# Dry Haylage?



## Sheri (16 September 2010)

Our local hay supplier has kindly 'presold' all of his big bale hay after agreeing to supply the yard this winter!  

He has instead offered us Haylage or Dry Haylage, again in the big bales, thing is neither myself or my friend have ever heard of it!  Upon research it is apparently dryer than haylage, but more moist than hay and is meant to be very good nutritional wise.

we can't find anywhere how long it lasts (although it isn't wrapped) and if it is safe to feed to a lami?

My mare had lami 2 years ago brought on by an injury rather than weight and is now totally clear of it, but I still feed her like a lami as I never want to go through that again and I really don't think she does either!!

Any info you be fab


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## K27 (17 September 2010)

I've not ever heard of Dry Haylage that is not wrapped- because it's the wrapping process that surely makes it into Haylage!- I prefer wrapped haylage that is of a dry consistency as it keeps fresher for longer and I think it's better for their digestion than the wetter types of haylage.

Maybe you can go and look at it before you commit to having it delivered!

If it's not wrapped then wouldn't it be classed as hay? - but believe me I'm no farmer or  anything so probably not the best person to answer your question.

Hope you get some more answers!


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## Honey08 (17 September 2010)

Regular haylage can be bad for laminitics - it gave our pony lami, but it was combined with not enough exercise, and if yours was injury related, and your horse is now working again, you probably will be fine.  I've never heard of dry haylage - can the farmer/ supplier explain?


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## Silvermoor Haylage (18 September 2010)

Hello All

I think I can help here!

If it's not wrapped it can't have fermented therefore is hay rather than haylage, it could have been treated with propionic acid which would stop mould if the hay was baled at a lower dry matter level than usual. I'm not a nutritionist and don't know if you can feed hay treated in this way to horses. 

It will keep in a similar way to hay.

I hope this helps any more questions just ask.

P.S 
The dry matter level will have no effect on the nutritional level of hay or haylage. For example if I make half of a field into hay and the other half into haylage the nutritional value of both will be the same on a dry matter basis.  

Thanks

Silvermoor Haylage


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## Sheri (19 September 2010)

Apologies!! I have just found out it is wrapped!!

Thanks Silvermoor for the info, do you know if 'dry haylage' is ok for horses that have previously had Lami?  She's not prone and it wasn't weight related but I'm ever wary now!!


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## TGM (19 September 2010)

Sheri said:



			Apologies!! I have just found out it is wrapped!!

Thanks Silvermoor for the info, do you know if 'dry haylage' is ok for horses that have previously had Lami?  She's not prone and it wasn't weight related but I'm ever wary now!!
		
Click to expand...

The safest thing to do would be to send a sample off for analysis - Dodson & Horrell will do this for a reasonable price.  This will tell you how much sugar is in the haylage.


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## PennyJ (19 September 2010)

Hi, we had dry haylage last winter.  From what the farmer told me (he always makes it that way for his cows) its just left a day longer than normal haylage before being baled and wrapped, but not as long as for hay, which I think would be a day or 2 more.  So lower moisture content than your typical haylage.

My 2 absolutely loved it.  What I would say is that they had it ad lib due to the field having almost no grass in it.  They were stabled at night with absolutely huge nets to chomp through.  I think they thought they had died and gone to heaven.  They are good doer New Forest ponies, usually on 3kg hay a day and restricted grazing, in at night on non edible bedding.  Generally treated as laminitics to hopefully prevent it happening.

I absolutely loved it too.  I had a big round bale delivered and left in the field for them, I just filled the night time nets from that.  It was out in all weathers, completely unwrapped and it never went off, I could get up to 14 days from it.  I think they will be heartbroken this winter, we've moved yards so there is grass now and no need to feed adlib, therefore I can't justify it to them...


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## Rose Folly (19 September 2010)

Think you're describing what we had last winter - our first on haylage -  to accommodate my mare with RAO. It was locally made haylage, and the farmer's remark was that it waas "a tad drier than he would have liked". He reckoned he'd dried it a day too long through some mechanical mishaps causing delays in wrapping it.

It was really nice stuff, didn't have any ill effects on my mare, nor on the very laminits-prone pony, though the latter's supply was rationed at night.
It smelt wonderful, and they all did very well on it, particularly our old gentleman.


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## Hedgehunter (20 September 2010)

Silvermoor Haylage said:



			Hello All

I think I can help here!

If it's not wrapped it can't have fermented therefore is hay rather than haylage, it could have been treated with propionic acid which would stop mould if the hay was baled at a lower dry matter level than usual. I'm not a nutritionist and don't know if you can feed hay treated in this way to horses. 

It will keep in a similar way to hay.

I hope this helps any more questions just ask.

P.S 
The dry matter level will have no effect on the nutritional level of hay or haylage. For example if I make half of a field into hay and the other half into haylage the nutritional value of both will be the same on a dry matter basis.  

Thanks
Silvermoor Haylage
		
Click to expand...

Spot on, you really cannot tell the nutritional value of hay just from looking at it, especically if it is wrapped as very green grass will turn golden during fermentation. As prevoiusly mentioned Dodson and Horrell will do an analysis for you for £7.50 + VAT

It is a common misconcption that you  cannot feed haylage to lami prone horses, infact the opposite can be true. Sugars are femented leaving low residual sugars in a bale of haylage whereas the sugars are mostly still present in hay. This would be mroe true for seed and ryegrass hay where the grass has more sugar in it ti start with. Meadow hay is usually lower in sugar in the first place.

I hope that make a little sense

HH


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## BrynThePony (20 September 2010)

The farm I'm on supplies 2 levels of haylage, one of them being 'dry' haylage. It's as described above really; it's just been left a day or so longer to dry before being wrapped. My boys liked it - although I'm sure they would've preferred the standard haylage !!  Our farm does charge slightly less for the 'dry' bales but sadly they haven't been able to do any this year due to the weather


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## lannerch (20 September 2010)

our haylege is usually dry haylege even though it is cut one day and baled the next, the farmer says it is because the grass is cut latter in the year and so is not nutricianally as rich as that made from grass cut earlier.

Would prefer it to be an earlier cut however I am the minority in my yard as most have good doer types that live on fresh air.


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