im guessing..

[ldlp111]

that most of you use hay because it is cheaper than haylage (apart from people who use for weight issues etc) it that true?
because haylage is meant to be better for horses, ie no need to soak it etc.

 

[Hippona]

Ermmmm.....for me, hay is MORE expensive than haylage....but I still use it because the 2 natives would be the size of a transit van within a week or so, and my lad goes demented on haylage.....

 

[Hippona]

Plus....good quality hay doesnt need to be soaked, unless for fatties......so its no better or worse than hay, it depends on what your horse needs.

 

[AmyMay]

Nope - haylage works out cheaper for me as a livery than buying hay in would.

 

[emma69]

Some horses still need hayledge soaking, especially if it isn't excellent quality. Good quality hay doesn't need soaking for the majority of horses. Hayledge usually works out cheaper than hay. Plus hayledge is very hit and miss - you don't know until you open the bale what it is like - hay, you can easily tell.

 

[Hippona]

Depends on what your yard supplies I suppose.....

I get through about 10-11 bales of hay a week at £3.50 per bale (from YO's farm) or I could buy in a big round bale of haylage for £25 like some of the liveries do.....but it sadly doesnt suit my horses, although, yes it would suit my bank account better!

 

[ldlp111]

well for me its cheaper to buy hay than haylage. i bought small bales of haylege for 6.65 a bale, hay is at the most £3 a bale but most places have run out round here. well my cob started coughing on nice hay so had to start soaking it which is a pain.

 

[ester]

nope, I could make whichever. Could feed haylage to the anglo (not the welsh would also be like transit) but don't, much prefer hay as would have to feed more weight worth of haylage and have seen too many squitty horses on haylage over the years.
would think haylage was cheaper than hay last year as you can bale it quicker and hence was easier to make in the crap weather.

 

[ldlp111]

cheapest haylage i have found is £4 a bale. ive always thought u feed less haylage as it is more nutritional than hay.

 

[_daisy_]

haylage for me is much cheaper for me than hay. it costs me about £10 per bale (round ones) as i grow it myself, plus 1 bales lasts me 5-6 days. to buy hay in it costs me £2.50 a bale and with 4 hungry horsdes to feed it costs me at least 3-4 bales per day.

 

[251libby]

Haylage would be much cheaper for me aswell, but sadly my girl is a real fatty AND has COPD, so it's more expensive and more time consuming as I have to soak it aswell, lucky it's summer so shes going out really early which means I only have to soak one net a day rather than two

 

[ldlp111]

well we usually make our own hay, but was thinking this year i would make some haylage as well.

 

[connie1288]

I feed hay, haylage is hard to get round here and mine dont really need it, the one that does i coudnt feed it to because her droppings are loose enough already!!!

 

[teddyt]

[ QUOTE ]
cheapest haylage i have found is £4 a bale. ive always thought u feed less haylage as it is more nutritional than hay.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, you need to feed more because it has a higher water content and you need to feed by dry matter. It is higher in energy and protein (usually) than hay but because of the higher water contnt you feed more to get the equivalent fibre

 

[_daisy_]

i only started growing my own as weve just bought a field big enough to have it as well as grazing. the reason i grow haylage is my horss prefer it, i dont have to soak it plus the local farmers do it for me at the same time they do theres so works out much better as their fields have gates into mine.

 

[emma69]

It is more nutritional, however, that is only one consideration when feeding - for stabled horses, they need to be continuously munching hay / haylage, so for good doers or faster eaters, hay is preferable for that reason.

 

[ldlp111]

hmmm learning so much today. i dont know alot about haylage never used it.

 

[Annagain]

I think the confusion about whether you should feed more or less haylage is because different people feed by different measures. You need to feed more haylage by weight because the water content makes it heavier, but around about the same by volume than hay. e.g one section of big square bale haylage weighs around about 12kg, the same sized section of hay is around 9kg - but I would feed about one section of each to my 16.2 IDx stabled overnight and out at grass in the day. Ideally you should always measure hay/haylage by weight rather than volume but in reality we usually just go for the same number of sections or a haynetfull.

 

[dotty1]

I have made my own for the last 5 years, the last 2 years I made haylege. It was so much easier than hay to do. less stressful as once cut it was baled quicker then once it was wrapped it was then waterproof and there was no panic to get it in, plus all the hard work/stacking was doen by tractor. Plus you can store it outside.
My bales cost £10.50 each and 1 bale lasts my 3 around 10 days through the winter....bargain!

 

[Donkeymad]

More people feed haylage than hay down here because hay is difficult to find.

 

[0ldmare]

I make my own hay, but even if I didnt I would buy hay rather than haylage. Prefer it

 

[lauraandjack]

Ours get whatever we can get hold of!

They've been on haylage most of the winter as we had a good supply of nice stuff. Fed pretty much ad-lib to a gang of riding pony type youngsters and my sec D. Coblet looks amazing and has had hardly any hard food all winter despite being in a reasonable amount of work.

Haylage has run out around here now so we are on to hay until the new cut is available.

 

[LindaW]

Haylage costs the same to buy in for me as hay. I prefer the haylage for my horses, I do have to keep an eye on the pony, so he gets a very small holed net and looks and seems well but not 'too' well.

I have a large bale ad lib in the field between 3 of them daytime, and one horse gets a large net, one gets a small and the pony gets the stuff from the outside that has dried for his little net. He has no hard feed at all, and the other 2 despite one being generally a poor doer get just token feeds. Even so, my boys saddle now doesn't fit so I'm on the lookout for a wider one.

 

[marinitagsd]

Haylage defo works out cheaper for me, I buy the big round bales and its better for my girls!
x

 

[jewel]

haylage is cheaper for me to feed

 

[Bosworth]

My hay and my haylage work out around the same as I make my own. I have made both in the past but last year we went for just haylage and I think we will do this year. We know the grass as it is our own and if I do a late cut it is not high protein and certainly all the horses and ponies were calm and chilled on our haylage this winer. I have some big bale hay made to last through the summer months when the majority of horses are out as haylage would go off too fast as it was not being used.

I prefer haylage as there are far less respiritory problems on it and I hate soaking hay when it is freezing cold. I have had a horse colic from soaked hay that has frozen in his stable so never again to soaking hay over winter.

 

[katie_and_toto]

Haylage works out cheaper for us, it keeps Toto looking fab all winter and he refuses to eat hay anyway