Soaking haylage??

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cardi_girl

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Ok, now I don't want to sound stupid...although I probably do!

Can you soak haylage to remove the sugars?

We make our own halage and bale and wrap it when its more like hay. I have to use haylage as I can't have hay (or straw) any where near my yard due to a severe dust allergy (is get anaphylaxis), and my horse is getting really fat! He is on limited turn out, but is such a good doer at the best of times! x
 
Well you can soak it but it's probably easier for you and nicer for the horse and less of a pollution issue if you slash his rations to the minimum, get a couple of small holed nets and use those to slow him down.
 
Thats what i'm doing at the moment. He only has a small amount in two haylages nets (one put inside the other) and goes through this in a couple of hours so spends the rest of the day with out anything to eat! x
 
I soak my pony's hay and you would not believe how much sugar comes out! The water turns brown within hours. Personally, I'm glad that sugar isn't inside my pony.
 
I have soaked haylage when I couldn't get hay at last yard but it's really icky! You need to use it straight away, it stinks if it's left too long as it ferments. I found the best way was to soak for about an hour, rinse it and put in clean water then soak again for a few hours. Rinse really well again after, let it drain then feed.
 
i have been soaking haylage for my cushings pony for the last yr or so... vets said its fine.. i soak it over night then rince it drain it and feed it. double netted ..
 
I have done when we couldn't get hay but it's a horrible job and the horse wasn't impressed with it. Now I buy chopped oat straw chaff to boost her unsoaked haylage ration. I think it's dust-extracted, certainly never any seeds. I get the plain version of Honeychop. Don't know whether that would be suitable for you?
 
Thank you for your replies.

Increasing his workload would make sense...but I don't often get the chance to ride due to having two young kids, a hubby that works long hours & no family members to help out.

I'll have a go at soaking his haylage and see if he'll eat it x
 
tango'smum said:
i have been soaking haylage for my cushings pony for the last yr or so... vets said its fine.. i soak it over night then rince it drain it and feed it. double netted ..
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Looking to soak some higher sugar haylage immediately, until lower sugar supply arrives. Trying to work out best way to do it.

What soaking range of time works to reduce sugars effectively?

Should I put it in a dustbin of water, leave it 8-24 hours, and then tip it on floor, rinse it with hose, put back in dustbin, take to field (ten minutes away) and tip on floor / in hay hutch for eating?

Is rinsing essential?

Would soaking for 2 hours reduce much sugar?

Have ordered some lower sugar haylage for next week.

Help / knowing what others do much appreciated.

Have fussy horse, so need him to want to eat it.
 
12 hours is optimal, any less and the sugars arent soaked out to the max, any more and it starts to deteriorate in taste/structure (but more is better than less if you can't retrieve in 12 hours).

Rinsing does help palatability and also to remove sugars as otherwise you soak them out and then they can get absorbed again to an extent.

Soaking for two hours would be good for dust and would remove some sugars but isn't optimal for sugar removal. However if horse won't eat 12 hour soaked stuff its a lot better than nothing (NB some horses prefer oat straw unsoaked to soaked hay and sugars wise that is in between unsoaked hay and soaked hay, so if horse completely rejects soaked hay and haylage after a lot of trying and perseverance that can be an option tho it ideally would be max 50% of forage ration as it is low in protein and minerals (and should be fed with a vitamin and mineral supplement for the same reason).
 
I did it for OH's cob on our old yard as weren't allowed to have hay, I had a many haynet system in operation with a large bin that could hold enough water and 2 nets.

I split his ration into 2 nets, soaked for 12 hours, then hung to remove some of the water for 12 hours then used it, it meant I had 2 in soak, 2 hanging and 2 in use. It was awful in the freezing cold and I sometimes ended up with haysicles :(
 
leflynn said:
I did it for OH's cob on our old yard as weren't allowed to have hay, I had a many haynet system in operation with a large bin that could hold enough water and 2 nets.

I split his ration into 2 nets, soaked for 12 hours, then hung to remove some of the water for 12 hours then used it, it meant I had 2 in soak, 2 hanging and 2 in use. It was awful in the freezing cold and I sometimes ended up with haysicles :(
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We are in Cairngorms so soaking not an option 4 months a year, that's how I came to start using oat straw to give pony a decent chew and somewhat lower sugars, I buy small bales (farmer does round bales but rebales them into small for me)
 
Thanks - I just need to use up a 1/3 of a big bale fed adlib between 2 horses. Think will be for about 5 days. So can cope with the hassle - but if soak it and rinse it, and pick it up and barrow it ten minutes down to field, I would like the damned critters to eat it. So balance between how long soak for and how wiling they are to eat it, and how much sugar stays in haylage. Want to reduce sugar, but have them still eat it! Rotting haylage in field would cause me lots of problems.
 
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