the bits that are not right. I find the horses tend to leave anything a little sour and not had any issues. In the past I used to feed the horrid bits to cows but we don't have any now which leaves a bit more waste.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I think it should be OK once you stop it heating up, I have had them do the same in the warmer months so I just unwind it all to cool it and just fed it as normal.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Yes, it should be fine if you stop the heating.

 

[milliepops]

I generally let the horses judge if there is nothing obviously wrong with it.

 

[L&M]

Thanks all, will put some out in the field tomorrow and let the horses be the judge.

We are swapping back to small bale hay next summer as our current haylage supplier is retiring, and am so looking forward to not having to maul large bales around anymore!