Author Topic: Haylage (Read 1639 times)

tommytink · « **on:** March 03, 2021, 09:26:30 pm »

I’ve pretty much run out of hay and struggling to find a decent source. The local co-op sells haylage. If I open this how long is it good for? A couple of days?

Last year I bought some from a private seller and it had white mold on it so took it back. A bit worried about getting the same again as you can only see what it’s like when it’s open.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #1 on:** March 04, 2021, 12:23:10 am »

My cattle farmer friend didn't like feeding haylage more than 2 days old, but on the sheep farm before that we found that 3 days was okay for sheep. They didn't eat it on the 4th day.

If you get any bad bales, the supplier should credit you or exchange them. It can't be helped getting the odd one or two in a batch and you can't tell until you open them.

We have found the EQUINE-H pink bales to be excellent quality, and happily feed that to our dairy cows if we run out of our own. When we just had one dairy cow in milk we used to give them both ad lib hay, then the milk cow got 1/3 bale EQUINE-H pink at milking time. It was good enough quality to increase her milk yield over just hay.

tommytink · « **Reply #2 on:** March 04, 2021, 09:01:10 am »

So white mold definitely isn’t something that should be there? I got my money back and the guy said didn’t understand as no one else had had it

I didn’t know whether I was being fussy and it was maybe a normal thing and people just pulled off the moldy bits.

Anke · « **Reply #3 on:** March 04, 2021, 10:06:07 am »

White mould ok, pink mould bad. I have fed haylage with white mould to my goats, as do many goatkeepers.

Most sheep farmers will let the sheep decide if it's good enough to eat, though I do not feed haylage unless I have to, and then not to young stock. The danger is listeriosis, and you cannot see that anyway.

shep53 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 04, 2021, 10:39:45 am »

As with everything it is never straight forward White mold is normally yeast so fairly harmless , Black /Green / Orange very dangerous . Often white mold is on the surface and comes off with the wrap or can be pulled off and discarded some times a pocket of harder more lichen like white mold again can be cut out and discarded . Haylage can be anything from dry silage to almost hay so the period it lasts when opened varies from 3-10 days plus it varies due to when made, young leafy grass full of sugar goes off quicker then old permanent pasture which has gone to seed

Anke · « **Reply #5 on:** March 04, 2021, 10:59:27 am »

If you have somewhere quite airy you can also open it up, and let it dry out, but it needs to be fluffed up and you need a good airflow. Difficult in a wet spring. I have done this in my polytunnel with both doors and side vents open, but it was an emergency.

tommytink · « **Reply #6 on:** March 07, 2021, 08:15:45 pm »

Thanks all. This is small bale stuff so may do okay. Tried another place for hay and rough stuff again. Nightmare this year. If we’d got the number we were meant to have from someone we know back last year we’d’ve been okay but said person isn’t always reliable and we didn’t get as much as we were meant to.
Anyhow, hoping the grass gets going soon