# Haylage for Horses



## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

An interesting concept by a company not far from me. I am yet to speak to anyone that has tried it with their horses. Would also be interested to know the difference between standard baleage and this product. I personally would be a little scared of selling silage to the equine market...
http://www.manukachaff.com.au/horsilage.html


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

I remember reading an article in hay and forage grower talking about this a couple years ago. I believe this is beening done in Europe. I was thinking they were doing balage and the moisture was lower than this. I was thinking the article I read was about baling at lower moisture may be 30%. We baled a couple hundred acres of 5th cut alfalfa/ orchard mix this fall as balage, and most of it was in that 25% to 35% moisture range. We have been feeding some of it to my wife's 2 horses, and they have been doing very well on it. Parts of me would like to market this product to our horse customers. If done correctly this could be a wonderful feed for horses, I am not extactly sure about the correct way yet.I am thinking that applying some proprionic acid at these lower moistures would be helpful. Would love to hear more from others that have tried this. Bob


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

> I am thinking that applying some proprionic acid at these lower moistures would be helpful.


 I think you would be better off looking at an inoculant at these moisture levels, if you want baleage. We hit all silage that we make with some kind of granular inoculant. I've seen proprionic, if applied at the proper rate, keep hay from becoming baleage at 30% moisture.


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

Bob M said:


> I remember reading an article in hay and forage grower talking about this a couple years ago. I believe this is beening done in Europe. I was thinking they were doing balage and the moisture was lower than this. I was thinking the article I read was about baling at lower moisture may be 30%. We baled a couple hundred acres of 5th cut alfalfa/ orchard mix this fall as balage, and most of it was in that 25% to 35% moisture range. We have been feeding some of it to my wife's 2 horses, and they have been doing very well on it. Parts of me would like to market this product to our horse customers. If done correctly this could be a wonderful feed for horses, I am not extactly sure about the correct way yet.I am thinking that applying some proprionic acid at these lower moistures would be helpful. Would love to hear more from others that have tried this. Bob


Quite a few European growers and marketers' websites on this. This link is one that I found particularly informative
http://www.horsehage.co.uk/guideTOforage.html

Like you Bob, still a bit green to the process but we made some first cut T/A 25% wrapped hay last year. I have a customer (Thoroughbred racing trainer/ Purina nutritionist) who has been feeding it since fall. From his comments it is turning out to be a huge success. His horses are maintaining condition easily, zero coughing in the barn and even the pickiest eaters are cleaning up. Being out of racing season its too early to tell if performance will be improved but all indications are good.

'' I think you would be better off looking at an inoculant at these moisture levels, if you want baleage. We hit all silage that we make with some kind of granular inoculant. I've seen proprionic, if applied at the proper rate, keep hay from becoming baleage at 30% moisture.''

Gearclash, according to most of the initial research I have done, a lot of the European horse forage producers tend to try and steer clear of any type of additive. It becomes a marketing bonus to be able to promote 'additive free' feeds. IMO quality and quantity of wrap is equally, if not more important when trying to make moist hay at moisture levels between 25-40%


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## foz682 (Jan 10, 2013)

I sold some grass baleage to some folks that has a couple dozen horses this year, 4x4 rounds @ about 900-1000lbs each. Horses loved it and did well with it, unfortunately his tractor wasn't designed to carry bales that heavy and damaged his FEL.


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## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

I think marketing small square baleage would work very well for the horse market, and I have seen small square wrappers, but man, what a right PITA!
Another consideration, is you would want something with a good chopper in it, to give it that near chaff consistency, and also help get the air out of the package.
Something else you would need to consider, as stated in their brochure, is have regular testing done to ensure it is free of anything else that will grow in that environment and harm the horses.


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## IAhaymakr (Jun 4, 2008)

We have found here that rather than trying to add prop acid or Inoculant to hay, it has been more beneficial and cheaper to just use more wrap. No matter the moisture. And as much as I dislike horses and their owners, my wrapped bales have a loyal following of equine customers. Nothing but word-of-mouth advertising. I don't have any intention of expanding into that market, either. Most seem to get really excited about alfalfa/orchard grass mix baled at around 30% moisture.


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## enos (Dec 6, 2009)

Wrappped at 25 to 35 percent moisture is what we call "Stopped Hay" stops heating, stops fermenting....just kinda sits there and looks like damp hay. One thing to watch is botulism. It can be present. Bales are not wet enough to properly ferment and get acidic enough to kill botulism. Cattle can deal with it but horses can get a bit dead. $20 to vaccinate nags for it.....something to let your customers know about because if one croaks we all know the will blame feed first.


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## fholin (Nov 5, 2009)

I think this is the _Hay & Forage Grower_ story askinner was talking about? On Sweet Hay? http://bit.ly/XXnpxx


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

Twenthy years ago alocal Dealer was selling 25 pound bags of alfafla silage. 
Worked real well, fed well, but they were shipping a lot of water, so the transportation cost got all the money.

This product appears to be in the 26% CP range for 100% dry matter. Not bad., really fairly good.


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

One of the best standardbred farms in the country feeds it he told me do it at 30% moisture and vaccinate for botulism. They have huge success and feed zero grain. Im going to try it next year. I will post the results.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

So they say in the UK that they do this all the time-feed haylage to horses. I suppose it is ok until it is not ok. Funny thing about horses digestive system-when it blocks they colic-simple. We are partners with someone who had a horse in England that got hurt, was fed haylage and foundered, bad over a year ago. Horse has been layed up since and just recently got back into serious work. Just because horses like it does not mean it is good for them.

If a horse is a competition horse or race horse-meaning it is being excercised hard virtually every day, haylage may be fine but for pleasure horses or layed up horses I wouldn't-too much sugar. Nothing like slightly over mature fescue for your pleasure horse-they can eat all day and not founder.

I am not a party pooper- I would love nothing more than being able to switch my operation to haylage production in va-so easy, even a cave man can do it. Certainly much easier than making premium quality dry horse hay in June.


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

It will be to much sugar if you feed sweet feed but I dont. I feed the best 2nd cut I can get though. Also colic is caused from lack of moisture in the gut so I think this will help that as well. I dont know maybe I will look like a dummy. If it doesnt work the cows will eat it lol


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

There's folks here with cattle that have slowly moved their horses too balage the same as the cattle. They said its similar to putting them out on grass in the spring, have to do it slowly so they don't get sick. To be fair often the horses are cheap and there for fun, the cattle are high end dairy cows that get good baleage.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

The trick to feeding this would be if you had a wrapped bale once you open the plastic the horse would have to eat the bale in 12 to 24 hours .


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## hayray (Feb 23, 2009)

One of the reasons it is done in Europe is because often they have no choice, they have a hard time getting dry hay. I know someone who grew up on a dairy farm and their Grandpa ran the Belgiums with the dairy cows and they foundered all the time. When a draft founders it is real bad news with all that weight. Another issue with horses when feeding fermented feeds is that they do not have Sphinchter muscles so they can burp out the gases like cattle. Personally, I think it is bad news to try feeding anearobic feeds to horses. Sorry about all the mis-spellings, but been workin' hard all day and am tired.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Lot of the same problems feeding high protein hay to non-working horses. Woman up the road feeds stall kept horses high protein hay + grain and has constant founder problems, the horses at my sisters get late cut hay and no grain - very few problems. One of my horse clients had a horse with founder as well on a restricted protein diet, had to save late cut hay for them to feed.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I suspect this is a variant of Chaffhaye ( http://www.chaffhaye.com/ ) I bought a ton of it to try a few years back at a pretty reasonable price. Every horse we gave it to (only ours) ate it just fine and seemed to really like it The problem I had was with my daughter and her students/borders. They could not believe anything with a vinegary smell could be good for their horses. What I had left sat around in the feed room for a while and I ended up giving it to a friend for his cows....they loved it too. This was back when I naively thought you could educate horsey people with logic and reason. Life is easier now that I refrain from delusional thinking.....


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## aawhite (Jan 16, 2012)

The hay product mentioned in the Hay and Forage Grower article, I wouldn't call it haylage. If your wrapping at 25%-30% moisture, your not going to get any fermentation, so it is still just hay baled higher moisture. We've done that by accident when bailing haylage for the dairy. As long as you can keep the air our to stop heating and mold growth, should be pretty good stuff.

I'm with endrow, though...how long can that hay sit before it goes bad once it's open?


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

We have made about 1000 wrapped bales this summer, mainly due to wet weather. Most of what we wrapped was on the lower moisture range 25% to 35% moisture. We have been wanting to get into the wrapped hay for horses market anyway. Experimented last year with some 5th cut. Our biggest concern now is botulism, which will grow in anerobic conditions. When balage ferments the ph will drop below 5 and I believe the botulism can't grow. At these lower moistures I'm not sure of the ph drop. We apply 6lbs prop to our low moisture wrapped hay but not sure this would be enough to drop ph much. We are going to send some samples out to lab this week for ph testing .


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

Botulism vaccine is $20 a pop so it wont break the bank.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

I have one vet that is telling me the vacination is not always effective if the level of botulism is high. Not sure if she is overly cautious but has me back to researching. We were ready to starting marketing wrapped hay this year.


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

I'm in the same situation as you, Bob.

Due to tough drying conditions we are sitting on way more wrapped product than normal. We have even wrapped small bale bundles of 18 with a view to marketing to the horse guys. Beautiful feed at around 28% moisture but constantly coming up against the botulism concern.

I have one thoroughbred trainer/nutritionist that has been feeding our high moisture hay for 3 years and says he would never go back to feeding dry hay. His research suggests that botulism is only a concern with moistures over 50% which create a *more* acidic environment.

There just seems to be so much conflicting information about botulism which is not going to do much for consumer confidence. However I think is that there is so little *quality* dry hay in our area of Ontario that horse owners will be looking for alternatives, which gives us a good opportunity to convert some of the more forward thinking.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

everyone here in Shenandoah Valley of Va feeding round bales of dry hay are giving botulism shots. Problem is there are different strains (or at least I think that is what the vet said) of botulism so if the vacine you gave does not cover the one you have-I guess it is like the flu shots. Our concern with RBs is wrapping up a fawn or rabbit etc. even at 13-14%.


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

MikeRF said:


> I'm in the same situation as you, Bob.
> Due to tough drying conditions we are sitting on way more wrapped product than normal. We have even wrapped small bale bundles of 18 with a view to marketing to the horse guys. Beautiful feed at around 28% moisture but constantly coming up against the botulism concern.
> I have one thoroughbred trainer/nutritionist that has been feeding our high moisture hay for 3 years and says he would never go back to feeding dry hay. His research suggests that botulism is only a concern with moistures over 50% which create a *more* acidic environment.
> There just seems to be so much conflicting information about botulism which is not going to do much for consumer confidence. However I think is that there is so little *quality* dry hay in our area of Ontario that horse owners will be looking for alternatives, which gives us a good opportunity to convert some of the more forward thinking.


I go to woodbine every week to watch my horse train. You should see the junk they are getting for $10 a bale. Half of it looks like swamp grass the other half is decent hay but sun bleached to the extreme. Where are you located and how much are you asking for the wrapped small bundles? Im looking into becoming a dealer for chaffhaye. I think it would go over good


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

Just found out an interesting piece of information - probably should not mention any names without asking but one of the leading standardbred breeding/racing stables in North America located just north of Toronto has been feeding high moisture hay successfully for several years.


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

Ya thats true. Best dairy farmer ever and one of the best horse farms ever. I wont use his full name but first name is peter. To bad he didnt get in thoroughbreds before he left. Maybe we could use ai to if he did. I posted something on page 1 about it. Post 11 I was refering to them lol.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

MikeRF, how are those bundles feeding? Any air pockets around bales that have mold spots? I have been thinking that wrapping bundles could be a good thing, but worried about air pockets. Bob


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

Most things we do in farming are based on on science, but it seems that gets thrown out the door when it comes to feeding horses.


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

Bob M said:


> Most things we do in farming are based on on science, but it seems that gets thrown out the door when it comes to feeding horses.


Its because horse people cant accept change. The way grand dad did is the way they have to do it. Ever notice how all the latest innovations in horse farming are usually thought up by former cattle farmers. And the lifetimers look at you like your dumb when they see what your doing. Then they see it works and still wont change. They are a funny breed horse people.


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

Bob M said:


> MikeRF, how are those bundles feeding? Any air pockets around bales that have mold spots? I have been thinking that wrapping bundles could be a good thing, but worried about air pockets. Bob


We did 5 different batches of bundles and have started feeding into 3 of them.

Of those 3 we have only had issues with one which was first cutting from a newly seeded 50 acre field of T/A. Put up too dry at about 19%. Some sweat damage has occurred between the bales and the plastic just on the top bundles of the stack. We are convinced this is not mold because if left in the sun this white film disappears. Someone will likely correct me but I have always been under the impression mould doesn't just dry off and disappear.

Contrary to one of the earlier posters I believe to make this product properly is not as easy as it may seem. The best feed we have made this year has been the hay that we planned on wrapping from the outset. What got wrapped just because we couldn't get it dry has turned out to OK feed but not IMO good enough to be able to really promote this 'moist hay for horses' concept in the way it needs to be.


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## Haylageuk (Jan 21, 2012)

We make between 8000-10000 tons a year of haylage and have been doing this for 20 years. We supplied the champion trainer over here last year and have done for a long time now. We also supply the Royal Stud at Sandringham and one of the Sheiks largest breeding studs amongst others. Haylage is a good forage for horses done properly particularly in non ideal hay climates. www.eurobale.com


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## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

Haylageuk said:


> We make between 8000-10000 tons a year of haylage and have been doing this for 20 years. We supplied the champion trainer over here last year and have done for a long time now. We also supply the Royal Stud at Sandringham and one of the Sheiks largest breeding studs amongst others. Haylage is a good forage for horses done properly particularly in non ideal hay climates. www.eurobale.com


  Man, that is one heck of a lot of haylage!!! I could imagine you guys in the UK would struggle to make dry hay, so haylage would be a great solution. Here at the moment, I think I'd struggle making haylage, the weather is that hot & dry (1% RH here at times over the last few weeks), I'd have troubles keeping the moisture there before I was ready to bale.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

I contacted an equine Professor at Penn State this week to discuss wrapped hay for horses. He is very interested in wrapped hay and knows of it's use in Europe, and questions why it is not more excepted in the states. He also thinks that if we can understand the botulism and if and why it is more of a problem here in the states, that this hay could become more excepted. If grant money can be found he is more than willing to do research. I have contacted CNH about grant money, not sure where that will go.


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