How much haylage to feed?

GrassChop

GrassChop

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I'm going to start weighing out my native pony's haylage because I overthink whether I'm giving too much or not enough and the size of each slice varies too much.

I've got myself into a little bit of a minefield with Googling forage amounts and including grass in that weight too.

He's on a 1 acre paddock that he has to himself. Very short but green grass. I can't imagine he'd manage to be consuming that much over a 24 hour period but I read somewhere that it could be kilos of it, around half to 1kg per hour over a 16 hour grazing period! I don't know how it could be that much as there really isn't much length to get any from but who knows!

I need to weigh him but he's roughly 350-375kg at a guess. His weight is okay but he could do with budging a bit of fat still but I'd be happy at maintenance or just below.

If I go with 2% of 350kg, he should be having 7kg a day but if he's getting a minimum of half a kilo of grass over 16 hours then that's already at 8kg! I can't imagine he'd be getting more than 2-3kg of grass out of that but if I work on the basis that he's getting that amount of grass at least, then he would need 4-5kg of haylage and straw combined. I can't give him just haylage because it wouldn't last more than half an hour so he is getting pretty adlib straw in a small holed net which lasts him through to his next lot so he's not ever left without anything.

I know that haylage will be heavier due to water content, roughly 50% moisture content apparently.

To finally get to my question, what amount of haylage and straw per 24 hours should I give? Due to him being native, I'm not sure I'd get away with his full ration being haylage due to weight gain.

I could do 2kg of straw and 3kg of haylage which would technically need to weigh in at 6kg roughly due to the moisture content? I'm scrambled 😂
 
A horse can eat half a kilo dry weight of grass per hour but that doesn't mean they are doing so, and they won't be doing that consistently for 18 hours.

There are too many variables - grass quality and how much he actually eats, and hay/haylage water content and nutritional profile.

I'd start with figuring out how much you feed now, he's not hugely overweight so you're not far off. I go for 1% body weight for a fat horse and 1.5% for one at a good weight - that is dry hay weight, you'll have to guess your dry matter for haylage. I ignore grass in winter.

If I was guessing for your pony I'd go with 1% body weight hay mixed with 0.5% straw and as much grass as he likes.

I do need to say that whilst I know many people do fine feeding straw mine got a compaction when I tried so mix it well and make sure he's drinking.
 
How long is a piece of string haylage. As @Jambarissa days there are too many variables so its going to be iterative. Even 8kg of grass could also only be 15/20% dry matter so thats only 1.5-2kg of his dry matter requirements.

For science, I'd leave him as he is for a bit and track his weight on the tape so you have a proper baseline. You might be doing just fine with what you're doing! Its been warm so far so a bit of shivering over the next few weeks might do all the work for you.
 
Jambarissa said:
A horse can eat half a kilo dry weight of grass per hour but that doesn't mean they are doing so, and they won't be doing that consistently for 18 hours.

There are too many variables - grass quality and how much he actually eats, and hay/haylage water content and nutritional profile.

I'd start with figuring out how much you feed now, he's not hugely overweight so you're not far off. I go for 1% body weight for a fat horse and 1.5% for one at a good weight - that is dry hay weight, you'll have to guess your dry matter for haylage. I ignore grass in winter.

If I was guessing for your pony I'd go with 1% body weight hay mixed with 0.5% straw and as much grass as he likes.

I do need to say that whilst I know many people do fine feeding straw mine got a compaction when I tried so mix it well and make sure he's drinking.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this!

I'll go by 1.5% of his body weight and ignore any grass consumption and see how we get on. I've worked out roughly if haylage holds approximately 40-50% moisture then I will do 6-7kg portion which will make roughly 3.5kg dry matter. The remaining 2kg will be of straw. That's based on 350kg body weight but I will double check it later.
 
I have a retired cob who also weighs roughly 380kg and is in good body condition for a retiree according to the vet who saw him last month. He’s out 8 hrs a day solo on a 1 acre paddock with minimal grass (but he does mooch around grazing) and then in a barn overnight with approx 6 kg hay split between 2-3 haynets. Mixed in with a small amount of good quality straw. This together with 2 very small bucket feeds of mash keep his weight fairly stable. It’s a bit trial and error to be honest.
 
Remember that the % amounts are dry matter not as fed.
Have you got an analysis of the haylage (if it is one of the branded ones they usually have an average analysis available which is a good starting point)

One of the best calculators is the one on the Tricklenet site.
 
Because all haylage is so varied with moisture content, what has generally worked for me is to feed the same volume/size hay net of haylage as you would feed hay. Then adjust from there to a bit more or less depending on whether there’s weight gain or loss.

Getting into dry matter ratio’s annd weights with haylage is a bit of a minefield and can make it overly complex. As jenko says, wing it to a certain extent and go from there.

Grass I discount as giving much of anything in the winter, unless it’s a very well rested paddock with good 6 inch length and vast acres, then the average 1 acre for 1 pony will be eaten down quickly as the grass growth slows right down.
Grass being 80% water, means even if he is getting 8kg (the stats you read sound like summer grazing stats I’ve read, not winter intake) the dry matter would be around 1kg. But it’s still a wee dose of fresh green that helps, but isn’t loads to account for reducing winter hay by much at all.

I got a moisture testing probe to test hay/haylage moisture levels, as often moisture % stated on haylage bags don’t match with the actual moisture of that particular batch. But if using volume, it’s an easier gauge than constantly readjusting weight for moisture %. I used to meticulously weigh and figure those things out, got fed up eventually as the moisture always differs batch to batch so just stuck with visual volume fed and that’s served well.
 
Thank you everyone!

I had premade my haynets for yesterday to what I would have felt was the right amount/weight by a rough guess. I weighed them with the scales and it worked out at roughly 3.5kg of haylage and 3kg of straw.

The straw I'm not worried about being too much because it's there if he is hungry and isn't calorific so it doesn't strictly need to be a certain weight, as long as it makes up the total ration.

The 3.5kg of haylage I worked out to be 2.1kg roughly in dry weight if I did it on 40% moisture so that works out about right for 5kg and that's roughly what I have been giving him. The haylage is from a supplier so not analysed.

Although, I did put the weight tape round him and it said 250kg?! Surely not for a 13.2hh forester, I must have done it wrong. I can't imagine he's less than 300kg at least!
 
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