Hay vs Haylage: Understanding the Difference

If you're new to horse ownership, one of the first questions you'll probably come across is whether to feed hay or haylage.

Walk around any livery yard and you'll almost certainly hear conflicting opinions. Some owners swear by hay, others wouldn't feed anything but haylage, and before long it can all become rather confusing.

The truth is that neither is automatically better. They're simply two different ways of preserving grass, and each has its own advantages depending on your horse and your circumstances.

It all starts with grass

Both hay and haylage begin life in exactly the same way.

Grass is cut at the right stage of growth when it contains the best balance of fibre and nutrition. From there, the process changes.

Hay

Hay is made by allowing the cut grass to dry naturally in the field until it has a very low moisture content. Once it's dry enough, it's baled and stored somewhere dry.

Good hay is sweet-smelling, light green to golden in colour, and should be free from mould or excessive dust. It relies on being thoroughly dried to preserve it.

Haylage

Haylage is also made from cut grass, but it isn't dried as much. Instead, it's allowed to wilt for a day or two before being baled and wrapped in several layers of airtight plastic.

Inside the sealed bale, naturally occurring bacteria ferment some of the sugars, creating an acidic environment that preserves the forage. This is a controlled fermentation rather than the complete drying used for hay.

What's the biggest difference?

The easiest way to think about it is this:

• Hay is preserved by drying.
• Haylage is preserved by fermentation.

Because haylage contains more moisture, it feels softer, weighs considerably more than an equivalent bale of hay, and is often less dusty.

Which is healthier?

There's no simple answer.

A well-made haylage can be every bit as healthy as a well-made hay. Equally, poor-quality examples of either shouldn't be fed.

The quality of the grass, when it was cut, how it was made, and how it has been stored are often more important than whether it's hay or haylage.

Hay - the advantages

Hay has remained the traditional choice for generations because it offers several benefits:

• Stores well if kept dry.
• Easy to handle and transport.
• Usually keeps well once opened.
• Often suits horses that maintain weight easily.
• Can be soaked or steamed if dust is a concern.

The downside is that hay can become dusty if it hasn't been made or stored properly, which may not suit horses with respiratory problems.

Haylage - the advantages

Haylage has become increasingly popular, particularly in the UK where making perfect hay isn't always easy thanks to our unpredictable weather.

Benefits include:

• Usually lower in dust.
• Very palatable, so many horses enjoy eating it.
• Can be an excellent choice for horses in harder work.
• Can often be made even during shorter weather windows.

However, once a bale is opened, air begins to enter and it needs to be used relatively quickly. Damaged wrapping can also allow spoilage, so unopened bales should always be checked carefully before feeding.

Does haylage contain more energy?

This is probably the biggest misconception we hear from horse owners.

Many people believe that haylage is automatically "richer" than hay. In reality, it's not that simple.

The digestible energy and nutritional value of any forage depend primarily on the grass itself - the species growing in the field, how mature it was when it was cut, the weather, and how the crop was managed. Whether that grass is then made into hay or haylage is only part of the story.

Commercial haylage is often produced from younger, leafier grass because it's aimed at competition and performance horses. Younger grass naturally contains more digestible energy, which has led to the widespread belief that all haylage is "rich".

Having produced both hay and haylage from the same fields, we've seen first-hand that the stage at which the grass is cut usually has a far greater influence on its nutritional value than the preservation method. Hay made from the same crop, cut on the same day, would typically have very similar nutritional value to the haylage.

If you really want to know how much digestible energy a forage contains, the only reliable answer is a forage analysis. Looking at whether it's labelled "hay" or "haylage" simply isn't enough.

Which should you choose?

For many leisure horses, either can work perfectly well.

Your choice may depend on:

• Your horse's workload.
• Whether they have respiratory issues.
• Storage space.
• How quickly you'll use an opened bale.
• The quality of forage available locally.

Good-quality forage, whichever form it takes, should always make up the majority of your horse's diet.

If you're still unsure which would best suit your horse, speak to your vet or an equine nutritionist. They can help you choose a forage that matches your horse's condition, workload and any underlying health requirements.

Our approach

At Hartcliff Farm, we're passionate about producing quality forage that we'd be happy to feed to our own animals.

Whether we're making hay or wrapping haylage, the aim is always the same: harvesting grass at the right time, handling it carefully, and producing clean, consistent forage that horse owners can rely on.

Because at the end of the day, the question isn't really "hay or haylage?"

It's good forage versus poor forage - and good forage wins every time.