keeping haylage fresh?

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mememe

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atm the horses are on hay but espicially for buster i would like them to be on haylage, however there are only 2 who would have the haylage and i dont want to have to keep buying little bales every week. is there anyway of keeping the larger bales fresh when u dont use it very quickly?

thanks in advance!!
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I know that if you open the bales up at much as possible and let them breathe, they are less likely to go off.

I use the small bales though to can't really help apart from that.

I have a small problem that i have a solitary wild rabbit that lives in my feed room (very random, i know) and he like to wee on my haylage!! I have to cut up old shavings bags and lay them loosely on top to stop him getting in!!
 
I bought half size bales last year as I only needed it for one pony (half the size of big black bales) and managed to keep it sweet for a week, but by not unwrapping it, and just peeling off a slice as I needed it and covering it over again
 
I'm with the Watcher on this one. In the winter we have 2 horses on big bales Haylage and we cut one end with a knife, take out what we want and then re-tie it up. We have no problem it keeping for about 8-9 days, last summer we were fine too, but the summer before we had to change to hay for a few months as it just wasn't keeping.
 
Completly different advice...

Take all the wrapping off. mine is pretty dry and will last quite a while.

2 horses will probably eat 1 bale in a week anyway.
 
I used to have mine on Haylage- if its good quality stuff, it should last longer. We had some haylage that was good quality and drier- we used to completely unwrap it and and it lasted for a couple of weeks easily. Although they say that ideally you should use haylage within about 5-7 days, it seemed to work fine with the stuff that we were using and the end of a bale was just as good as when we had opened it.
 
Ditto K27 - I have 3 horses on haylage and use a round bale every 2 weeks. Unwrap it fully and use as needed, never had it go off
 
Mine are ad-libbing on a big bale of fairly dry haylage per week; farmer delivers & takes away the wrappings. Sometimes he drops off two; so its lasting 2 weeks without problems, undercover in the barn, with a breast-bar between it & the horses, so that it doesn't get trashed.

However, my neighbour's much wetter stuff, left out for his sheep, pongs like a decaying corpse after a few days in the open....I like the smell of fresh haylage & silage, but this is horrible. So I guess wetness, shelter & quality are important.

This is my first year using haylage, & I am really impressed; mine are doing very well on it, even though they eat less of it than of hay. I don't know whether it will keep sufficiently well in summer, though, especially as it will be eaten even more slowly.

However I did hear it said that haylage predisposes a horse to kidney stones; don't know if there is any truth in this at all; can anyone advise?
 
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