Those of you who weight your hay/haylage...

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spotty_pony

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How much does your horse have per day? (In pounds/kgs) Does anyone know roughly how much big slices of haylage and small slices of hay weigh? I am going to weigh them myself so just looking for a rough guide. Also, do you follow the BHS way of amount of forage to feed or is there a better way? I feed ad-lib haylage/hay anyway but some people seem to think I am giving my horses too much so I just wanted to weigh it to show them just how much per day an average horse should be eating - I don't think they realise the weight of it!

Thanks :)
 
Mine has about 14kg haylage in 24hrs. This is the amount she needs to have adlib. I don't know how many slices it is as we have round bales.
 
My 16hh dieting mare has 12 kg of haylage per day. This is nowhere near ad-lib, so she gets plenty of oat straw chaff as well. It actually only takes her about 3 hrs to eat the haylage, so she gets it in 3 'helpings'.
 
My 15hh cob is out at grass all the time and gets 10lb of haylage s night. 16.2 ISH gets grass all day then 15lb hay at night in his stAble. 17hh ID gets between 8 and 10lb hay a night and in the morning.
 
I took advice about this at the beginning of the winter and was advised that they should have 2% of their body weight each day in total of feed/hay.

I do weigh the hay, and find that the slices (biscuits!) on each bale can vary between 1.5kg and 4kg's. When the grass is growing in mild spells I reduce to 1% if body weight, at present as everywhere is covered in snow they are back on 2%.

I put out the hay when snow is on the ground 3 or 4 times a day in smaller quantities so they do not eat all at once, and in between they go dig/graze what they can find.

My two have come through the winter, unrugged and out with good shelter on the same weight as they were at the beginning of November so I am pleased, and feel this has worked for me.
 
My welshie cob has half of 2% bodyweight of hay when in at night. So I work out 2% of his bodyweight and divide it by two on the pretence that he eats whatever grass there is in the day and then has the half portion in hay when shut in at night. So for him that is 12lbs of hay for night.
 
My 14.1hh Connie eats 16lbs hay at night and 6lbs hay at lunch and goes out for a few hrs in the morning whilst weather is bad.she eats alot, this is still mot quite adlib and she gets 2 feeds a day as well. She is ulcer prone so I don't lime giving her less...
 
Be very scared......

HF, rising 6, 16.1 & arrived in mid December looking rather poor, is still currently on 25 - 30lb (yes, pounds) of hay at night in 12 hours & another 15+lb during the daylight time when out. So he is consuming a small bale to a bale & half in 24hrs.
This is in addition to 2 good hard feeds daily :)

Tiny Fuzzy consumes half a section of small bale hay overnight from a tiny holed net & truffle hunts all day out in the big winter paddock :D She is still going to come out of the winter looking a little too well methinks....
 
The only time I have weighed is when she's on a diet. My girl is a 15'1, 500kg and on a diet she was on about 3.5-4kg a night of hay
 
Kat said:
TFF last winter mine was on 40lbs and plus conditioning feed and was still losing condition!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, tho he had put on condition & weight, he went to the vets for a week & came home last Thurs 26kg lighter than he went in the previous Friday :( Mostly due to him not wearing the rugs supplied I think......

He's already put on some again, is no longer tucked up & eating happily for england again :)

I'm always happy to do adlib if its being consumed by one which needs it - and he sure does. (he has been wormed too, which helped big time about a month after he came & again 4 weeks later)
 
Fatty gets 2kg in a trickle net and 2kg in a triple net overnight (so 9lbs in all), soaked for 10 hours. He gets 10hrs turnout daytime, so grass on top of that. He'll get a little extra fed from the floor while I'm grooming / tacking up etc.

In this weather he gets extra, still turned out but obviously not much to eat out there.
 
my 16.3 wbxtb was weighed in nov at the vets while having teeth out and 565kg. she has about 11kg in total of hay and of that 11kg 1.5kg is of simple systems lucie nuts soaked. she also out during day on whatewver grass she can get and eats her bed straw too.
 
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