Tell me about haylage. And haylage v hay v grass v fibre feed

laceyfreckle

laceyfreckle

Well-Known Member
May 27, 2007
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Essex/Suffolk
I have practically run out of hay :-(

I have phoned around for more hay from my usual and other local suppliers and my usual supplier has the best price for hay which is £6 per small bale delivered BUT they have said their minimum delivery order is 50 bales. They have taken my order for 20 bales in case anyone else phones up who is in the same area and wants a partial delivery too and they will get back to me if they can do it but it isn't looking hopeful.

I have also been offered some haylage from another local good supplier. It is low in protein and they can offer either rye or timothy in 20kg bales.

I know nothing about haylage apart from it spoils easily. How long does a open bale last? Does it make horses fizzy? Neither of mine are laminitic but both are barefoot. One is a good doer and one is a poor doer. Both ponies.

The haylage has a min delivery of 20 bales which would be the amount i would want. But does it keep well? I mean at the moment the ponies could do with haylage daily still as harvey is still a bit lean but when they go to the other field and the grass gets going a bit then i probably won't need to feed it other then when they are kept in or being tied up etc or travelling to shows. If any unopened bales would store until i need them that would be ok though.

My only other option is to keep feeding copius amounts of happy hoof (which is £9 for 20kg) (or change to AlfaA lite and topspec non cereal cool conditon cubes) and to not feed any hay (there is grass in the paddock, a ok amount for this time of year but Harvey is still dropping a bit of weight now i've run out of hay, they both live out 24/7) and hopefully i can get some hay (as it is on order) before i need any for shows/travelling/staying overnight which won't be until about beginning of may. Obvouisly the grass in the paddock would probably be such they wouldn't need hay anyway after another 4 weeks or so.

oh, they haylage is £5.80 a bale delivered

so what would you do? What do you feed hay/haylage wise?
 
I feed my 3 haylage mainly for storage reasons but also because I am not a hay lover (too dusty, dry and not very soft). The horses definitely prefer haylage.

I have two good doers and a TB type.

You should feed more haylage than hay as haylage has around 40% moisture in so you need to make up for that.

Once a bale is opened it should keep OK for a week. Any longer than this it starts a second fermentation process which makes the haylage go mouldy.

I feed ryegrass haylage but believe timothy haylage is lower in protein.

I am paying £6.10 per 20kg bale.

I don't believe it makes any of my horses fizzy. Definitely not two of them. My TB type is just fizzy by nature!

My 3 live quite happily on just haylage in the winter. I don't feed any hard feed or supplements just haylage.
 
Claire1605 said:
I feed my 3 haylage mainly for storage reasons but also because I am not a hay lover (too dusty, dry and not very soft). The horses definitely prefer haylage.

I have two good doers and a TB type.

You should feed more haylage than hay as haylage has around 40% moisture in so you need to make up for that.

Once a bale is opened it should keep OK for a week. Any longer than this it starts a second fermentation process which makes the haylage go mouldy.

I feed ryegrass haylage but believe timothy haylage is lower in protein.

I am paying £6.10 per 20kg bale.

I don't believe it makes any of my horses fizzy. Definitely not two of them. My TB type is just fizzy by nature!

My 3 live quite happily on just haylage in the winter. I don't feed any hard feed or supplements just haylage.
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That sounds good, thanks!

My ideal this winter which seemed to work well until i ran out of forage was to keep them on almost ad lib forage and not feed apart from a balancer and some supplements. I prefer to not have to feed hard feed :)

A week isn't too bad for spoilage either, I thought it would be days rather then a week. Is a 20kg bale of haylage about the same size as a bale of hay? I know you said you need to feed more but will feed at almost ad lib so just wondering what the size difference was. Haylage is definitely easier to get hold of!
 
Haylage 20kg bale is definitely a lot smaller than a small bale of hay and because you have to feed more doesn't last that long.

My 3 get through around 1.5 bales a day in winter. Haylage works out more expensive than hay but I think it's worth it.

My TB type definitely holds his weight over winter with haylage but not so good with hay and haylage definitely stops those coughs that
mine had when eating hay.
 
Claire1605 said:
Haylage 20kg bale is definitely a lot smaller than a small bale of hay and because you have to feed more doesn't last that long.

My 3 get through around 1.5 bales a day in winter. Haylage works out more expensive than hay but I think it's worth it.

My TB type definitely holds his weight over winter with haylage but not so good with hay and haylage definitely stops those coughs that
mine had when eating hay.
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1.5 bales between 3 isn't that bad though....my two were going through 3/4 to 1 bale of hay a day between the two of them in winter.

Might try it and see how it goes! It's slightly cheaper for me then hay at them moment anyway per bale. Looking at getting it from thorogoods, heard they are meant to be fairly good (and they have some!)

I was really concerned about the sugar/laminitic thing even though mine arn't laminitic and also about the fizzing up thing but looks like neither of those are really a issue with it.:biggrin:

Whatever i go with, for next winter will probably try to get in larger bales that can just stay in the field.
 
Here is my two penneth - I would avoid hayledge if either of yours has ever had lami - I say this because of the recent chat I had with our vet. Our Joe had low grade lami a couple of summers ago and vet told us to stay off the hayledge. We used to buy small bales but it was very rich (and tasty for them!). I think it stores ok so long as the wrappings don't get punctured and if they do, you run the risk of germs breeding in it and it fermenting (I did have this happen once or twice). I suppose when there are field mice about etc it is inevitable that some will get spoilt - and it depends how long you're storing it.
CAn't believe your hay supplier won't come with less than 50 bales!!!!! Makes me realise how good our feed merchants are, I only ever buy 20 at a time.
I know you can feed Happy Hoof as a complete replacer, but I think they would get bored with it pretty quickly, our pair can even get bored with their evening meal of it at times!! I would definitely err on the side of caution and try for hay.
 
Just wanted to add, that is a very good point about the hay being dusty, personally I've not had any problems, but I do know sometimes the quality can be a bit rough and they can get coughs from it - ours is very good quality and doesn't get soaked though.
And Claire is right, I don't think hayledge makes them particularly sharp or fizzy, they do that all by themselves if they are made that way to start with!
 
Thanks Trewsers, neither have ever had lami so i haven't really got to worry about that too much. I tend to try and keep sugar low simply because Harvey can be a fruit loop at times although saying that he seems to have recently had a pony brain transplant for the better!

Mice puncturing the bags I hadn't thought about too much but I suppose it's not that much of a huge risk. Helps Piccolo seems to kill mice/rats. well put it this way during the winter there was quite often a dead mouse or rat in her stable just lying there but not anywhere else!

Hay suppliers here are kind of bad, because I'm really on the edge of where both local ones deliver to they won't come out this far unless they have a fair load. My usual one is based around 25-30miles away from me each way.
 
I get mine from Thorogoods and it is 99% of the time great stuff. I have only used some this year as we made our own but not enough as it was a trial.

This year we are going to try to make enough.

My neighbour farmer cuts some of his fields for Thorogoods so I know where the haylage is coming from! I am only 2 minutes away from the Thorogoods yard.

I don't have a problem with mice up at my yard/house etc only if I leave bales in the field. Bloody field mice. The mice tend to stay away from the yard area funnily enough. Maybe because there have been rats about.

My farrier reckons my pony has had lami in the past but I still feed Ryegrass haylage but just make sure she does not get more than her daily quota and she is fine!

The way I see it is that haylage is just like fresh grass so just don't overfeed same as if you put pony out to spring grass you strip graze or muzzle, just take care and don't over feed. I wouldn't feed the pony ad lib she gets her haylage intake very carefully monitored.
 
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I feed my three haylage through winter when they come in overnight. Even my mare who had laminitis about 10 years ago and have had no problems. This is providing I keep her weight down so that although she is well covered I can always feel her ribs. I wouldn`t feed more haylage than hay as it seems to put weight on horses more than hay does. As for more making horses more fizzy then I havn`t noticed any difference.
 
I have just swopped from Hay to Haylage, and havent really noticed much of a difference to be honest!

Its really just for convienance as my friend feeds haylage and gets the big bales for a good price. So we share instead of me going out and buying a hay bale every week.

Plus we are moving to our own yard soon and because of her mare having COPD we dont want her to be anywhere near hay as she will start coughing.

But yeah pony seems to like alot more, but it hasnt made him fizzy at all?

Once we have filled haynet up we made sure it is all wrapped up and as airtight as possible until opened again.

As for the lami thing im a bit confused....I always thought haylage was better for laminitics?? Cant remeber where i read that, probs dreamed it lol :redcarded:

I shall watch this thread as i need to learn more about it :redface:
 
So sounds like haylage might actually be better then hay for Harvey anyway then? He is quite ribby at the moment and does seem to struggle to keep weight on, so much so I have never ever had to restrict his grazing although the grazing is 'scrubby' for want of a better word.

Piccolo might need a little bit more monitoring however as she is a bit more of a good doer but last summer solved that by bringing harvey in for hay for a few hours in the day.

He's about 312kg at the moment and looks his best at 345kg but I don't want to feed 'feeds' as such. So sounds like the haylage could be ideal

Claire - Also nice to know where the Thorogoods stuff comes from too :)
 
I used to think that haylage had a higher nutritional value than hay, because hay is cut later, and left out to dry, whereas haylage is cut younger, and sealed up with the nutrients preserved. However, because it is softer, horses eat haylage quicker, therefore consume more.

I suppose the type of grass play a large part - hay around here is often made on old meadows, whereas haylage grass is often specially grown, and more fertilised.
 
whitby which said:
I used to think that haylage had a higher nutritional value than hay, because hay is cut later, and left out to dry, whereas haylage is cut younger, and sealed up with the nutrients preserved. However, because it is softer, horses eat haylage quicker, therefore consume more.

I suppose the type of grass play a large part - hay around here is often made on old meadows, whereas haylage grass is often specially grown, and more fertilised.
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I have ordered Timothy haylage. They had a choice between Timothy or Rye though. I agree meadow grass haylage seems to be really hard to get!

Anyway Thorogoods' service was excellent and I've got some being delivered today - 25 bales at £6.10 a bale.

Quite looking forward to it! Harvey might think it's his birthday lol
 
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