# HorseHage Feeding Quantities..



## GinaGem (28 October 2009)

On their site they say one bag is equal to a bale of hay - have people found this to be correct?  Prince has about half a bale of hay over night (about 8kg) so would half a bag of HorseHage (once introduced) be correct?


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## TGM (28 October 2009)

When I fed Horsehage I used to give 8-9 kg overnight to my 14.3 Connie x if that helps at all!


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## mik (28 October 2009)

wow, we feed, golden grass here in spain, much like horsehage, but probably not as good. My 17hh kwpn has a total of 8 kilos a day and my 16.2 hano has a kilo less, hard food wise they are on basic rations, 3+half kilos.  I suppose horsehage is more like hay then golden grass.


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## GinaGem (28 October 2009)

Yep very helpful thanks, will try that and see how he goes


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## BigRed (28 October 2009)

If your horse gets 8kg of hay, give him 8kg of haylage.  He might struggle to eat it all, so just give him a little less the next night.

My 16.2 TB only gets 7kg a night, much more than that and it gets wasted.


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## FrodoBeutlin (28 October 2009)

On the actual bags it says that one bag should last three days, though!


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## teddyt (28 October 2009)

You actually have to feed more haylage than hay because it has a lower dry matter. So if you feed 8kg of hay you will be feeding insufficient dry matter (fibre) if you just swap it for 8kg haylage. The total weight you should feed depends on the dry matter % but can be around 50% more by weight. i.e. if usually has 8kg hay then you may have to feed 12kg haylage, but you would have to work this out based on the analysis of your haylage.

Because haylage is more nutrient rich you should then usually reduce your hard feed to compensate. but reduing the amount of haylage to match the usual weight of hay is not advised because this reduces the fibre content of the diet.

Hope this makes sense.


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## GinaGem (28 October 2009)

I saw your post - that's why i was getting confused too!!!


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## SpottedCat (28 October 2009)

[ QUOTE ]
On the actual bags it says that one bag should last three days, though! 

[/ QUOTE ]

Although presumably one must apply common sense and acknowledge that a shire will require far more than a miniature shetland, no? Like all these 'feeding guides' on bags, I think you do have to apply your own knowledge to the situation, feeding isn't quite as one size fits all as the feed companies would like us to believe!


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## GinaGem (28 October 2009)

Thank you - i think i understand this.  So hay according to the site is about 85% dry matter and Horsehage is 55% so i think 12kg would be about right if i've done my calculations correctly?

So do i also need to feed extra fibre besides this?  If so in what form would you suggest?  The site says horsehage is higher % MAD fibre than hay so if i'm feeding more weight horsehage than hay would that not mean he's getting more fibre but that it's just more concentrated?  By the way i don't know what MAD means!!!

He's on one small hard feed a day so would you suggest cutting that out completly?  He's on one medium scoop of calm and condition and one large scoop of Alpha A Oil plus an all round vitamin and mineral supplement.  I could change this to high fi light with the vitamin supplement?


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## FrodoBeutlin (28 October 2009)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
On the actual bags it says that one bag should last three days, though! 

[/ QUOTE ]

Although presumably one must apply common sense and acknowledge that a shire will require far more than a miniature shetland, no? Like all these 'feeding guides' on bags, I think you do have to apply your own knowledge to the situation, feeding isn't quite as one size fits all as the feed companies would like us to believe! 

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, yes, it says three days for a 500kg horse


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## teddyt (28 October 2009)

Yes, 12 kg sounds about right. I wouldnt worry about the MAD bit- it means modified acid detergent, which is just how the fibre level is tested. There are different methods for different forages and haylage is often tested with NDF- neutral detergent fibre, rather than MAD. Eyes glazed over yet?!

In terms of your hard feed you could change over gradually to hifi original, with the vits and mins. Gradually cut down the calm and condition too. It all depends on his weight. Because the haylage will be giving more calories, in theory he shouldnt need to stay on the same feed to maintain weight but you should cut it down. Alfa a oil to hifi light is quite a difference, so i would change to the original first and do so over a period of about a week or two, after you have changed to the haylage. Then see how you go with the calm and condition, which may end up not being needed.


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## GinaGem (28 October 2009)

Yep eyes glazed but i think i understand loosely!!!

I keep a close eye on his weight anyway as he was poor when i got him in Jan so i've got obsessed with weight taping!!!  I'll cut the feed down and see what happens, a little extra energy would be ok but i think his weight is quite good at the mo so i'm keen to feed him the right amounts, took a while to get the balance right!

Thanks for your help


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## TGM (28 October 2009)

If he is a poor doer then you should really be feeding as much haylage as he can eat - however that might work out rather expensive with Horsehage (although still probably cheaper than increasing his weight with hard feed).  If cost is a consideration then you could look around for other sources of small bale haylage - you should be able to get Topscore in your area which is much cheaper than Horsehage.

The difference in fibre between haylage and hay is because haylage contains more water and therefore weighs heavier.  So 1kg of haylage will contain less fibre than 1kg of hay because part of the 1kg of haylage will be water!  However, volume for volume they will contain the same amount of fibre (assuming made from same type of grass and cut at the same time).  So 1 small haynet of shaken up hay will contain the same amount of fibre as 1 small haynet of shaken up haylage.


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## GinaGem (28 October 2009)

He seems ok now but he did drop off ever so slightly when the weather turned and he was living out so i put him back on a small amount of calm and condition

Money is not too big an issue in the short term but obviously cheaper options are always good!!  Having never used haylage I'm totally confused by it!  We've just got in horsehage to get us out of a sticky situation as we've got problems with our current delivery of hay and are almost out of the delivery before that.

Local supplier can do a 25kg bale of haylege for about £6 i think if we take 40 bales - does that sound reasonable?  We normally pay £2.50 a bale for hay and we usually get 80 - 100 bales a time.  i don't know how much a normal bale of  hay costs but will weigh one to compare costs

Will have a look for topscore


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## toomanyhorses26 (28 October 2009)

you can order mainbale direct from the supplier for £5.20 a bale for a pallet of 25( they were doing an offer of if you buy 23 bales you got two free but this was a couple of months ago  http://www.jrt-forage.co.uk/index.html


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