PLease tell me everything you know about hay v haylage

Donnie Darco

Donnie Darco

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Am thinking of swopping Lyla over to haylage as she coughs quite badly on dry hay, and with the weather at the moment, its a real fag soaking haynets :(

Also am running out of hay, so need to get more - either hay or haylage

I've looked at website's for haylage suppliers - they (obviously!) say its the best thing since brown bread. More natural feed etc.

I've searched haylage v hay on HHO.

She's not a fatty - BUT she does hold weight well. Currently is on 5kg 12hour soaked hay fed from a haybar, 3scoop HIFI light and 1scoop (before soaked) FastFibre

However, I am ...
a) worried about feeding too much and her getting fat
b) worried about not feeding enough and her getting bored/ill
c) and does anyone else feed haylage from haybar ?? I HATE haynets - work of the devil :eek:

STRESSED :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Or is there somewhere I can get completely independant feed advice ??? :rolleyes:

Thank you muchly!!!!!!! :)
 
oh - btw she's 16h ISH (with more ID than TB in her bloodlines!) ;)

Rising 7, in "light" work, turned out daily (no grass) and stabled at night on ECO bed.
 
You should feed 50% more haylage than you do hay because of the water content. Some horses go loopy on haylage apparently, although none of ours ever did when they were on it.

One thing we did find was that ours would practically inhale haylage so you may need to think of some way to slow down consumption a bit.
 
I've been trying to answer this question, it's harder than I thought lol

Personally I prefer haylage to hay, as you say it is less dusty and it also has a better nutrient content. The only time I might hesitate is with a laminitic.

(nb the only haylage I have ever used has been produced by my farmer and has always been of a very high quality. When you open a bale it looks like really nice hay and has a lovely fresh smell, but I don't know if all haylage is like that.)


I think you could feed it from a haybar, I have always given mine the same quantity of haylage as would have given them in hay. They always had enough to have some left in the morning if that makes sense, but I guess quantity wise the haylage might go down faster

I've heard it can make some horses fizzy but cant' say it did with either of our Tbs
I've heard it can increase the acidic content of the stomach, both ours have brewer's yeast/limestone flour anyway so never had any trouble with that.

To contrast, my Tbs live on separate farms and one and gets fed hay. She has the same amount of hay as I would have given her in haylage and probably has a lot better grazing than my Tb living at the yard with the haylage but she is having 2 meals a day (and she's unclipped and turned away) and she has dropped weight through the last cold spell so we're having to up her feeds and put hay out in the field.

My Tb on the haylage is only having one meal a day, his grazing is not great in winter and he is clipped and in light work and holding his weight well, he looks a bit pudgy actually.

Sorry, that was a ramble!
 
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Lots of people are nervous about feeding haylage or that it is something extra special, but to be honest it's just another form of fibre and not that complicated as long as you don't have an overly sensitive horse or a lami.

I feed it more or less ad lib when they're in and adjust the compound/hard feed accordingly. It is likely to be eaten at a faster rate than hay so as a general rule I always use small holed nets, but in the past have fed it in a haybar/hayrack depending on the yards I've been on and the type of horse.

Good quality haylage always smells fresh and edible - you soon know if it is off - and any mouldy bales should generally be avoided. Buy bales the size you need or share with others, as it does go off within a week particularly when the weather is warmer.

Horses can tend to fizz up on it at first - as I say just cut down on the hard feed ration for a while and see if that makes any difference - but to be honest most seem to settle down within a week or two or cn be lunged through the initial 'fizz burst' before getting on and riding.

The only horses I wouldn't try feeding it to are very good do-ers - it will soon bulk them up.
 
Yes you can feed from a haybar, we used to, but does mean they eat it very quickly. Haylage has more calories in it compared to hay especially if your soaking your hay. I always feed haylage in winter, hay in summer.
 
My initial thoughts are 5kgs doesn't seem very much for a horse that size to last all night....

I also have a 16hh ISH who is basically a coloured ID. She weigh tapes 600kgs.

You should feed round 2- 2.5% of a horses body weight a day if they are maintainig their weight (you can drop to 1.5% if they need to loose some). Therefore she should be consuming a minimum of 12kgs over 24hours.

Just concerned as you say she has no grass in the field so she won't be getting much from there.

My girl gets 8kgs of hay (or the same quantity in haylage, which is my net stuffed full. A tricklenet as she is a pig and inhales her hay) and 2 scoops of Hi fi in feed a day. But her field has grass in it, which although this time of year has no nutritional value, will be providing bulk.

I feed haylage most of the winter as I'm actually very allergic to even good quality hay (come out in hives and also get hayfever like symptoms) and it is difficult to ask someone to do it more me every day! But it seems to work for us. I don't have any change in temperament. The haylage we get isn't very rich, but farmer cut haylage can vary in quality. Some bales are drier that others which is why I now go for quantity rather than weight.
 
Thank you all for your replies!!!

Galaxy - she is more on the porky side and does need to loose a bit of weight :o Hence why worried about the calorific value of haylage. Also the HIFI and FF combined add upto a couple of kilo's, so she doesn;t starve :o And the grass when it come's is way to much, so that will be my next worry! :rolleyes:

We have at our farm, a hay steamer. Again didn't really know much about it (before trawling the internet today!) and was very worried about trying it as just one night of dry hay in the past has caused her to cough badly, but am now thinking this maybe the way to go ??

Anyone else used steamed hay to help with hay/dust allergy ??
 
I feed it from a haybar but it's ad lib to a slow eating poor doer, so I want him to scoff down as much as possible! I feed it as it's cheaper than hay & mine can't tolerate dry hay & I hated soaking huge haynets in middle of winter!
 
Haylage is just hay that has been bagged before it has had the chance to dry out. IMO it is better for horses than hay unless they are prone to laminitis or very over weight. It has (or can have) a higher protein content and contains no dust spores. Can be cheaper as well depending on how much you order and where from. Also although many people think you are meant to feed less because it looks rich, your not, you are meant to feed quite a bit more.

Sorry if I have repeated other comments, haven't read them all :D
 
There are various different types of haylage with differing calorie values (depending on what type of grass it is made from and when it is cut). Look for a low calorie, high fibre type for your horse. I feed the same VOLUME of haylage as I would hay, however this WEIGHS more than the equivalent VOLUME of hay because of the moisture content.

If you are worried about weight gain then cut out the Fast Fibre and HiFi and just give a vit/min supplement in a handful of chaff.
 
i was always under the impression hayledge is of higher nutrional value than hay as well as bein cheaper, less mess and nicer smelling! ;)

mine certainly prefer it, i would never give mine hay again as my youngster is also sensitive to dust!
 
I've also been considering moving over to haylage as the hay we have at the moment is very dusty and my youngster started to cough so I'm now soaking it. However someone on the yard said you shouldn't feed it to youngsters (mine is 19months), is this true?
 
Freya said:
I've also been considering moving over to haylage as the hay we have at the moment is very dusty and my youngster started to cough so I'm now soaking it. However someone on the yard said you shouldn't feed it to youngsters (mine is 19months), is this true?
Click to expand...

my youngster has never had problems with it but hes a poor doer so really benefits from the extra calories...the only time it wouldn't be suitable for a youngster is when its really rich (which ours has never bin) as it will jst go straight through them!! (saing that sum rich hay goes straight thro alot of them anyway!) theres different types of hayledge if you ask your local supplier they should be able to tell you how rich it is and if it would be suitable :)
 
Thanks Rowan, I thought it a bit strange. She said also that haylage is more likely to cause problems with tooth abscess as it can get stuck when chewing... thought that would be the same risk with hay.. :rolleyes:
 
On the advice of a vet we feed a 50/50 mix of hay and haylage over winter.

Apparently haylage alone goes straight through them (poo is noticable nicer than last year on pure haylage!) and hay helps them get more out of the haylage. We have haylage from several suppliers and a range of qualities and have stuck fast to this mix and has worked well.

Fat boys and those prone to lami have pure hay. Haylage upped on horses that need a bit more weight.

HTH,

Pan
 
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