the advantage of haylage is that you don't have to cure the hay. no waiting for dry weather. you can also get your hay field done faster...no waiting to rake and bale.
feeding to horses and goats seems controversial. i feed corn silage to horses and goats with no problem.
to make haylage you can cut and bale regular sized hay and then plastic wrap it. you can also chop it up and blow it into bags or put it up in a silo. i've heard of folks simply making piles of hay, compacting it and covering with a tarp. i think that method would be an art and would require some good experience to get it right.
it is stored in whatever you make it in. the less air that can get to it, the better. if your storage is not adequate, it will not ferment properly and you can end up with a moldy mess unsuitable to feed to anything.
how you feed depends on how it is stored. usually, once you open it up, you need to keep feeding everyday until it is gone. otherwise the exposed surface will rot and that rot will spread through out the whole thing.
feed value depends on what you cut, when you cut, how well it ferments and stores. you can get it tested going in and then when you start feeing as well. the quality can vary throughout though so how it tests at the start of a bag or silo, is not necessarily going to be the same at the end.
it might be better than hay depending on what you have and what you are doing. in very rainy areas it might be better because it might be too hard to get a good hay crop done. if you have no storage for hay and want high quality feed, you might be better off with haylage if you can store that.
if your neighbors have the equipment and you have some quality fields you might have some luck getting someone to do it. i sure wouldn't be able to around here.
i fill my silo with corn silage each year. i could do haylage instead. i'm sure i would pay the same price, though i don't know if a corn chopper can also chop hay (my guess is not).....$6.50 a ton for chopping and blowing it in. i also pay for all the fuel and labor (we use about 4 tractor drivers to get it done).
jena
feeding to horses and goats seems controversial. i feed corn silage to horses and goats with no problem.
to make haylage you can cut and bale regular sized hay and then plastic wrap it. you can also chop it up and blow it into bags or put it up in a silo. i've heard of folks simply making piles of hay, compacting it and covering with a tarp. i think that method would be an art and would require some good experience to get it right.
it is stored in whatever you make it in. the less air that can get to it, the better. if your storage is not adequate, it will not ferment properly and you can end up with a moldy mess unsuitable to feed to anything.
how you feed depends on how it is stored. usually, once you open it up, you need to keep feeding everyday until it is gone. otherwise the exposed surface will rot and that rot will spread through out the whole thing.
feed value depends on what you cut, when you cut, how well it ferments and stores. you can get it tested going in and then when you start feeing as well. the quality can vary throughout though so how it tests at the start of a bag or silo, is not necessarily going to be the same at the end.
it might be better than hay depending on what you have and what you are doing. in very rainy areas it might be better because it might be too hard to get a good hay crop done. if you have no storage for hay and want high quality feed, you might be better off with haylage if you can store that.
if your neighbors have the equipment and you have some quality fields you might have some luck getting someone to do it. i sure wouldn't be able to around here.
i fill my silo with corn silage each year. i could do haylage instead. i'm sure i would pay the same price, though i don't know if a corn chopper can also chop hay (my guess is not).....$6.50 a ton for chopping and blowing it in. i also pay for all the fuel and labor (we use about 4 tractor drivers to get it done).
jena
