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angelarab
Platinum Member
 Wales
2876 Posts |
 Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 09:19:02 AM
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I can buy direct from yard owner haylage or i can buy my own hay in from local supplier, which is the better choice baring in mind fuel cost they are working out same price i don't know which to choose
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 "Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul remains unawakened."
www.northwalesarab.co.uk |
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Fran E
Junior Member
38 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 09:31:21 AM
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Its more a case of what best suits your horses.
I have a gypsy cob mare who loves haylage but it doesn't love her. goes straight through her! not pretty!!!
It can also make them hot headed as is alot richer than hay, but then hay can be drier so you might need to wet it, it is also said to have more usable goodness?
All swings and round-abouts. sorry not really helping. |
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Lori
Platinum Member
England
1829 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 09:31:44 AM
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Hiya Angel,
if the haylage is good quality i'd go for haylage. I usually have hay in store aswell though for a couple of our good doers or emergencies when we can't get a haylage delivery due to weater, namely SNOW!!! lol  |
     
Lancashire |
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taranstorm
Gold Member
Wales
952 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 11:20:32 AM
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Haylage everytime for me as fuller for the horses then hay and i bought lot of round bales stock up for through winter,all horses weight are fab with no sign or dropping their weight  |
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Roseanne
Moderator
United Kingdom
6708 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 11:32:41 AM
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Haylage can help you reduce your feed bills as they really do keep well on it. However some people don't like to give haylage ad-lib and I like my horses to have forage round-the-clock. If mine do have haylage they get it ad lib and it doesn't do any harm. I love the smell and they love to eat it!
Our farmer provides haylage in large round bales so you need to have enough horses to use it before it starts to go off. Small bale haylage works out very expensive.
Hay (providing it's dust free and you don't have to soak it) is much easier to fill haynets with I find. Battling with a large haylage bale can be exhausting if you have it stored outside. Mine have been on hay this year and last, which has made it warmer and easier for me to fill nets as it's stacked inside.
PS I have a good technique of filling haynets: Keep the bale strings on, put a haynet over each end and draw to the middle, cut the bale strings and pull out, and 'hey presto' the two halves are nicely packed in the nets. All you need to do is pull the main string and hang them up or stack for future days.
If you're not giving as much as half a bale, you can take off a third in each leaving the final third to fill a net the ordinary way, section by section. |
Roseanne |
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flosskins
Silver Member
345 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 11:56:29 AM
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| have to say hay everytime for me as can feed ad lib even to good doers in this weather and know they are full and warm without worrying about them getting too fat! |
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Quarabian
Platinum Member
Wales
4340 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 12:30:17 PM
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I think this is not such a simple question as it seems. Hay or haylage quality will depend on when it was harvested, how dry and what is actually in the field (I mean variety of grass and absence of noxious weeds)If you trust the yard owner has made quality haylage I would go for that. Also he will probably replace any bales that are not good.
My OH makes big round bales of haylage and gets the grass quite dry before baling. The feed quality is not too high as we have to harvest in July. This works well for the horses as thy can have ad lib without over doing it. Incidently we are on an organic welsh hill farm at 1200 feet. Late harvest helps the ground nesting birds.
Some haylage is too moist for my liking. If it stinks it will probably go through the horses too quickly, it is also very heavy to manage.
Hope this helps. |
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Mrs Vlacq
Platinum Member
Wales
3776 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 1:51:57 PM
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Like Quarabian we have haylage made slighly later in the season when it's not soo 'high octane' and allow it to dry out a bit so that it's pleasant to handle and not so likely to 'go through' them. We feed it ad lib to the outwinterd gang and they keep extremely well on it with only carrots and vitamin and mineral licks. Our stabled mob, youngsters and the boys mostly, have two small feeds a day too and fairly large nets of haylage and We're usually slimming them come spring.
The advantages are less hard feed needed and dust allergies avoided. the disadvantages are has to be used up fairly quickly as it will become oxidsed and then unpalatable. We haven't had hay for over 20 years now. |
    
- V Khazad - V Calacirya & V Sulime - Quarida(L) - V Boogie Knights - V Hamra Tofiq |
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troystar
Bronze Member
United Kingdom
63 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 3:42:28 PM
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| i use haylage as hay in London is dusty old s..t and give my Arab a cough, i give all 4 horses as much as they want i don't have any grass. i Guss its up 2 you if you have a fat horses prob best they have hay less calls, plus its £2pound a bale and £470 a bale four hay. and going up I'm told. ENE how ant hay just dried haylage ???????? |
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LYNDILOU
Platinum Member
United Kingdom
13976 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 4:18:24 PM
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I cant get any hay at the moment ! so I am having to buy haylage which is an expensive way with 9 mouths to feed  , plus I also like my horses to eat adlib which you cant let them do on haylage, so it has to be fed little and often, in this weather they get through so much,its costing a fortune !
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www.dreamfield-arabians.com |
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rosie
Platinum Member
England
3662 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 4:31:03 PM
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We make our own hay, so ad-lib hay for our 2.
Currently they are going through a bale a day between the 2 of them! |
     
Last picture courtesy of Sweet Photography |
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geegee
Platinum Member
England
3682 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 4:40:08 PM
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I feed haylage adlib.....It's hi fibre haylage meaning it is cut later.
You could always get them both analysed, then decide from the results  |
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leiat8
Gold Member
590 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 5:13:25 PM
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| my 4 live out 24/7 ,last winter i fed ad-lib hay(4 bales a day at £2.50 each) apart from costing us a fortune my 2yr old tbx who is a poor doer anyway could not hold his weight.this winter we have been putting a round bale of haylage(£22 each)in on a Monday and its lasting them till the Sunday.hes dropped a little bit of weight through this winter but not half as much as before and the other three all look well without being fat. saying this, i would only feed haylage in winter as a couple of years back in the spring three people locally lost there horses to laminitis and they were all still feeding halage. |
     
Casper, Hannah, Hector, Bracken, Fargo |
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loulou
Silver Member
England
464 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2010 : 6:45:56 PM
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I'm going to ask a really dumb question here! - Is haylage the same as horsehage?!!? 
Cause im feeding 4 at the mo (all in due to bad weather) and they are having hay and horsehage mixed and im using a square bale(bag) a day between them and its costing me a fortune 
Also now they only want to eat the horsehage and not the hay
Traceyx |
    
Essex |
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Quarabian
Platinum Member
Wales
4340 Posts |
Posted - 09 Jan 2010 : 2:04:28 PM
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Horsehage is just a brand name of haylage. It is haylage, but is very expensive as you say lou lou. You should be able to trust it for consistent feed quality etc, but I like my haylage dryer than this. It will also be high feed value so horses get bored coz they cant fill their tummies. I used to work for a feed merchant when haylage first came on the market.
I think the biggest problem for you all trying to buy haylage is the size of the bales. It is cheaper if it is bigger bales but unless you have a tractor it will be hard work to manage plus it doesn't stay fresh as someone else pointed out. |
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Holly
Gold Member
England
529 Posts |
Posted - 09 Jan 2010 : 3:19:20 PM
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We use home made haylage and use 1 large round bale a week between 9 horses. We store the bales outside and cover the opened one with tarporling held down by car tyres. We fill up empty plastic feed bags (mollichaff bags) usually one per horse and feed it on the floor in the fields. we tend to fill up lots of bags at the weekend so that during the week when we feed the horses in the dark after work the haylage is all bagged up ready to put in the fields. All the horses have kept their weight and one is fat.
The downside to haylage for me is there is a lot of waste and the time that it takes to fill up bags outside in all weather and in dark. Next year I will be buying hay in as I think it will make it easier and quicker for me to do the horses. |
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hay v haylage
