Silage / haylege?

[Marnie]

I have been offered what was cut for cow silage earlier this year but actually looks and smells how I usually expect haylege to be like - it is also quite dry, again more like haylege. It looks and smells amazing - is there any reason why I couldn't feed it to horses who have been fed haylege before? It is square baled and wrapped.

Thanks!

 

[gallopingby]

Maybe find out how it was made? Dry is usually ok. The secret is in the wrapping, sometimes cow silage is cut and wrapped too quickly for horses so although it may be ok atm it may not have been wrapped enough times to keep fresh over a longer period of time.

 

[Shay]

It doesn't help that technically silage is in fact haylage - or at least it is sometimes! It depends on the moisture content when wrapped. High and medium moisture silage is not suitable for hosres becuase it can contain botilism which spreads through the bale as it ferments. It is also often shorter in length so has less fibre than the longer stemmed hay / haylage making it less ideal for horses - although better for cattle. But long fibre low moisture silage - 40 - 60% dry matter at bailing - is in fact haylage.

It might help you to know how long the crop was left to wilt before bailing, and whether it was "pickled". (Some croppers spray a lactic acid combination onto the cut grass to speed up the process).

There a three main risks to feeding higher moisture silage. That it tastes sour so the horse won't eat it anyway. That it is partially fermeneted so you are going to end up throwing a lot of it away, either as soon as you unwrap the bale and find it soured or that it will turn within 24 hours of opening. Or that it contains botulism. The latter of course being uncontrollable and fatal to horses. The drier it was at bailing, ideally not pickled - if you find a small animal carcass in the bale discard the lot - the better chance you have of having the haylage version of silage which is absolutely fine!

 

[Marnie]

Thanks - really helpful. I don't know the actual moisture content but it is pretty dry and I know it hasn't had any additives or treatments. If I didn't know it had been cut for silage, I would have assumed it was haylege.

Thanks again!