haylage (??) and horses?

Anonymous-0 · Jun 14, 2012

Hey folks,
Anyone with horses feed haylage? If so, is there a difference in what farmers wrap for cattle and what you'd give a horse?
Talking about grass hay (pasture mix) and not straight clover or alfalfa.
We have enough horses that it would feed out before a bale goes bad when opened. From what I've seen, it just looks like hay that was rolled a day early and wrapped.. Or, is there more to it than that?
Also, if hay gets a little rain, will wrapping be any better for it?
Really don't wanna start with the stuff, but it would sure relieve a lot of storage stress...
Thanks for any tips.... (selling the horses is not an option :roll: )

danofarming · Jun 14, 2012

I would think that the risk of mold would be too great. So I would think No way.

NEBeef · Jun 14, 2012

Traditionally, haylage has been considered for ruminants only. But that opinion seems to be changing some...

I'm not a horse person though, so best to continue your research...

36 Coupe · Jun 14, 2012

A Vermont vet found 3 horses were kiled by eating plastic wrapped hay.Botulism was the cause.Cattle eating the same hay were ok.10 horses died on a farm here.Botulism is susupected and authorities want the bodies burned before burial.I would not feed wrapped hay to horses.Your choice.

1130Leo · Jun 14, 2012

Only feed haylage to your horses if you plan on burying them the next day.... It will Kill them, Horses can not tollerate the gas caused by the breakdown of the hay. Neighbor had a horse get out and into their bunk silo filled with haylage, found the horse right there in the morning... Not a good outcome.

Anonymous-0 · Jun 14, 2012

Horses can eat balage just fine. Always left a few wrapped bales at one farm I rented for the owner to feed his horses. I had always heard it was lethal to horses but he asked his vet and the vet said he had fed it for years and infact was very commonly fed in Ireland. (I'm in central NY)

LAA · Jun 14, 2012

Of course they can eat haylage, or baleage, or corn silage as long as it is well cured and properly put up. Dusty dry feed is the worst thing for horses. I always hear people say that horses can't eat this or that but when it comes to hay, ensilage, green chop and various other feeds there are several hundred horses in my area that didn't get the memo because I see horses eating whatever the cows and goats and donkeys are eating all winter, any horse I ever had did the same. As long as its wholesome how could it hurt them? I guess most horses have sense enough to pick around the bad stuff.

Anonymous-0 · Jun 14, 2012

How could it hurt them? Founder.

36 Coupe · Jun 14, 2012

Botulism,It grows in plastic wrapped bales.Warm ,moist conditions favor its growth.

Tx Jim · Jun 14, 2012

Horses have the most sensitive digestive system of any animal on Earth. I wouldn't feed haylage to my horse if I still owned one.

Billy NY · Jun 14, 2012

I've never heard of it being done in this area, if it has the potential for harm, even slight, NO WAY, one thing I do not fool with is horse feed. Dealing with a sick or horse with colic has to be about the worst darned thing there is when it comes to these equine money pits.

Its interesting that people have mentioned feeding it and without any problems. So it seems possible and somehow works. For me, it would have to be under controlled circumstances,(putting up this type of feed) and it would have to be proven to have no harmful elements in the feed, the darned things can be so sensitive resulting in huge/expensive problems or worse, given the risks or potential, I would cringe feeding it, just could not take that chance.

mkirsch · Jun 14, 2012

How do horses ever survive in the wild? Can't get 'em wet. Can't feed 'em after midnight. Can't be too hot. Can't be too cold. Can't be any weeds in the hay. Can't have the wrong variety of grass. They get sick and drop dead if you look at them cross-eyed...

Anonymous-0 · Jun 14, 2012

(quoted from post at 06:12:23 06/14/12) How do horses ever survive in the wild? Can't get 'em wet. Can't feed 'em after midnight. Can't be too hot. Can't be too cold. Can't be any weeds in the hay. Can't have the wrong variety of grass. They get sick and drop dead if you look at them cross-eyed...

some folks go to extremes..... We get looks when it's a storm and our horses are still outside... Most folks have gotten used to it, but we still get a call now and then....
We don't pamper, just normal hay as long as it's not rained on and 1st cut.
Sounds like the haylage is an OK thing but just too many if's, and's, and but's for us I guess..... Colic is not a fun thing to deal with. We'll just stick with hay for now....

Thanks......

Dean Olson · Jun 14, 2012

I live in TX now and the horses get treated like dogs and cats. They get the supposed best
of every thing. Down here "horse hay" is the best of the best. The cattle get open pasture
and maybe some cubes but they don't seem to grain them down here at all.

This this is the opposite of what I grew up with in IA. We fed the cattle the best of the best
including silage, alfalfa, custom mixed feeds etc. Our horses got fed the grass hay and
weeds we baled out of the slews. They got the grains that got cleaned up after grinding for
the cows. They would occasionally be turned in with the cattle and ate the same diet.

Never seemed to be an issue. I never remember having a horse founder. We had very few
health issue with them at all.

They are not as delicate as some would think.

LAA · Jun 14, 2012

They can founder form any high carbohydrate feed or excessively lush forage if allowed to over eat, they can founder from excessive water when overheated, it is not the feeds fault if livestock founder, its the feeders fault or just due to animals breaking in to feed storage or by accident. So, if good haylage is responsibly fed, how can it hurt them?

Nancy Howell · Jun 14, 2012

Depends on the horse.

Horses that have been "barn raised" for several generations loose their ability to survive on lower quality hays and feeds. These are the ones with delicate digestive systems and can be prone to colic and health issues.

Horses that are out on pasture and pasture raised have been proven to be healthier, have less sensitive digestive systems and better able to live on lesser quality hays and feeds. They are happier horses, too.

Horses in the wild - definitely survival of the fittest. Those that survive living on whatever they can find to eat, reproduce and strengthen the herd.

Traditional Farmer · Jun 14, 2012

Yep the workhorses we used to have only got a little Oats when we worked them otherwise just pasture and all the low quality hay they could eat in Winter and straight pasture in Summer.

Tx Jim · Jun 14, 2012

(quoted from post at 09:12:23 06/14/12) How do horses ever survive in the wild? Can't get 'em wet. Can't feed 'em after midnight. Can't be too hot. Can't be too cold. Can't be any weeds in the hay. Can't have the wrong variety of grass. They get sick and drop dead if you look at them cross-eyed...

Read Nancy Howell's reply. There's a world of difference in wild horses(Mustangs) & domesticated high bred registered horses.

Walt Davies · Jun 14, 2012

I feed mine just plain old cattle hay slightly dry an no white
mold. They can get sick on this SS they breath it in to their
lungs. Fed my little guy alfalfa one year an he foundered real
bad. Put him on straight dry hay to lose weight an he was OK
in a few months. Leave him out in the weather all year now
seems to strengthen him for bad weather.
When I grew up on the farm we never put the horses in they
stood up to all kinds of bad weather and never were sick.
How ever I would thing the rich haylage might not be good
for them maybe a hand full once a day to supplement the dry
hay in the winter.
Walt
Walt

doubleN · Jun 14, 2012

Don't take the chance.

Stick with traditional dry hay. Walking a colicy horse and waiting for it to fart or have a bm is no fun. Not as bad as watching them die from colic, twisted gut, etc. though.

Anonymous-0 · Jun 14, 2012

(quoted from post at 09:37:01 06/14/12) Don't take the chance.

Stick with traditional dry hay. Walking a colicy horse and waiting for it to fart or have a bm is no fun. Not as bad as watching them die from colic, twisted gut, etc. though.

We've been thru colic 5 times since we started. All for no reason (that we know of), just out of the blue. Wife has emergency stuff on hand and we caught it early enough, so it was just the walking, waiting, and worrying.....
We may get a bale and try it, but I don't think it's worth the extra expense AND the doubt.......

Mike (WA) · Jun 14, 2012

Don't feed silage- horses need the gut stimulation provided by long stemmed hay, to keep stuff movin' through. Might be able to feed a little, along with dry hay, but not enough to use up a bale before it goes bad. Not sure about the gas production mentioned below, just have always been told, no silage.

Don't feed alfalfa, either- just regular grass hay. Medium quality or poorer, so they have to eat quite a bit to maintain weight. Just make sure no mold. Maybe a little alfalfa with grass hay for lactating mare, or hard working horse. But generally speaking, the better the hay, the higher the vet bills.

We've got several hundred "horse years" under our belts on that program, and so far the statistic for colic or other digestive distress still stands at zero (but knocking on wood as I type, which is some trick, let me tell you).

Anonymous-0 · Jun 14, 2012

Maybe I'm using the wrong term???? This is just normal pasture hay that is rolled with a little higher moisture like a day early then wrapped... Is haylage something different then???

Tx Jim · Jun 14, 2012

My understanding of haylage(rd bale silage) is that it must be balled and wrapped at about 65% moisture. A day early on baling won't be that high moisture but rather enough moisture to mold/mildew.

Nancy Howell · Jun 14, 2012

When you say "medium quality or lower", if you're referring to the protein level of the hay, then I agree. For me, quality is a function of weed content and protein level. My definition of horse quality hay is a grass hay that is 95% or more weed free with protein levels between 10% and 12%.

Alfalfa tends to cause problems because it generally has protein levels of 14 to 16%. Any hay with that protein level can cause colic/founder in horses if they get a lot of it. Also, southern alfalfa can have the blister beetle which is deadly to horses.

I've had people try to convince me that higher protein hay (alfalfa) is a better value because you feed less of it. I tell them - how would you feel if you got all the nutrition/protein you needed in one sandwich per day? It wouldn't be long before you were looking for something to chew on.

Also my opinion - the horse's digestive system is designed for quantity, not quality.

farmer boy · Jun 14, 2012

I think you're using the right word. Here it's normally called baleage, but it's esentially the same thing as haylage. No idea on whether it agrees with the horses though.

Kirk Grau · Jun 14, 2012

Have wondered about that question here also. If it made sense I am sure the large Standard Bred farms around here would be doing it and I don"t see them trying at all.

Pretty much agree with the philosophies below about keeping something going through their system continuously, but only enough nutrients to keep weight on depending on level of work.

Seems to work for us, no colics or founders yet. Plenty of other vet bills though. Seems like the horses can keep coming up with new ways to cost us money.

~Kirk

Ken Macfarlane · Jun 14, 2012

Folks feed some work horses balage here, just takes lots of time to
get them switched over like going out on pasture in the spring. The
microbes need time to develop or they will colic/twist gut etc.

Re botulism, it is a real problem even for cows.

Mike (WA) · Jun 14, 2012

Dave2- talk to someone who makes round bale silage, or haylage, or baleage, or whatever-age they're calling it. Its been a long time since I was up on this stuff, and I have the heartbreak of CRS, but my recollection is that to cure properly, the grass needs to be around 50% moisture or more- Hay needs to be below 20%- and between those figures is where you get spontaneous combustion, barns burning down, hay molding, and silage burning in the silo. Yes, that actually happens- silage put into upright silo a little too dry, goes through a "heat"- and when you open the silo in the winter, there's just some ashes at the bottom.

Mike (WA) · Jun 14, 2012

Nancy, your last sentence says it all.

I didn't mention weeds, because we don't commonly have any around here that are toxic to horses. Also no poisonous snakes or lizards, no thorny bushes or trees, no poison oak or ivy, no fire ants, no killer bees, no fish with teeth, no feral hogs, no snapping turtles, everything is just so NICE here. I think most of that bad stuff is allergic to RAIN!

Shetland Sheepdog · Jun 14, 2012

I sure don't know a whole lot about this whole issue, and the only thought that came to mind was about Dengie! I ran across it at a horse farm where I was selling hay. It sure looked and smelled like chopped haylage.

JDseller · Jun 15, 2012

High moisture round bales that are ensilaged are usually called balage. They are usually wrapped in plastic to seal them so the ensilage process can happen. Haylage is usually what you would chop with a forage harvester. It is a short chopped stem. It is usually in bags, bunker silos, or upright silos.

As for whether you would have trouble with feeding balage to horses. I would say you would have to be real careful. Most balage is higher in protein (15-25%) and can have molds in it if not made at the correct moisture. It is actually the dryer baled hay that will cause the most problems. If it is under 35% moisture it may not have enough moisture to properly ensilage. Then mold can form. I tried doing it one year and the hay got a little too dry and I had a lot of white mold. It did not seem to hurt the cattle but I sure would not have wanted to feed it to horses. So I would not feel confortable feeding it to horses.

Nancy Howell · Jun 15, 2012

I had a mustang. They generally make good mounts.

The biggest problem with owning a Mustang is they have adapted to survive on little and/or poor quality food. When put on good pasture & feed, a majority of them become obese which leads to health problems. BTDT.

haylage (??) and horses?

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