Small bale haylage...

[JackDaniels1]

I've never had them before. Can someone tell me what size/weight they are? Are they in slices like in the big bales? How long do they last? If I keep them unopened, will they keep for next summer? How many haylage bales fit into one small bale of hay? (if that makes sense) I'm trying to work out if it's going to be a lot more expensive to buy haylage.

Thanks! Sorry for the question overload!

 

[wonkey_donkey]

Small haylage bales can and do vary a lot !!

The one's I have are approx 35kg and cost £5 delivered. They are about equivelant to one normal bale of hay as haylage weighs a lot more than hay. However, this can vary a lot too as different haylage has different water content.

The best thing for you to do is to decide what make of small bale haylage you are going to feed then you can work out your facts and figures

Don't forget you will need to feed more haylage weight for weight than hay.

 

[Booboos]

The ones I have from EH Haylage weigh 20kgs, they come in two varieties, regular and high fibre (which is second cut, so more suited if you don't want that much energy), unopenned they last for a long while (but make sure there are no holes, the rats don't get at them, etc.), once you open them they last about 5-7 days depending on weather conditions (the warmer it is the sooner they go off). My horses have 1/3 to 1/2 of a bale each every day depending on the weather (really cold and no grass = 1/2 bale).

 

[JackDaniels1]

Oh don't know much about the make.

Farmer just said he has small bale haylage in, 5 pounds each or if i order a pallet of 24 then he will reduce them to 4.50 each. He said they will last until up to 10 days before going off once opened. He said his daughter gets through 3-4 per week with her horse.

Is it a lot more expensive than using hay? :s

 

[blackcob]

My small bale haylage comes in round bales at £5.50 a bale, sorry I don't know the weight. They're about as big around as a car tyre and three times as deep, if you can picture that? Probably about 20-25kg at a guess, I can heft them around without too much trouble and you'd be able to fit 24 in an average stable if you stacked them. They're rolled up like a big round bale, not slices.

For a 14.2hh Welsh Cob who's in at night and out on nearly bare ground by day I go through two per week. I was going through four small rectangular bales of hay a week previous to that so there's not much difference in cost but there is far less wastage with the haylage (she doesn't leave a scrap!) and being a good do-er I don't need to give any hard feed on top even in midwinter.

 

[JenHunt]

we changed to haylage this winter as a result of Tom having a dust and pollen. we bought 160 small bales of haylage off a local farmer and paid £4 each, delivered. They vary from 35kg to about 20kg. Some are first cut and some are second cut, and he's helpfully wrapped the 2 cuts in different colours for us!!

they last us 1 to 2 days each as our boys eat so much of the stuff. Tom has decided he prefers it to his hard feed which is good going for a horse that would barely eat 2 slices of hay per night! Suspect they would be ok for 3 or 4 days if you weren't getting through it so quickly.

As for storage... as long as they're well wrapped and don't get punctured or nibbled they'll be fine until next winter. I actually think it's worked out cheaper than hay for us, and it's easier to store well than hay. Plus we've not used as much hard feed as they haylage is better nutritionally than the hay.