haylage ?

[hannah28]

sorry another haylage post....but i have desided that haylage will work out a hell of a lot cheaper than hay for me. i just wanted to know:

1. how long will a large SQUARE bale of haylage last before going of (winter) ?
2. after opening do you keep wrapped or do you take all the wrapping of ?
3. how much more should you feed than hay ?

thank you
Xx

 

[lisab]

Oh rats, I want to do a haylage post too!

But anyway. I have used big bale haylage in the past but only when sharing with another person. It would not be suitable to feed 1 horse because it will go off before you could use it.

Haylage is supposed to be used within 7 days of opening I think but a big bale used to last the 2 of us about 10 days and didn't cause any problems. My Horsehage wrappers say 5-7 days.

I think it's best to keep it wrapped up to keep the moisture in, otherwise you may as well feed hay.

Hope this helps.

 

[lisab]

Oh and I think you need to feed a bit more than hay because of the higher water content.

My horse is a 16.1 warmblood with a medium workload (hacking 4 days, 1 jump lesson a week and 1 BS show per week).

He has 7kg in the summer when he's out longer and 8kg in the winter when he comes in about 4pm.

I weigh it because I use HorseHage, which is very expensive (post to follow about this) and also because I want to make sure that he is getting the right amount.

 

[TicTac]

Haylage should last about 5 days in the winter but I think you will only find it economical if you have a very large horse or several horses that can get through it.

I have bought some locally grown haylage this year. 30kg bales and one of those will last my mare just over 4 days.

I personally leave them wrapped. I split the packaging open, take out what I need and then put a cover back over it, usually packaging used from a previous bale. I find un wrapping it completely dries it out and my horses are not so keen on it then. However the big round bales of haylage we use a work get the wrapping completely taken off and the bale left un covered but then we do use it up in 2 days.