All the haylage that we produce is made from the specially sown grasses grown on Elder Farm. We treat these grasses as crops and they are re-seeded every 2-3 years (Timothy 4-5 years) and is kept as free from all weeds as possible. It is all guaranteed to be free of Ragwort. As well as producing this haylage and providing the delivery service we also try to advise our customers on suitability as best we can. for further details give us a call on 01757 288218 or email
[email protected]
We supply many customers who's horses suffer with Laminitis or allergies. The following information is a guide only and if in doubt, advise from your vet or nutritionist should be sought.
Ryegrass
Ryegrass is a naturally high energy grass that, depending on age when cut, can provide a forage with high feed value. The first cut is most suitable for high performance or horses with a high work load (hunters, eventers, competition horses and racehorses)
Second cut is usually lower in nutrition and provides a palatable but safer forage for horses in light to medium work and suits most needs. If you are feeding this type of haylage and are finding your horse is too fizzy then you may want to either consider what additional bucket feeds are being fed (cereals, grass nuts, chops, chaffs, carrots they all count!!) or you may wish to look for an alternative such as.....
Timothy
Timothy is a type of grass that is naturally much lower in energy and provides an answer for easily excitable or laminitis prone horses/ponies. For those horses/ponies who have issues with dust allergy/ COPD then timothy becomes an in-valuable feed being both low in energy and dust-free and therefore far superior to even the best hay.
Both First and second cuts are lower in energy to the ryegrass but the first cut is naturally much coarser than the second cut, therefore if your horse is used to/suited to a softer forage then the second cut is most suitable.
Lucerne (also known as Alfalfa)
Many horses, especially ex-racehorses suffer with allergies and stomach ulcers. If you have had your horse allergy tested as allergic to both Ryegrass and timothy then you are either wondering where to turn or you already know about Lucerne! You may well already feed Alf Alfa as a chopped feed or pellet that you feed as a bucket feed or you may have read about the plant as being the staple diet of horses in America and Australia in the equine press. If not, Lucerne is a member of the clover family and grows to around 2 feet tall with white/blue/purple flowers (which the bees and butterflys love!!), has a clover type leaf and is a 'legume' which means it 'fixes' it's own nitrogen meaning that it doesn't require man made nitrogen fertiliers. If harvested in the right way retaining the leaf, it provides an excellent feed for both horses and goats and can be fed in just the same way as you are already feeding your hay/haylage. We have been producing Lucerne, mainly for the goat market for more than 15 years and have a wealth of experience in how to make it. If you have never fed Lucerne haylage before it may take some getting used to as the appearance is a little different, if you have tried Lucerne haylage before then you will probably be pleasantly surprised at how green, full of leaf and fragrant our Lucerne Haylage is compared to other products on the market, (this is because we know exactly when to move the Lucerne in the field without the plant being too delicate and the leaf being lost) either way we are confident your horse will love it and the benefits which are well proven will be seen in your horses health. We don't currently have any availability of Lucerne as all our stocks are fully booked (unless you are interested in big bales which we have a good supply of) but if you are interested in feeding Lucerne, or have been advised to, then please talk to us about our Lucerne which will be available in both small bales and medium bales from around July-August 2015 onwards.
None of our haylages have any chemicals or additive applied, they are all naturally dried in the field and wrapped immediately without any re-baling/packaging.
We hope you have found this useful, please feel free to contact us for further information/advise.
The Blenkhorn Family