How much haylage?

wellsat

wellsat

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How much haylage would you be giving a lean 17.2hh WB in this weather? Have always had very good doers and fed them hay before.

A few friends commented that changing onto haylage might cause him to scour which obviously I don't want in this weather. Want to make sure he's getting enough without upsetting him.
 
As above, my 16.2hh ISH is currently on 3 full nets, and he leaves a tiny bit in the bottom. I would advise feeding him what he wants in this weather - forage is the best for making them warm so he'll expend less energy on keeping warm and keep more as condition. I would have thought :p If you are worried about him scouring then introduce him gradually as you would with feed.
 
You don't think it'll upset his system? I would introduce it gradually but he won't eat the hay. Just don't want him to colic or scour badly.
 
No, if its good enough and dry enough he'll be fine. I made the switch to haylage when the weather came in - am feeding ad-lib big bale haylage and they all have OK poos - easy to see in the snow.
 
wellsat said:
You don't think it'll upset his system? I would introduce it gradually but he won't eat the hay. Just don't want him to colic or scour badly.
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Providing you mix it in with hay and introduce it over a week there's no reason for him to have any ill affects.
 
I know mine is for a different reason, but I've been mixing it in with my mares hay (the blue horsehage as she's a very good do-er) but only becuase the hay at our barn has been so rubbish she wasn't eating any at all. It's encouraged her to eat all the hay...and she loves the haylage.

I introduced it to her net slowly over a week and can say that even though she is prone to loose droppings she wasn't adversley affected.

Good Luck :-)
 
amymay said:
As much as he can possibly eat.
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/\ /\ /\ This :) In fact, at this time of year, I would expect nearly any horse to be on ab lib forage, And if the horse is a poor doer, (unless it can't stomach it) I would expect it to be haylage rather than plain hay.

My 16.2, MW, rising 25 year old, lives out, and is currently wearing a Rambo Supreme (420gm) rug, and is unclipped. She is not the best of doers (& obviously getting elderly) I always let her have as much top quality haylage as she can eat in Winter. She is currently getting though around 16-20KG per 24 hours, and looking good on it :) She then needs v little hard feed.
 
We are having to feed haylage this year, rather than our usual hay. We introduced it gradually, mixed in gradually changing proportions. We did find that the droppings were rather loose so now we are supplementing with pink powder. Which seems to have worked.
3 of ours are good-doers, so they are having a mixture of haylage and straw, so that they can have ad-lib forage and the oldie is having ad-lib haylage and dried grass to keep her weight on.
If I were wanting to feed a poor-doer, I should be feeding ad-lib haylage with pink powder and monitoring the weight carefully.
 
Thanks all :)

He's got an entire slice of haylage tonight alongside his normal feed, a tub of Readygrass and a net of hay mixed in for good measure. Should have said he's already on Pink Powder to help him with his condition so hopefully that should outweight any negative effects.

Hopefully he's looking happy and full in the morning :D
 
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