Re: RideCamp: Feeding while travelling

["Liz Carpenter" <cvsec@south-01.novell.leeds.ac.uk>]

> > ad lib haylage (semi-wilted grass)
> 
> Haylage - whoa, I thought semi-wilted grass was a no-no to feed horses?
> Or does this only apply to semi-wilted lawn cuttings?  What's the diff?

OK, I'm no expert, but apparently haylage is cut 
from 'normal' hay fields (ie. not lawn cuttings) 
and is left only a short while on the ground 
(isn't cured for days like hay). Then (a day 
later or so?) it is baled into bags and is double 
bagged (airless - unlike the stuff for cattle 
which is single bagged and fermented). A bag with 
a hole in is a no-no as it will start fermenting 
and growing dangerous moulds, etc. The bags keep 
for ages.

It produces a dust-free (for horses with COPD or 
heaves) forage which is palatable (you can also 
feed it if your horse is healthy but you prefer 
a dust-free regime). It has a higher moisture 
content than regular dry hay which means you have 
to feed more by weight than hay to get the same 
fibre-content in the ration. It also has more 
digestible energy than dry hay so you usually 
need to decrease the grain part of the horse's 
ration.

It is very commonly fed here in the UK instead of 
grass hay (rye, timothy, etc) hay which is often 
poor quality and very dusty as we have had very 
bad crops over here for the last few years 
owing to the near-constant rain. As the 'hay' cut 
for haylage doesn't sit around in the field for 
long (to be rained on!) they have a better chance 
of producing good stuff. Sorry that my 
explanation is so poor. Maybe someone else can 
explain better?

HTH?

Liz and Basil The Nag
-- 



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Dr E Carpenter
Institute for Cardiovascular Research
The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
+ 44 (0113) 2334169/2334803 (voice/fax)
+ 44 (0498) 783129 (mobile)
e.carpenter@leeds.ac.uk
http://www.netlink.co.uk/~snaffle/rogues/scun1.gif
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