Weighing hay/haylage

[Sandstone1]

In a effort to get my porky pony to lose weight over winter I think I need to weigh his haylage. This is first winter I have used haylage due to pony having breathing issues. Out 24/7 with a shelter but will probably be stabled over night once weather gets really nasty. Has 2 small feeds of fibre based food. Either speedibeet or fast fibre. Grazing is restricted over summer but once grass stops growing has more access to grass. never weighed hay before as more or less has ad lib in winter but think i need to weigh it this year now going on to haylage. How do you weigh haylage and is there formula to work out how much I should give. Thanks

 

[Surbie]

(this is from the nutritionist I use, who wrote it out for me the first time A went on the weighbridge)

For weightloss it's no less than 1.5% of body weight/day. That includes grass as well as the hay/haylage so if you are turning out in a field what you end up feeding is based on estimates of how much forage your horse takes in while grazing.

If not restricted on grass, they eat between half to a kilo of grass per hour for around 16 hours. Restricted (eg muzzled) is around half that - but it's a rule of thumb.

So my 752kg horse, muzzled and out 10-12 hours per day has a forage allowance of 11.3kg. Minus the estimate of grass intake of about 5kg grass in that time he gets 7kg of either (soaked) hay or timothy haylage at night. I've got a luggage scale hanging in my haystore.

 

[catembi]

To weigh haylage, buy a luggage weigher from Amazon. Mine was about £8 and weighs up to 50kg. Put your haylage in a net, hook it onto the weigher, see how much it weighs. I have got this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hyindoor-P...14-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&psc=1

 

[Highmileagecob]

Remember to make an allowance for moisture content too. Are you able to get him in regular work, say at least an hour a day?

 

[scats]

I weigh everything for my 3. Time consuming but vital for good doers.

To maintain weight, they should eat 2-2.5% of their bodyweight a day. To lose weight, no less than 1.5%. It is difficult when horses are out at grass but I roughly half the amount (assuming they will eat at least half the amount out grazing.) Remember it’s percentage of ideal weight.
I have little electronic scales from Amazon.
They say to account more for the water content in haylage but I’m not sure how much more. Most haylage bags suggest feeding the same as hay.

 

[Sandstone1]

I have ordered a scale for weighing haylage

 

[Jambarissa]

I weigh. You actually get quite good at estimating after a while so you don't end up having to pull loads back out of the net. Renember to weight the empty net, I use tricklenet and they weigh over 1kg!

I made an effort to find buckets /tubs that perfectly fit my weight of hay so if I cba to weigh I know that the largest trug stuffed with hay is approx 3kg.

 

[Jambarissa]

Feed wise I imagine you're feeding an insignificant amount but think about why. I feed to get some extra variety into my horse for the sake of the gut bacteria so good quality fibre like an alpine chaff plus some herbs such as the oily herbs selection is a tasty treat but also beneficial.

Imo fast fibre is junk food, the ingredients are fine but they're pretty much ground to a powder so the fibre element is basically destroyed and the starch and sugars are absorbed very quickly. A chaff chopped to 2 inches will give more chew time and be beneficial fibre.