Simple question re Haylage/Hay

AprilBlossom

AprilBlossom

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Nutritionally, what is the difference? I understand that the new horse is in his late teens, and being of a large stature he needs a big amount of food to keep him going, but I've never used haylage before and forum searching didn't work as it won't include hay in my search!!

Feeding-wise, what would you feed an 18yo w/b who's in regular work (4/5 days a week) and is 17-17.1hh? Is out in the day and in at night, not clipped and not yet rugged. Currently gets a scoop of hifi and half scoop of pony nuts with garlic and cod liver oil morning and night, plus haylage overnight in stable.

So, how much haylage and how much/what would you feed? I'd just like some opinions so I can learn a bit (geek that I am) :D
 
I've a 17.2hh 10 yo warmblood (show jumper) out in the day, in at night. He's on a large round scoop of competition mix, chaff and sugar beet and a large hay bar full of good haylage.

The nutritional value of haylage can vary a lot. Your supplier may be able to tell you what the nutritional value is compared to hay (or may not). If your horse is doing well on what he's currently having stick with it. If he's losing condition try upping the quantity of haylage and giving him some breakfast too. Several smaller meals are much better than one large one, horses are designed to feed little and often (rather like me, although in my case it's LOTS and often!).
 
But what is it in haylage that gives it that extra nutritional power over hay?

How does it affect a horse, hypothetically, changing from hay to haylage and vice versa. I would have thought hay to haylage is more energy and potentially some 'looseness' lol, but what about the other way round? Could there be a digestive problem?

I've had a lot of 'down time' to think about things at work!
 
The way haylage is made means that it generally loses less of the nutrition present in the cut grass in comparison to hay. But haylage and hay can be made from all different types of grasses which can also be cut at various different times of year, all of which factors which affect the nutritional content of the haylage. So you can get some high fibre, late cut varieties of haylage which could possibly be lower in calories than some types of hay, for example.

Haylage does have a higher moisture content than hay, but again this varies a lot and some types of haylage are actually quite dry.
 
AprilBlossom said:
But what is it in haylage that gives it that extra nutritional power over hay?

How does it affect a horse, hypothetically, changing from hay to haylage and vice versa. I would have thought hay to haylage is more energy and potentially some 'looseness' lol, but what about the other way round? Could there be a digestive problem?

I've had a lot of 'down time' to think about things at work!
Click to expand...

"Haylages are made of grass that is cut before it goes to seed. It is semi-wilted grass sealed in a bag but without the dust and spores found in hay. Natural fermentation inside the bag preserves the grass as haylage - which retains 90% of the feed value of fresh grass." http://www.equi-therapy.net/equi-therapy/nutrition/haylage.shtml
 
Haylage has a higher water content than hay and therefore needs to be fed in greater quantities to give the same fibre value. apart from that it really depends on the field it was cut from.

As for quantities.... that really depends on the horse and how well they hold their weight!... My 17 hander (and still growing) is on a good half normal sized bale of hay a night when in and gets a handful of alfa a and hifi lite with a cup of high fibre cubes at present with equivite added.
 
Also.. depends what type of grass is 'haylaged'. Ryegrass is for beef cattle (I work on a farm occasionally and know that only ryegrass is best) so not surprised some horses can have an excess of energy eating it.

You can get meadow haylage too for horses cut from older fields left to grow(the farmer keeps this for the horses) but it can have a mix of grasses and herbs/mosses in it and is much better than hay, less dusty.

£45 a pop tho so me thinks me is stickin to hay....
 
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