How much haylage would you expect a horse to eat in 24 hours...

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wench

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Stupid question I know... but just trying to work out some costings!

Need to put my 16hh tb onto haylage in the near future, unfortunatly it's just my horse on it, so I cannot buy the nice big 150kg bales, so have to buy those poxy 20kg (ish) jobs.

So question is - how much would you expect a horse to eat in a 24 hour period - routine would be in overnight and out during day. Field has some grass to nibble at, but not a lot, so would need something out in the field.

Ideally I would like to feed haylage all day, but the small bales are £££, so she may have hay out in the field!
 
On the assumption that they are not a fussy eater then at least 10kg overnight.

If you can get 150kg bales (pretty difficult to get down here, they are usually 250-400kg for big bale) then I would opt for that, especially if you want to feed in the field as well. During the cooler weather a bale wil last 10 days just fine.

Down here we can get 35kg bales - usually a green wrap, bigger than a standard horsehage bale and slightly more economical - I'd usually get through 1 per 3 days feeding just overnight.
 
Not fussy - will stuff as much haylage in her as you can put in front of her - which is good as needs to put weight.

Can get 150kg bales delivered fine. (or at least I used to be able to, will check it out now!)
 
Not sure on weight but both of mine have a whole slice each from a large square bale, I can just about fit it all in one large haynet, they have this overnight (12hours) and there will be a little bit left in the morning.

Size wise they are 16.2 TB weighs about 600kg and 16.3 WB weight about 700kg, both in fit condition with little excess fat
 
When I had to use the small bales as that was all I could get hold of, used to get through 4-5 bales a week for a 16.2 tb who's a reasonable doer with a large appetite.

Depending on cost, it may still be cheaper to get the 150kg bales even if you have to throw a little away at the end.
 
My two would go through two of the horsehage bales every 3 days if just feeding overnight, and if I let them have ad lib, would probably manage one a night between them! 16.2 sports horse and 14.2 arab.
 
Blimey - think mine are pigs! When using the green horsehage bales mine would eat nearly one per day (but not fed anything else, no hard feed and ad lib)

In big bale terms they generally eat one slab/slice per day and 6 of them get through a big bale every 2.5 days!
 
My 16.1 TB has 1/2 horsehage bale overnight 6pm-7am so approx 12kg, when i first put him on it he initially would eat it all really quickly as he loves it so much but now he has had it regularly for a few months he has slowed right down and he always has a tiny bit left in the morning! Costs me about £80 a month
 
I know previous horse would quite happily have stuffed a whole horsehage into him in one day if given the choice!
 
I'm in the same position as you at the moment and its going to be an expensive winter!! I'm giving approx 8 / 10kg at night and we still have some grass. I do think he'd get through pretty a whole small bale tho if he was allowed, but at £6 a go thats not happening!!
 
To be fair mine that did scoff a bale in a day - I am talking 24 hours when they are shut in a small electric fence pen at polocrosse

Also they would have been dragged out of a field, so haylage was then a novelty too

Like this:
296360_10150349226632095_532297094_10397399_7463407_n.jpg
 
ihatework said:
If you can get 150kg bales (pretty difficult to get down here, they are usually 250-400kg for big bale) then I would opt for that, especially if you want to feed in the field as well. During the cooler weather a bale wil last 10 days just fine.
Click to expand...

Ditto this :) It should last fine with the weather at this time of year.

On ab lib I would say about 16-18kgs in 24 hours.
 
Mine was a piglet - would eat anything and everything put in front of him, no matter how much he had previously eaten in the day.

Actually no I tell a lie, I put a bucket of feed in for him one day with chaff on the top, and the "real" stuff underneath - the chaff all went flying to get at the "real" food!
 
Mine get about 8-10kgs a day at the moment. Their turnout is in the sand paddock at the moment so no grass. They each get two hard feeds with alfa a and competitition nuts. Haylage has loads more nutrition than hay so I am amazed at how much some people are feeding (ok I know some of you are pretty much just feeding that and not much hard feed). That said both mine are good doers. They are fed out of nets with very small holes so they dont hoover it up.
 
I have 3 out full time in the field and they get through a 240kg bale in about 5 days. So they eat about 16kg of haylage a day and they have 24 hour access to the big bale ad lib. They are all looking really well on this - I'm not feeding them hard feed, just letting them get on with it!
 
I have the large bales - I have two horses. I always cut all sides open to stop them sweating and that way they can easily last one week in the summer and two weeks or more in the winter. I do have them under cover though in the aisle of our American barn. Makes feeding a doddle in the winter. :-)
 
Our 16 hander is on adlib haylage and seems on average to get through about 11kg a day (he has some out in the field and some in the stable).
 
My boy was having a whole 20kg bale each night in his stable without any extra in the field during the day as the grass was ok but he was a really poor doer and 17.2hh.
 
I managed to source some 40kg bales for £6 each (bargain!) and when mine was in 24/7 he'd eat one of those in about 2.5-3 days, so that's about 13-16kg a day - he always has ad lib.
 
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