Is it a useful hay substitute?
The advantages of haylage:
The horses like it
Horses enjoy eating ensiled (preserved via fermentation) products because, quite simply, they taste good.
Haylage is dust free, which means that any horse with chronically irritated respiratory tracts cough less. Horses with chronic coughs are recommended by vets to be given haylage, as it makes their coughing symptoms disappear. However, vets do not consider the health effects of haylage on the animal beyond being a chronic cough reliever.
Simplified production and storage
Farmers also have an interest in producing ensiled products due to the difficulty in producing hay. Hay has to be turned several times and spend three to five days in the sunshine to dry out. Therefore, a meadow can usually only be cut twice in one summer, something which is very labour-intensive. The hay must be then brought in and stored in a dry place, preferably a barn. However, there is a severe lack of space to do this, as many farmers have now converted their barns into stables or riding arenas.
Additionally, the modern production of round or square hay bales means that any potential hay stores above the barn are no longer usable; there is no easy access to old barns, and the large bales are too heavy to be moved by hand. Most modern equestrian facilities are now built without a barn at all, removing the possibility to store hay under a suitable cover.
Storing hay outdoors, either without a cover or covered with tarpaulin, is ineffective, for hay draws in moisture, causing it to turn mouldy.
Higher yield, less weather depent
Haylage is much quicker to produce; depending on how much drying it requires, it will only take one to three days of sunshine and usually only one to two turning processes. The product is then wrapped in plastic, meaning the bales can be stored outside. In the case of silage, three to five cuts can usually be made per meadow, so the yield from one meadow is increased – even if this
is at the expense of herbs, which tend to be more difficult to ensile than leafy grasses and clover.
It saves a lot of work and storage space to use ensiled grass, which is why increasingly more farmers make at least the early
and late cuts of the meadows into silage or haylage.
The decisive disadvantage: not suitable for horses
By its nature, grass for horses must be stalky and have a high raw fibre content. However, feed with a high proportion of structured raw fibre is not suitable for ensiling, as only an incomplete elimination of the air takes place. Clean ensiling (lactic acid fermentation) requires the complete removal of air; otherwise there will be incorrect fermentation and mould formation.
Horses are more sensitive than cattle
In contrast to cattle, horses react very differently to incorrectly fermented silage products, i.e. mould infestation. They can get all sorts of metabolic issues, which can then affect the liver and kidney. These lead to further consequences, such as: joint inflammation; sore muscles and pain; skin conditions such as mud fever or Mallenders; sweet itch; intestinal diseases such as diarrhoea; faecal water; and even severe colic.
Mould
If you can see mould on the outside of a silage bale it means the bale is mouldy to the core. Even without any visible patches, mould contamination is still possible in grass that has been cut for horses due to the air or moisture content. Additionally, haylage is dried on the meadow for longer than silage; it is wrapped with a residual moisture content of 15-20%.
This then delays the development of lactic acid bacteria and thus enables the growth of mould. Only when a pH value below 5 is reached is the fermentation process halted and neither lactic acid bacteria nor mould continues to grow. This pH value all depends on how dry the crop is when ensiling begins. Whilst you can recognise mould in hay by the fact that it is dusty, smells musty, and has clumped grey sections, haylage can appear to still look like a decent quality. This, however, is not corroborated when sent for laboratory testing.
They are then replaced by lactic acid bacteria (which colonise the intestine), that digest the sugar and protein from the hay without actually providing any nutrients for the horse. Instead, they produce lactic acid as a waste product, which is absorbed by the horse through the intestinal mucosa. Due to the acidic pH value in the intestines, the intestinal mucosa becomes inflamed, leading to the condition known as ‘leaky gut syndrome’. This is the cause of most cases of faecal water in horses.
Lactic acid bacteria are just as unsuitable for the horse‘s digestive tract as mould, therefore the feeding of haylage should be avoided.
The disturbance of the intestinal flora balance by lactic acid bacteria can lead to laminitis or allergies such as sweet itch, diarrhoea, colic, and nutrient deficiencies.
Lactic acid bacteria
Ensiled grass brings a large amount of lactic acid and lactic acid bacteria into the intestine, which leads to a shift in the intestinal environment.
Lactic acid bacteria are essential for the ensiling process and are therefore present in considerable quantities in all ensiled products, including haylage.
They cause acidification of the small and large intestine. This, in turn, will kill and degrade the intestinal symbionts of the large intestine, so that their endotoxins are released and enter the bloodstream.
They are then replaced by lactic acid bacteria (which colonise the intestine), that digest the sugar and protein from the hay without actually providing any nutrients for the horse. Instead, they produce lactic acid as a waste product, which is absorbed by the horse through the intestinal mucosa. Due to the acidic pH value in the intestines, the intestinal mucosa becomes inflamed, leading to the condition known as ‘leaky gut syndrome’. This is the cause of most cases of faecal water in horses.
Lactic acid bacteria are just as unsuitable for the horse‘s digestive tract as mould, therefore the feeding of haylage should be avoided.
The disturbance of the intestinal flora balance by lactic acid bacteria can lead to laminitis or allergies such as sweet itch, diarrhoea, colic, and nutrient deficiencies.
Poorer usability
Firstly, the horse uses oxygen to convert the ingested lactic acid into glucose in order to use it as an energy source, which then requires more oxygen. There is an argument that says ensiled grass is ‘pre-digested’ and therefore eases the horse’s digestive system, but in practice this is not the case.
The lactic acid bacteria actually ensures that the horse absorbs fewer nutrients and ends up with more waste products than when fed with hay
No vitamins
Lactic acid bacteria do not provide the horse with essential nutrients; it usually causes the horse to end up being deficient to some degree. In particular, the lack of active forms of vitamin B6 and B12 has a considerable effect on the entire metabolism and promotes, amongst other things, the development of the detoxification disorder kryptopyrroluria (KPU).
Lactic acid starin on the body
The large amount of lactic acid ingested by the horse from haylage cannot be adequately converted into glucose. This leads to the acid being stored in the connective tissue, causing the horse to look bloated, or perceived as gaining weight.
This, however, is not an increase in muscle mass or fat: it is instead the storage of lymph in the tissue, which is supposed to lower the acidic pH concentration found there. The fact that this over-acidification is not visible in the blood count is because the kidneys work hard to keep the blood pH constant. This means that, after the intestine, the kidneys are the most damaged organs because of haylage.
Take a sample: Send some of your haylage to an agricultural testing laboratory and let them assess for mould contamination. Most horse owners are shocked when they see the result.
Consequences of feeding haylage
Ensiled grass leads to various outcomes that are damaging for health:
Symptoms
The symptoms that occur vary depending on the horse. They can include allergies, filled legs, faecal water, colic, sweet itch, mud fever or Mallenders, tendon damage, laminitis and many more.
Listeriosis and botulism
The occurrence of listeriosis infections and botulism have not yet been considered. Botulism is a (mostly) fatal disease caused by a lethal poison, or toxin. This is mainly caused by dead mice or fawns that end up in the haylage bales; the warm, humid environment will cause the poison to spread. Of course, dead mice can also get into hay, but they don’t cause any damage to the rest of the bale when in a dried state. In the UK, Germany, and other European countries, there have been several cases of horses dying as a result of feeding haylage. In this respect, one should consider the disadvantages and dangers with feeding haylage to horses if deliberating over its suitability.
Haylage reduces performance
Although the energy values look tempting, haylage supplies a form of energy that does more harm than good to a horse. The high protein value of haylage is due to bacterial protein from the lactic acid bacteria. This lactic acid is not a protein supply for the horse but a waste material. Due to the disturbance of the intestinal flora, energy from cellulose cannot be used effectively. Concentrated feed mainly benefits the sugar consuming lactic acid bacteria.
Haylage, therefore, reduces the performance of the horse and damages its health in the long term. Unfortunately, the consequences on performance levels often only shows up years later, and therefore is seldomly linked to the feeding of haylage.
Conclusion:
For those who do feed haylage to their horses, they should not blame the constant problems on the modern weaknesses of today’s horses. They should also not try to fiddle with any symptoms arising because of haylage use.
Changing to feeding your horse a good quality hay will help improve their health.
