Haylage

[Pointless1]

I normally only feed hay to my two good doers, unfortunately my supplier has completely ran out of hay and now only has haylage They are fussy about hay and when I recently bought a few bales as a stop gap they refused to eat it although it looked and smelt lovely.
They will be going out full time in a Couple of weeks hopefully but will it be safe for me to feed haylage until then? Also how long can a bale of haylage be open for before it goes off? Thanks

 

[Red-1]

I wouldn't change to haylage just before turning out full time, too much chance of digestive disturbance.

I would ring round a few suppliers.

Even to change from hay to haylage, I would do a few days at 1/4 haylage/ 3/4 hay, then half and half, then 3/4 to 1/4. So, it would take me a week or so just to safely make the switch.

 

[Pointless1]

This is my concern, but I know mine are so fussy that they won't eat hay from a different supp!ier. I have tried before. I have some hay left to mix with the haylage

 

[holeymoley]

I wouldn’t, especially if they’re good doers. Unless it’s really low calorie high fibre stuff. Too much of a risk of tummy upsets with the change and new grass coming in. Or even weight gain.

 

[Pointless1]

I don't want to but a bit stuck to be honest.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Give them a tiny ration and soak it? And maybe try and get some sort of hay and mix it together then soak it, it's harder to pick out the bits they want then.

Haylage won't last long once opened in warmer weather a week tops I would say.

 

[ycbm]

If you absolutely have to do this I wouldn't feed big bale haylage, I would bite the bullet financially for a couple of weeks and feed a commercial brand of timothy which is baled extremely dry. I can recommend Horsehage for that and horses do seem to love timothy. I would also swap slowly.
.

 

[Shilasdair]

There are a whole lot of choices out there if you don't want to feed the haylage;
1. Hay from another supplier. If other horses will eat it, it's edible.
2. Feeds that work as total hay replacer - Hi Fi Lite, etc (or you could combine with the haylage to reduce the calorie/sugar intake). See this link for the Dengie advice
Linky
3. Haylage in small bales with low DE and sugar content - for example Horsehage High Fibre, Horsehage Timothy, Devon Timothy, County Haylage High Fibre Meadow Mix.

I hope you find a solution.

 

[Hallo2012]

if you do end up going the big bale route what i used to do was open the entire bale and either put 2/3 slices in to an old duvet cover and do that with the whole bale or re stack the bale with the slices criss crossed like a jenga tower to allow air to circulate.

it will dry but but not go mouldy or hot.

tbf i have fed haylage to small fat ponies for years without issue, just soak it if you are really worried.

 

[Pointless1]

Thanks, I have got a medium sized bale, it seems very dry. Almost like hay in fact.. I'm just adding a bit to the hay I have left. I'm hoping this will be ok until I can get some more hay they will eat.

 

[spotty_pony]

if there is plenty of grass and they are good doers then I wouldn't worry too
much if they are just picking at the hay. The bale I currently have, for some reason the horses aren't keen on it but they are on good grass for ten hours of the day as well as getting two small feeds so they only pick at their hay overnight but I am not too concerned as I don't think they are too hungry and it there if they want it.