HorseHage feeding

K

Kind horse lover

Active Member
Joined
9 June 2023
Messages
42
Visit site
My 16.3 hh 750kg Irish draft horse horse had a bag reaction to a batch of hay (coughing, phlegm, bacterial infection, and at its worse some wheezing). He is also overweight although not insulin resistant. My vet advised soaking hay to remove sugar, but we aren’t allowed to soak hay on our yard so i have been steaming to remove allergens. Landlord has brought in new rule of half hay half haylage (landlord supplies both). Vet advised moving my horse on to HorseHage, which is around 5% sugar. On a weight reduction diet of 1.5% body weight he would have 8 kg of hay at night (he also has 1kg of chaff split over 2 feeds). HorseHage says you should feed at least equivalent weight of hay, but other advise suggests you should feed higher weight haylage than hay. So how much haylage kg should I feed if he has 8kg hay? Thank you.
 
They probably mean the same dry weight hay and haylage. So calculate the water percentage of the haylage and hay, then adjust the actual weight you feed to account for that.

Hay tends to be between 80-90% dry matter, and haylage between 60-75% (depending on the type of haylage - horsehage I would estimate closer to the 60% end - they may publish the dry matter content on the packaging)
 
You can buy drier haylage than horsehage, and lower sugar. Timothy based haylage tends to be lower in sugars. I've moved mine onto a Timothy mix which is 71% dry matter (Devon Haylage) and I feed around the same weight as I would hay to be honest...either way she has some left over in the morning so she must be having enough.

I have switched to a slow feeder haynet though as they can wolf down haylage! I've got the Equilibrium Portion Pacer net, its fantastic!
 
Bobthecob15 said:
You can buy drier haylage than horsehage, and lower sugar. Timothy based haylage tends to be lower in sugars. I've moved mine onto a Timothy mix which is 71% dry matter (Devon Haylage) and I feed around the same weight as I would hay to be honest...either way she has some left over in the morning so she must be having enough.

I have switched to a slow feeder haynet though as they can wolf down haylage! I've got the Equilibrium Portion Pacer net, its fantastic!
Click to expand...
Thank you that’s helpful. I will see what other haylage is available. I don’t have much storeage and the place I buy from already delivers to the farm. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information around about haylage that although it’s lower sugar than hay it’s higher calorie. ATM my horse is having half steamed hay and half Horsehage. My horse has the shires haylage net 1cm holes although the steamed hay in a big bucket as the vet said it was better for him as he’s been snotty. But I might have to go back to putting both in haynets as he eats it too quickly.
 
Or just double net and see how much he eats, then adjust to appetite and weight gain/loss?

I say that having fed low sugar bagged haylage and even horsehage (the most expensive!!) in the past - to appetite - and it has been fine. If they seem to be eating an unreal amount I would double net or hang from the ceiling. You can also provide chaff in a bucket to pick from if he gets through it all.
 
Surbie said:
Can you also provide straw chaff for him to pick at during the night if hungry, so you are less worried about him eating the haylage fast?
Click to expand...
Thank you. I spoke to horsehage and they also said provide a straw based chaff like mollichaff up to 1kg. They also said for horsehage deduct 25% water so his 4kg horsehage net is 3kg equivalent to fibre in hay. I think because of calories I will keep the Horsehage at 4kg dried weight and steamed hay 4kg and add 1kg straw chaff.
 
maya2008 said:
Or just double net and see how much he eats, then adjust to appetite and weight gain/loss?

I say that having fed low sugar bagged haylage and even horsehage (the most expensive!!) in the past - to appetite - and it has been fine. If they seem to be eating an unreal amount I would double net or hang from the ceiling. You can also provide chaff in a bucket to pick from if he gets through it all.
Click to expand...
Thank you. He already has 1cm holes in his haynets. And add straw chaff in a bucket sounds good. I’ll monitor weight. I really hope he loses some weight this Winter!
 
I've been using Mole Valley High Fibre haylage with a fatty who has a dust allergy. He's very enthusiastic with it, but it actually takes him longer to eat, as it's quite course and long. It's far more effort for him to get it out of the net than hay. He's also lost quite a bit of weight, and no coughing. I don't know how much Horsehage costs, but I imagine it's more expensive.
 
meleeka said:
I've been using Mole Valley High Fibre haylage with a fatty who has a dust allergy. He's very enthusiastic with it, but it actually takes him longer to eat, as it's quite course and long. It's far more effort for him to get it out of the net than hay. He's also lost quite a bit of weight, and no coughing. I don't know how much Horsehage costs, but I imagine it's more expensive.
Click to expand...
It's one of the more expensive ones for sure. A lot of haylage bought in small bales is pre-cut into little squares for ease of getting out but it does mean it comes out of the haynet really easily! I've found this too!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top