In a year with higher than average rainfall, it can be a challenge to find a long enough window of dry weather to make high quality horse hay. These conditions sometimes prompt equestrians to investigate alternative sources of forage.
How are forage crops preserved?
Understanding how forage crops are preserved is the first step in determining what options are available.
The process of hay-making prevents grasses and legumes from spoiling in storage by drying them down to 10-18% moisture. The lack of water prevents mould and bacteria from spoiling the feed. It also prevents the hay from heating. Heating reduces the nutritional value of the hay by damaging sugars and proteins and can possibly start a fire.
Another method of preserving forages is to ensile them (make silage). By eliminating oxygen in forage crops with 45-85% moisture content, naturally-occurring bacteria ferment the sugars in the plants, which drops the pH below 5. Fermentation takes three to four weeks, but the resulting acidity prevents spoiling so long as no air is introduced to the silage. Sometimes descriptive names are used to identify the crop being ensiled; grass silage and haylage are terms used to describe grasses and legumes being preserved this way. If the silage is made into a large bale, it may be called baleage. Because the sugars are used up during fermentation, the forage is no longer sweet, and horses will refuse to eat it.
It is also possible to preserve forage at an intermediate moisture content between hay and haylage. “Wrapped hay” is baled between 20-45% moisture content. To keep this forage from heating, it is wrapped in 6-8 layers of plastic. The wrapping excludes oxygen, which prevents some spoilage. However, this crop is not wet enough to ferment. This means that the sugar content is not reduced, and wrapped hay is still palatable to horses. Wrapped hay will spoil very quickly in the presence of air as it is not fermented. Opened bales should be completely fed within two days.
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