Re: Haylage - opinions and advice please..

Yes, these are the big bales too, it'll be like 5 pound each for a big bale between us, which will last probs a week/2 weeks, and when hay is £4 a small bale, and id been using almost 3 bales a week i will save so much money.. (very small, small bales)

Flicks been on haylage in the past, but the more commercial types, like horsehage, and i've always found her droppings were loose, which is whats putting me off a little so considering feeding yea sacc rather than a haylage balancer.. but will just see how she gets on, cos its local haylage its not covered in preserves etc, 

Re: Haylage - opinions and advice please..

 yeh, im not sure how much they are but im guessing they're reasonably priced, around £30 i think .. no hopefully not as it is quite dry haylage :D 

Re: Haylage - opinions and advice please..

I've been using haylage for the past 3 years as when my herd went up to 3 it worked out much cheaper in the long run.  Our large round bales are £25 if you collect them yourself and is good quality.  As it is quite rich then you don't need to feed as much.  Recently our merchant ran out of it (never been heard of before, but the weather here has been bad and horses are not out as early as they usually are) and I had to use hay again for a week or so, I hated it - it was dustier than the haylage and I had to use twice the amount so it didn't last as long either.  Thankfully they got some more in this week.  I couldn't face going back to hay long term and the horses weren't so keen on it either, especially Zara who at 3 years old had never had it before - she looked as though she was saying "what is this stuff you expect me to eat?"

Re: Haylage - opinions and advice please..

SarahR123 said:

Rhapsody - do you think your experience re cost is fairly universal?  I'm interested as we have 5 between my daughter and I and the friend's pony.

I would say my feed merchant is a lot cheaper than some other places.  I had to get a couple of bales in from a farmer to tide me over til the feed merchant got his supply in, and I not only had to travel about 20 miles to get it, it was £30 a bale, I bought two to make it worth my while travelling all that way so that was £60, whereas 2 bales from my merchant would only have been £50 and less diesel to get there.  To use the square bales of hay that I used to use would work out a fortune, as they are now £6 each and I would go through approx 15 per week for the 3 of them if they were in, at least, so the round bales are far more economical for me.  I have a couple of friends who are on a livery yard and they buy a bale between them to save money, they get it delivered from a local farmer and they pay £30.  I have heard though that in some parts of the country you can pay £50 a bale.