such small amounts of Horsehage...?

[Jericho]

Due to the snow my usual farmer cant deliver me any hay so I am adding Horsehage (ryegrass blue one) to my hay to eak it out whilst the snow lasts. Needless to say the horses love it but I was amazed to read on the bag that one bag will last a 500kg horse 3 days!!! There is about 4 sections in it eqauting just over a section a day and looks roughly about the same volume as a section of hay - its a tiny amount!!!! If I hadnt have read that I would have fed the whole bag to one horse who weighs 500g each day!

I can imagine that horses fed just that 1 section a day do have problems psychological and digestive if thats all they can forage in a 24 hr period - I know its better value for them and you put it in small holed haynets but horses are meant to feed for 18hrs a day arent they??!!

Mine are / were getting half a bale of hay in this snow which is more or less adlib for them out 24/7. I cant imagine them standing around with no fibre / hay to keep them occupied / warm.

Sorry, mini confuzzled mind wandering over....... it just really perplexed me and was interested in what others think?

 

[TheMule]

I imagine thats based on horses being out for 12 hours on good grazing.
One bag usually lasts mine 2 days, it's a very expensive way of feeding forage

 

[Rana]

1 bag lasts me 3 days - horse doesn't eat very much of it (fussy mare!), and does have hay as well. If she doesn't have the hay, a bag lasts me 2 days.

 

[Persephone]

I am using larger bales than Horsehage normally, but when I recently had to buy a Blue Horsehage to tide me over, my 550kg mare had the whole bag between 6pm and 9am. There was a tiny bit left in the morning.

She has a Haybar to help her feed more naturally, but there is no way of slowing her down lol.

It is so difficult. She has had gastric ulcers in the past so has to have access to forage permanently. Yet she has had an URT infection, so I have had to take her off hay for a bit. Needless to say this is getting rather expensive.

 

[chevs]

There's absolutely no way a bag would last any of mine for 3 days!! Might last one horse overnight.

I buy my haylage in big round bales as i have 7 to feed and works out per week about the same cost as one small horsehage bale per horse!! So money well spent and mine have ad lib access 24 hours a day. It's lovely stuff the horsehage but extremely expensive way to feed haylage. My local supplier delivers me 14 round bales at a time, thats what they can fit on their trailer. All of mine ranging from a 7 month old foal to 30 year old granny are on it and all have ad lib access, they need it in this freezing spell we're having in the north of scotland!!

 

[Persephone]

The difficulty with Haylage is for the one horse owner I think.

When I can get the medium bales I can get through most of it before it goes off. Unfortunately they are rare as hens teeth around here.

Unfortunately these Horsehage bags are the only alternative and yes, they are horribly expensive.

 

[criso]

I had to feed it for a while - couldn't have hay and was on box rest.
Got through 5 bags a week!

Am now on a yard that includes hay or haylage in the basic livery and am saving so much.

 

[Natch]

I'm not familliar with the blue horsehage, but I would imagine it contains a higher concentration of nutrients than other types of haylage, and this is perhaps why the manufacturers say that on the packaging.

Manufacturers tend to go on nutritional values without taking into account the fact that a horse has a behavioural need to be chewing for 18 hrs a day.

 

[Persephone]

No Naturally, the blue one is the low energy, suitable for Laminitics one.

 

[HollyP]

Thats what I ahve never understood with it!

 

[Hippona]

It goes further mixed with hay...I do this sometimes for a change....but if your horse can't have hay then yes, seems v expensive.

You get more for your money with Equilage.....

TBH...given the choice...my horses seem to prefer hay.

 

[Natch]

[ QUOTE ]
No Naturally, the blue one is the low energy, suitable for Laminitics one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, how odd?

*Finally grasps point of the post*

 

[shadowboy]

Im pretty sure they state that this is based on a horse out for 12 hours a day with a feed in the evening. They emailed me to say that the hayledge bags are divided into 5/6 slabs (which I have found to be correct.) The bag weighs 18kg so those of you who get through a whole one a night - thats quite some weight. My two boys live out 24/7 they get the blue bag verion and they get one slab each per night but are also fed and obviously can still graze at night. So it lasts me three days. so usually in a week I get through 2 bags but buy them in bulk 10 for £55 so that lasts for a month- works out at (£27.50 a month per horse not too bad) but it is expensive stuff compared to hay or large bale haylage but because I only have 2 boys the big bale stuff would go off before they had eaten in- and I dont have to room to store hay bales either sadly.

 

[Persephone]

Exactly my problem Shadowmonkey. My mare eats adlib over night in her stable. But I still wouldn't get through a large bale in time.

As I understand it, Haylage weighs heavier than hay because of the moisture content. Therefore you have to feed more Haylage KG for KG than hay.

So if my mare eats 20KG of hay a night, which is not unreasonable for a 16.3 550KG mare, then it would stand to reason that she does need a whole 24KG pack of halage over night.

 

[Pasha]

Do you mean lbs?

A horse should have 2% of it's body weight roughly (0.5% more if skinny/0.5% less if fat) of total feed per day, so a 500Kg horse should have 10Kg feed total, roughly 22lbs

If the horse was in 24/7 they probably could eat a whole bag, but in one night, if the bag is 24Kg (not lbs) it is a hell of a lot!

 

[letrec_fan]

I cant imagine someone feeding a whole bag of Horsehage a night...

Haylage has a higher feed value and sugar content than hay because it is left wetter and not dried as much as hay- even the blue bags - and feeding that much is bound to give the horse an upset stomach. I admit Horsehage do not take into consideration that a horse should be chewing almost constantly throughout the day as this is how their digestive system works but equally eating all that haylage will have a similar effect!

 

[TGM]

Actually the blue High Fibre Horsehage has a similar calorie level to average hay, and has considerably less sugar too! However, it does, on average, retain a higher level of vit/mins than hay.

Check out the analysis on this link:

http://www.horsehage.co.uk/analysis.html

 

[Persephone]

Honestly, last night she ate a whole bag of Blue Horsehage. No upset stomach today.

So what am I supposed to do when she has to eat adlib due to ulcers?

There was only a haybar full once it was shaken out as well.

 

[Persephone]

Tell a lie, it was a blue devon hayalage bag. Perhaps that doesn't weigh the same as a Horsehage one.

 

[bigboyrocky]

just wondering, how much are you all paying for the horsehage / devonshire bales of haylage ?

 

[Persephone]

Too damn much!

About £ 6.80 here. I have just sourced medium bales locally for £20 though so will be changing to that.

 

[bigboyrocky]

godd! not sure where youre based but try fosse way fodder - equal quality to horsehage and only £4.50 a bale for the same size.. if not out local farmer does nice medium bale haylage (about 2/3 reg hay bale sizes) for £15, or large bales for £20.. i feel very lucky having him !

 

[amandaco2]

it would prob last mine about 5 hours!!!.
its sooo expensive as well.
i would have to feed hay or oat straw or something along side it so they had something to munch the rest of the night...dont lke leaving them with nothing for hours on end...

 

[Persephone]

Glad you said that

I was beginning to think I was a feeder!

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

I bought a couple of bags of Horsehage last winter, for a few horses that were out almost 24/7 n a snow-locked field. The size of the bag is misleading as it is massively compressed and then double wrapped and vacuum extracted. As soon as you open it and fluff it out, it grows to about 10 times (at least) what you thought was in the bag. Great stuff but not cheap sadly.