Another difference there might be is in the type of grass and whether it has been fertilised with inorganic fertiliser. Grass for hay is usually not pure rye grass, though it may be, and won't take too much in the way of 'artificial' (inorganic fertiliser) or it becomes too fragile to work and get dry. It is probably grown to a longer leaf and stem too. Grass intended for silage may be, but isn't necessarily, more likely to be rye grass; will usually be cut at three leaves - so quite short - and quite likely, though again not necessarily, will have had a good plastering of artificial. It could also be second or even third cut in the year; it is very rare up here to get a second cut of hay from any field.
And there are all variations in between; farms like ours make very little intentional silage, always hoping for as much hay as possible. But the climate usually dictates that a proportion is cut and baled as silage and some is probably cut and worked for hay but doesn't quite get there before the weather turns so gets baled and wrapped. Whether you call that silage or haylage I have never quite worked out!
I know of a guy in Devon makes small bale haylage for horsey folk. He has good grass land which has never seen a herbivore for years. He uses artificial and gets three cuts a year. Exactly what the nutritional value of that haylage, especially the third cut, would be, I do not know. I don't know whether he gets farmyard muck onto the land over the winter; that would help if he did.
All of which said, our Dales ponies eat a little bit of silage along with their hay and have never come to any harm. If you check there are no additives (and that there was absolutely no ragwort on the land of course) I would think you would be okay.
Topic: silage (Read 9167 times)
