[Lucy]

hello, I'm new to the site.

We have just bought a 100 acre farm in dorset and have 35 Zarbles sheep, 25 ruby red devon cows and horses. We don't really know much about farming and we are trying to learn. A contractor came in to make haylage for us, but is smells like silage to me. How can I tell the difference? is there some easy test I can do? It was cut in late august / early september and bailed and wrapped within 3/5 days of cutting.  any advice greatly appreciated.
thank-you Lucy

[SallyintNorth]

Hello Lucy    I am dying to know where in Dorset you are, not least because we have relatives in SW Devon and love to find some Red Rubies to admire when we visit... 

However, to address your question, from a beef/sheep farmer's perspective, haylage is silage that was got a little bit drier.  There's no hard and fast distinction.

Years ago, farmers put additives in silage to make it ferment quickly, but that is generally not done these days.  I believe this is because the modern techniques for baling and wrapping do away with the need for the ultra-rapid fermentation - but if that's not the reason, someone will be along shortly to correct me and give us both the real reason!  

Anyways, haylage and silage are essentially the same thing, but generally it will only get called 'haylage' if it's pretty dry.  If the 3-5 days it took from cutting to baling were dry days, then it's certainly haylage.

I may have the wrong end of the stick, but if your concern is feeding it to the horses, there's a thread in Horses about feeding silage; if you read it you'll see that quite a few folk do feed silage to horses.  And quite a few wouldn't, so it may not help, I don't know!

Welcome to the forum, we will all be very interested in how you get to grips with running your new farm and be glad to help out where we can.

Cheers, Sally

[tizaala]

The most important thing is to make sure you don't feed any mouldy stuff to the horses,
 
 The white mould that developes is listeria, usualy starts with a bit of soil mixed in with the grass.
 
Cows will eat any old silage/haylage . Sheep need better quality, horses need the best,
 
 When you open a bag just make sure you use  it all within 3/4 days.

[Lucy]

Thank-you for your replies. We are near Cattistock in Dorset.

The question posed was with feeding horses in mind. I have tried to find the threat re feeding silage to learn more. I have identified that the bales made earlier in the year are more like haylage than silage. It is just a pity that local children have jumped on most of them and split them. The white mound that you mentioned is everywhere. I assume that cows should not be fed split bales either?

so much to learn!

bw Lucy 

[sophie_aj]

Hi, I good luck. Just to re-emphasise that mouldy haylage or silage should not be fed to any livestock esp. not horses. It is perfectly acceptable to feed silage to horses so long as it's in good condition. Main thing for any of the "pickled" grasses is that once the air gets to them they spoil and develop yeasts and moulds which are not good for anyone's lungs.

Haylage is cut usually slightly later in the year and is wilted for longer before it's baled. It has a more variable content which is why it's more popular with horse owners and can also keep a little longer than silage (which has a slightly lower pH).

For silage you can do a squeeze test with a handful to see how good it is: at a gentle squeeze water shouldn't drip at all (that would be a very wet silage). At a harder squeeze and for good silage it will drip but not a steady stream.

Hope this helps at all. 

[Lesley Silvester]

   and welcome from sunny shropshire  .  I know nothing about silage/haylage as I don't feed it to my goats.

[Mammyshaz]

Hello and welcome from Durham