Thoughts on 'Dry Haylage' or wrapped meadow hay

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Clare300673

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Hi
Im new to this forum so please be gentle with me!...
We are moving our mares to a new paddock which is 5 acres of lush grass. Im interested in having it cut for hay (one mare has Cushings, the other has unlimited hay), but the guy I have found to do it has suggested he allows it to dry more than he would for haylage and he wont fertilise the grass at all, but will wrap it when he bales it. We dont have barn storage for it so having it wrapped is a good idea BUT... Lou-Lou (16.3hh ISH) sees dead people when she has haylage and is utterly paranoid, and the other mare is my sons 11.2hh Dartmoor and keeping her on forage which is obviousley low in sugars... So I dont know much about wrapped hay so will it be as sweet as haylage, which the little pony obviousley cant have?.. Has anyone had any experience of this?

Many thanks and hoping not to come across as thick !:p
 
I am currently using haylage that is very dry, it is perfect timing as now I am feeding less it is lasting longer than wetter haylage would, the quality is fab, no dust at all but you could easily soak it to remove sugars before feeding, it sounds ideal for your situation with no storage.
 
Phew ! Im so glad that you have all said positive things.. Its a chance to help us through the winter a bit, well at least make it easier by not having to keep finding £100 plus quid for hay a month when its bad in winter..If I can feed this to both my girls than problem solved.. Having horses on the complete opposite extremes of the scale is not easy lol ...Thankyou... The guy quoted me a price of roughly £16 a big bale to have it cut,turned,baled and wrapped.. Didnt sound to bad to me ? Any thoughts on that ?
 
Clare300673 said:
... Lou-Lou (16.3hh ISH) sees dead people when she has haylage
Click to expand...

Sorry, but snorted my drink at this comment :D

Haylage, if not dairy pasture technically has less sugars in as it ferments the levels down. However, it is more acidic. I was always taught that wrapped hay is basically haylage, but is drier so lasts longer once opened making it more economical.
 
He is coming next week to see the grass quality.. Will def book.. Have rung about 4 different numbers I was given and pinning someone down is not easy
 
Wrapped hay can be high in sugar, far higher than hay produced normally. Correctly made haylage will be very low in sugar, but the moisture content needs to be high in order for fermentation to take place.
There is also more likelyhood of wrapped hay containing mould spores, unless it's really dry, in which case, why bother wrapping it?
More and more farmers are producing wrapped hay as it's so much easier to make than haylage, and it looks nice, therefore more appealing to horse owners. In my opinion, correctly made haylage with low sugar levels is always going to be the better product. High sugar isn't good for any horse and I find this trend for wrapped hay quite worrying.
 
I have never heard of it, but thank you for your thoughts.. Im am very careful about forage for Princess and didnt fancy committing to soaking hay all winter for her either.. I think I may have to realise also that, as the vet has said, Prin will at some point need to be medicated for her Cushings. Although we manage it with supplements and homeopathy with our lovely vets help, it may be that she needs another review and see what Ellen the vet has to say too
 
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