Thanks jabberwork. I’ve read both links.
Badminton Feeds Ultra-Grass – It would be good if they divulged what type of oil was added so that an informed decision could be made about it.
Haylage - we were very wary about it and introduced it extremely carefully and only after we had heard that a friend was using it for her 50 guinea pigs with no problems.
The Guinealynx page contains rather a lot of ‘opinions’. This is understandable as I believe that most contributors are in USA – “Haylage” or “Horsehage” was invented in UK (‘Horsehage’ is the original inventors trademarked name, ‘’Haylage’ is the generic term for the look-alike products) I don't know how much is used in USA.
Welcome to HorseHage
Some of the Guinealynx comments ‘often used to feed cows and not horses’ ‘a use for poor quality grass’ ‘It's not good for hay to be stored like that’ suggest that people are unfamiliar with haylage.
The comment about being able to produce the crop in rainy areas is absolutely correct – it means that quality grass grown in the Limestone area here (Craven/Yorkshire Dales) can be preserved for feeding even in a wet summer. The alternative would be rained-on hay which goes mouldy/dusty whereas the haylage can be of a very consistent quality
Yes, the original haylage was ryegrass but soft meadow haylage is available now.
Haylage needs to come from a reputable source though as there is room for error. I have been told that one of the hazards is soil disturbance, such as molehills, if the cutter blades are set at the normal low height for hay making. A clod of dried mud (or even a dead mouse) in an ordinary bale of hay is not the end of the world but if sealed into a bag, very harmful bacteria could proliferate in the anaerobic conditions. Apparently this is much more of a risk with the very wet types of haylage – and as I already mentioned, the type we feed is fairly dry.
Can I just clarify stuff though...
I’m not ‘recommending’ haylage. (That's mainly because of the storage/spoilage difficulty unless you also have a horse or a large number of guinea pigs).
I am just interested to know if anyone else feeds it.
I’m not suggesting that it is a full substitute for hay or anything else; we just use it as an ‘addition’ to our pig’s diet.
The original (and considered best) haylage in UK ‘Marksway Horsehage’ is much wetter and stronger smelling, more like silage in character and the pigs don’t like it - ours wouldn’t touch it.
