[Penninehillbilly]

Hi
whats the best way to keep haylage palatable? and how long do others manage to keep it once opened?
reluctantly gone onto big bales because I cant find small hay bales,
we've had one so far, but its heated up at the bottom, and after 2 weeks the goats don't seem just as keen even from the top where it hasn't heated. some water soaked under the door a couple of weeks ago, got under the bale, could this be the cause of it heating?
should it be on a pallet or would air getting to it sending it off quicker,
and where we got it from she used a grabber which put holes in the side of the plastic, if we buy a few at once, and we taped the holes over, would this work, to keep it better?
Only having 6 goats and 2 sheep I cant use it quick enough but its still easier to find and cheaper than hay.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Ow right then,


  exposing it to air dries it out which makes it a little lower in nutrition and probably a little less exciting to eat (think fresh cake or stale cake) So when you have only a few to feed an opened bale can dry out a bit before you get through it. Though the core usually retains a bit of freshness as its protected by the outside layers.


Hot spots do often appear as you unravel it but as long as it dries and smells fresh not mouldy, black, rotting (I know you wouldn't feed them that anyway) it should be fine. The higher protein levels between hayledge and good hay is the reason most people buy it but as it dries out it looses a little but should still be as good as good hay.


Bale spikes damaging the packaging is not ideal but yes taping them up will reduce the drying out.


When you say they are not so keen on it....do they have anything else to eat? I have some grass flushing through and so my sheep would choose that over the last of a haylage bale. It could just be that they were more enthusiastic at the start of the bale as it was fresher and now its not quite as nutritious or exciting?


I would rather eat fresh bread than stale cake....

[Backinwellies]

saw a good idea today which I hadn't seen before ..... round bale sat on rounded side. the two flat sides had had a large circle of plastic cut out .... leaving a 6 inch margin all round .......... so bale remained dry and intact  except for exposed circles and sheep were adlib feeding from it.

[Buttermilk]

saw a good idea today which I hadn't seen before ..... round bale sat on rounded side. the two flat sides had had a large circle of plastic cut out .... leaving a 6 inch margin all round .......... so bale remained dry and intact  except for exposed circles and sheep were adlib feeding from it.

I would worry about the top collapsing down on top of a sheep.  I know of cattle getting killed by falling silage when eating ad lib from a clamp face.

[Backinwellies]

must have been quite a silage clamp .... ad lib clamps are not supposed to be higher than cow can reach so couldn't possibly collapse on top of cow in that quantity ...

[Buttermilk]

They ate the bottom out even though they could have eaten higher up too.  Not our farm but a neighbours.

[Penninehillbilly]

Thanks
the bale is inside, with lumps pulled off and delivered to beasties,
the have been out Monday and Tuesday, so maybe topped up with fresh grass, but they seemed to be leaving a lot in the racks before that.
How long can it stay edible?
 
should I be a bit more hard hearted and leave it in the racks til they eat it, instead of keep replacing it and having a big pile of uneaten stuff?

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Oh no dont replace it if its dry and in a covered rack. Just top it up or mix it up if you think its a bit woody or dry.


Giving them the benefit of the doubt...If it's poor quality they will have the sense to try and find something more nutritious and if it gets wet sheep dont want to eat it as it will go mouldy and this can cause abortion in sheep which they instinctively seem to know.


The worst that will happen to it if its covered is dry out and loose a little nutrition but if they are not getting through it put less out for them.


What kind of feeders are you using? can they get to it?

[Penninehillbilly]

Its not mouldy or bad, seems good quality to me, smells nice and sweet, but stronger than Hay :-), they have the corner type stable racks, right height for them, I have to put a lump of wood on top to stop them pulling too much out of the top.


I feed the sheep by spreading it along the top of a collapsed drystone wall every day, they seem to be eating it OK.
Maybe the goats are just too spoilt :-)


but a friend told me it will only last about 2 weeks once opened, but his seemed quite wet up to ours, ours was quite dry when we opened it, more like slightly damp hay. the lady who is selling it is feeding it to her horses.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Is yours haylege and his silage? Silage is different.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

silage is fermented, high moisture feed stored in air tight conditions to prevent it going off.


Haylege has more moisture than hay but less than silage so as it drys it effectively turns to hay


As a guide dry matter percentage between 50-70% are called [/size]haylage[/size] and between 35-50% are called silage. Its the moisture content that makes it prone to spoilage but as haylege is dryer then it tends to continue to dry out rather than rot.
[/size]
[/size]If the sheep are eating it and it looks and smells nice then I'm thinking its ok. I think I'm right in saying that goats are browsers? Where as sheep are grazers so sheep will tend to focus on hay but goats may beable to find nutrition in tree bark, woody weed stems etc.

[/size]Save your worrying for lambing time.   I think its fine. [/size]   

[Hellybee]

Its a difficult one , we changed over from small bale haylage to big bale last week, I was spending a small fortune going out everyday to get more, and as I was off to london for a few days baz bit the bullet and started hauling up the big uns, I was spending fourteen quid for two small bales (thats all i can fit in my car) at co op and farmer 6 miles away, love it mind being a new driver love going out on a mission lol, but when we could have a big bale for one pound more and five times the amount, it's time to to switch lol.


We got ours on a trailer on it s side, it's been open a good few days. I raced into the centre of it, it's warmed a little and at the centre is smelling not quite right, I smell every bit I pull off.   But the outer sections smell spot on.  The minute I can't pick an armful of nice stuff out, it's wasted. And a new one rolled in.  We are lucky that most of our flock has had some lovely winter grazing held back for them, so we are feeding who ever is close to the yard, rams, culls, mollies etc etc lol.


It is what it is, whatever you do it s gonna turn, just use it as quick as you can, your nose and touch will tell you and the sheep will  x

[Hellybee]

Twice we ve had bales that I would class as silage, it was wet, not damp and totally different to what I would expect in a haylage bale. Delivered to try, sheep and goats gobbled it up but i would nt dream of giving it to ponies.  We expect haylage we buy to be coarse for ponies  but with softer blades for the sheep.  Golden in colour and smelling of apples tobacco, sweet and fruity.  Silage smelly lol

[Penninehillbilly]

Is yours haylege and his silage? Silage is different.

He said it was haylage, he seemed happy with it, but it  just seemed too wet to me. Looked mouldy on the edge.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Well its the percentage of moisture in it which sends it off and the dryer it is when harvested means it will dry out rather than rot.


Anyhow yours sounds fine when it comes off the bale but spreading it as you are will lead to more waste. It will get rained on, trodden on and wee'd on as well as blowing about. So yes in that case I would clear it up and replace with fresh. A covered feeder would be the best idea but an interim measure would be to bang in a couple of fence posts an nail a board on them as a little hay shelter then hang a horses medium hole haynet under it securely. If your guys have horns then fixing a wire over fence feeder under instead of a hay net would be safer.


HTH