Silage and horses

[Box_Of_Frogs]

With poor harvests and rising haylage prices/availability one of the options for our yard is to buy large bale silage for the horses instead. Much cheaper apparently. As I understand it (been through all my books tonight lol) horses do get used to silage though it can make their droppings loose. But I also understand that the protein content is high so I would defo NOT be able to feed it to my ragwort poisoned mare who has to have a low protein diet. I also read that "Moldy silage is extremely dangerous to horses and can cause sudden death". Another reference states that "There have been severe problems with big bale silage due to fatal infections caused by soil contaminants resulting in botulism poisoning. For this reason, feeding silage to horses is not adviseable."

I honestly don't know what to think. The biggest "anti" sites are, guess what, the companies that make bagged feed. But some reputable veterinary sites also warn against feeding silage as it is high in acidity and protein, never mind the botulism risk. Where does the truth lie? I certainly can't feed anything high protein to a liver damaged horse but does anyone out there feed it regularly to their horses? Anyone got any good/bad experiences to share? I need to do right by my horses but don't have the experience to draw on. HELP!

 

[amandaco2]

personally i wont feed it to mine-youngster who is perfect weight, a 5yo who gets loose droppings anyway and also good doer and an 18yo mare who had laminitis last year.
i think its not really very suited to feeding to horses.
ive not fed it to any of mine ever and dont know anyone who has so cant tell you anything more!

 

[carys220]

Have answered you in NL.

 

[Tia]

Oh 2 threads Lol!

I posted a link on your other thread; http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca

As mentioned on my other thread, silage over here is called haylage. Silage here is made from corn and nothing like our silage OR haylage.

I would never feed my horses silage.

 

[ossip71]

My horse ate silage for 2 years as he wouldn't eat anything else - think he thinks he's a cow!

I wasn't keen on putting him on silage cos of the botulism risk but he went down to skin & bone & after having all the normal checks done (back, teeth etc) & having him blood tested, it turned out he was just being incredibly fussy.

As soon as we tried the silage he started eating again. We were incredibly careful with it though and never fed him any with any mould or white on it. Not sure if he ate it quicker than hay as, like I say, he wouldn't eat hay (wet or dry), haylage or horsehage.

His favourite silage was red clover or the really wet smelly stuff - if it was drier, more like haylage, he wouldn't eat it.

I will say that he kept weight on beautifully while on the silage & always looked & felt really well.

Eventually we came across the red bale horsehage at Hickstead & they let me have a small sample to try him on which he did eat so we managed to convert him to that instead of the silage.

We had a few problems again earlier this year where he wouldn't eat a new batch of the red horsehage as it was drier than he was used to, but Horsehage were really helpful & located us some of the damper stuff & he's fine again now.

Despite the fact that silage worked for me, I really wouldn't recommend it as the botulism thing is a constant worry.

 

[Donkeymad]

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