How much haylage should I feed my hay?
As a general guide, haylage should be fed at a rate of 1¼ times more than hay, but this can depend on the DM content of the haylage. Due to its high moisture content, haylage needs to be wrapped to prevent spoilage, by creating an anaerobic environment.
Is hay or haylage better for weight gain?
Haylage is, however, higher in protein, and more digestible than hay giving it a higher DE content. As a result, horses generally tend to do better on haylage, so it’s often not ideal for overweight horses and those prone to weight gain, metabolic and laminitic horses, unless it is a high-fibre, lower DE variety.
Should I feed hay or haylage?
Many equine nutritionists now recommend feeding haylage instead of hay although there are pros and cons to each. Haylage is much closer to the horses natural diet of grass, both in texture and nutritional value it is more palatable and digestible than hay, has a higher nutritional value and is less dusty.
Do you feed more haylage than hay?
Haylage is typically between 50 and 70% dry matter. Due to a greater amount of moisture in haylage you actually need to feed more haylage by weight than hay to provide the same amount of dry matter.
Is haylage richer than hay?
While haylage certainly can be richer or more digestible than hay (being cut at a less mature stage), these nutrients are diluted. As such, in order to meet minimum fibre requirements, often more kilograms of haylage need to be fed as compared to hay.
How much haylage should a horse eat a day?
For example, if a 500kg horse is fed haylage with a dry matter content of 70%, it needs 500 x 15 = 7500g of DM a day. For this horse’s haylage, this would mean feeding 7500 x 100 ÷ 70 = 10714 g or 10.7kg of haylage a day.
Should you feed more haylage than hay?
Which is better for horses hay or haylage?
Haylage dry matter has about 10% higher nutritional value than hay so if you are feeding the equivalent in terms of dry matter, you can also cut down on supplementary feed as less will be needed to meet the horses energy requirements.
What’s the difference between dry hay and baleage?
Baleage is made in round-bale and big-square hay packages so some people assume it is very similar to making dry hay. Others assume because the end product of baleage is a fermented wet silage that it is just like making haylage.
Can You Wrap a bale of hay in haylage?
Caution has to be taken with very dry haylage when wrapping as dry, coarse material may result in more air pockets in the bale and a bale that is more difficult to wrap without puncturing the plastic.
How big is a medium square bale of hay?
Medium square bales (800 to 1000 lb) are increasingly being used across the northern dairy regions to reduce the labor associated with hay and haylage making. If making hay, these bales need to have 2 to 3% less moisture at baling than small square bales to avoid molding and heating.
What kind of Baler do I need to make silage?
For those, like Steve Riley, who are moving toward making silage exclusively, I recommend a baler that’s built for it from the ground up. Silage balers boast features that help with the added weight and challenges that come with baling a heavier, wetter crop.