Haylage

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Flowerofthefen

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Just thinking ahead.

We do our own hay, it varies in quality depending on when we can get it cut due to the weather. Alongside hay I feed quite a bit of fibre eat oil, salt etc to try and keep weight on my boys. Would feeding purely haylage be cheaper? I would buy either a round bale or Heston, how much roughly are each to buy and how long, if fed ad-lib to 2 big horses would a bale last. It would be winter time I'm thinking of feeding it. Tia
 
A round bale of hay lasts my 2 about 10 to 11 days in winter they are Arab's so not huge, in summer it lasts much longer so with haylage it might heat up if left that long.
 
A round haulage lasts my 2 biggies about a week.

It's generally higher in protein than hay so should help in keeping weight on. It also tends to be softer and smell nicer (to a horse) so is easier and more tempting to eat.

I find haylage is cheaper than hay round here because it can be stored outside and doesn't need so much dry weather to make. Nearly no one round here does hay, mores the pity.
 
Jambarissa said:
It's generally higher in protein than hay so should help in keeping weight on. It also tends to be softer and smell nicer (to a horse) so is easier and more tempting to eat.
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Protein levels are about 1% higher in haylage than in hay made out of the same grass. But many batches of hay will be higher in protein than other haylages, you would need an analysis to know, it's entirely dependant on the grass cut to make it. Same goes for sugar content.
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We make all our own hay and the last three years because of the iffy weather have moved to wrapped hay which lasts longer when opened any isn't as dry as hay for our horse with COPD .We have it made into small round bales and in winter that last 2 horses 5/6 days and in summer is still fine to feed after 10/12 days no heating at all .
It is made when it is a couple of days off hay so takes around 4 good days.
Much less stressful than trying to get a window of 6/7 days to make hay and means no soaking. Win win !!!!
 
a large round bale lasts 3 of ours about 1 week. Ours is fairly dry, so tends to last a bit longer too.
 
Thanks all. Just trying to work out if cheaper to make our own hay and sell it then buy in haylage and no hard feed fir them both. They are in a lot during winter so would need constant access to haylage. I feed fibre beet which us around £22 a bag and it doesn't last long!!
 
tda said:
Can you just make round bale haylage out of your own grass? , even of it means paying someone to bale/wrap it
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This is exactly what we do it's unfertilised meadow grass do ideal and it's baled into small round bales.We wait until it's not quite hay but still retains some moisture.
 
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