new hay smells of haylage ? is that normal

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staceyn

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My normal suppliers cant get any hay so I contacted someone else, my normal hay was not covered or wrapped was dry and dusty, this new hay looks the same but has a sticky feel to It smells like haylage it came wrapped but I asked several times it is hay ? He said yes. So I wanted to check this is normal and hay can be like this sounds stupid but only ever got it from the one supplier
 
I had big bales just as you describe the past two years. Doesn't seem to do mine any harm but cannot say I am 100% happy about it.
 
It's haylage. No one would go to the cost and trouble of wrapping hay. It's wrapped like haylage, it smells like haylage, it feels like haylage. It's haylage.
 
Ribbons that made me :D I agree with you, believe your own eyes rather than what the seller is telling you OP. Perhaps the supplier means its late cut haylage with a similar nutritional value to good quality hay? (I don't know if this is possible, I'm just trying to be nice).
 
I've found that the smell of Haylage can vary greatly and some of it baled very, very close to hay but wrapped has hardly any smell and looks like hay but is haylage. The latter sounds like what you have. Hay is not wrapped.
 
Haylage can vary greatly from very dry to actualy wet. Depending on how well it was made. Very dry can seem like hay but it will be haylage. No one would poly wrap hay, a completely pointless exercise. Plenty will sell very dry haylage as hay if they can get away with it and have no hay to sell. Hay smells like hay and is completely dry. Haylage, even drier than normal haylage is very slightly moist (sticky) and smells like haylage.
 
It was badly made late cut haylage. I cannot emphasise enough the point of wrapping is to promote the process that makes haylage. It's not haylage until it's wrapped.
 
I agree. The only wrapped hay I have ever had was when the YO's bales got wet in the field. She wrapped the bales to try and save it. It was awful stuff.
 
They said they wrap it so that it doesn'. Get wet in storage it doesn't look like haylage but smells and feels like it. Just concerns me because my ponies are natives and I don't want to give them something too rich they seem to be eating it and are happy but obviously I try to keep them at a good weight and one is a Shetland so don't want him ending up with lami. Thanks for the reply
 
They have told you nonsense. However if it was very late cut and left to long before wrapping it probably isn't very high nutritionally. Although if it feels and smells like haylage that is probably not the case.
 
Hay can be sold wrapped :) a farm I know does it simply because they started making haylage and expanded into hay later, so they had wrapping but not baling equipment.
 
Ps theirs definately looks and smells like hay and is dry, nothing like their haylage. My guess is that your bales have been wrapped before the hay was fully dry so a bit of haylage-like fermentation has gone on. If in doubt soak it, it won't do any harm :)
 
I've had wrapped hay with a Hayledge smell to it. My farmer told me he had to wrap it as ran out if barn storage so it will have a head on it. I wasn't fussed as mine get mixed nets anyway but it you want hay then hay us what you should get
 
A lot of (most?) farmers don't know the answer to this one either!:D Probably because we try not to take risks and do the best we can!

Actually, you can preserve grass at any percentage of dry matter if air is excluded. If the grass is freshly cut and contains a lot of sap, it will make silage. Wilt is a bit, and it makes haylage. Wilt it some more and if it is dry enough it is not necessary to exclude the air because it's hay!

If someone is keen to find the answer, there is a study somewhere on the Internet by an American university. (I found it but have since lost the URL). They wrapped grass at various percentages of dry matter and so long as the air was excluded, it was preserved perfectly.

One year we had some dampish hay cut under trees. If we'd baled it as hay, it would have gone mouldy, so the contractor took the bales home and wrapped them. It made perfectly good "hay" as the OP described -- slightly dampish hay which smelt of haylage. It would probably have had a similar feeding value to hay made in the rest of the field. Haylage is usually "richer" than hay because the grass is cut before it is fully mature.

For some reason, grass that has dried and then been rained on doesn't make good haylage. Maybe here's another study somewhere which will tell you why, but sadly I don't know the answer.:(
 
Thanks for that ! I just don't want to feed too much I will give them the same amount as I would hay and just weight tape them over the month and make sure there is not a change little Eddie is looking slightly podgy but could be all that fluff and Shetlands seem to have a funny shape. Not worried about other unicorn he is spot on for his age size, either way its still costing me £50 a bale :-( its so hard to get hold of so I told him to put 10aside for me to last until next summer. If it was haylage would it start getting mouldy after 2weeks hay lasts me 6-8weeks . I don't mind but wanted other. Opinions all my old horses used to have haylage but with them being native and young not in work with feed and supplements wanted to make sure their diet is ok
 
staceyn said:
Thanks for that ! I just don't want to feed too much I will give them the same amount as I would hay and just weight tape them over the month and make sure there is not a change little Eddie is looking slightly podgy but could be all that fluff and Shetlands seem to have a funny shape. Not worried about other unicorn he is spot on for his age size, either way its still costing me £50 a bale :-( its so hard to get hold of so I told him to put 10aside for me to last until next summer. If it was haylage would it start getting mouldy after 2weeks hay lasts me 6-8weeks . I don't mind but wanted other. Opinions all my old horses used to have haylage but with them being native and young not in work with feed and supplements wanted to make sure their diet is ok
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It should keep reasonably well after being opened as it sounds as if it is almost hay. That is a frightening price though. Have you thought about straw if natives? In a lean year (hay was scarce), I fed 50/50 hay and straw. They had free access to clean barley straw, then rationed hay. It worked fine. Introduce the straw gradually so they don't colic. I also put a fatty on 100% barley straw and I swear she gained weight, so there is not much wrong with it. I've Highlands of course and they'd get fat on a concrete yard.:(
 
Lol @ hay that has been wrapped before its dry and has fermented a bit...erm, that would be haylage then :p

I guess buying 'wrapped hay' isn't really a problem but if someone tries to sell any of you a pony with only 3 legs on the basis that its bombproof and cheaper in farrier fees, just say No ;) :D
 
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