Is haylage ruined by rain?

[FinkleyAlex]

This is my first time using haylage (so please ignore the numptiness of this post) as good quality hay is hard to get hold of round here and my 2yo needs some more fibre as our grass has been rained on to hell and beyond. I have to put him in a sectioned off corner of my field as three other native ponies are out with him and they've all retained their weight very well and don't need feeding - plus he is the bottom of the pecking order and will get bossed around like there's no tomorrow. My routine at the moment is to pop him into the sectioned off bit where there's nice grass and a shaken up slice or two of haylage. I leave him in there for about an hour and a half while I go and do the field but quite often he goes for the grass first and only switches onto the haylage after about 30 mins...he eats it so slowly there is often a fair amount left and I have no facilities to put it in to keep it dry for the next day (and I can't wait any longer than 1.5 hours as have other things to do). Tonight the rest of the haylage has stayed on the ground but it has rained like mad...will it be ok for him to eat tomorrow or shall I throw it away?

 

[mandwhy]

Surely there's no reason having it dry would be an advantage? We just put it on the floor in the field and there is sometimes a little bit left when we might give them some for the night. You obviously won't want bales of haylage getting wet as it will go mouldy just like hay but if it's on the floor and you're just not sure of the amount the horse will eat then don't worry it will get eaten eventually

 

[L&M]

Rain overnight won't make the haylage dangerous to eat, but you may find he rejects it as some of the flavour will have washed out, especially if he is not wolfing it down when dry. If he doesn't show interest tomorrow I would throw it out and try some fresh stuff instead.

Have you considered letting him graze the sectioned off bit first? Then when that runs out of grass he may show more interest in haylage. I put some out for mine this morning, but they left it and went off to graze, even though there doesn't appear to be much grass in their field!

Hope that helps.