Feeding silage

[fidgetknickers]

Just a quick question about feeding silage - I know a lot of people say not to feed it to horses at all, but due to hay/haylage shortage and high prices we started dropping the big round bales into the field just before Christmas. All the horses have been fine on it, and I also bought a large round bale for feeding while stabled - I was mixing it

Comments

[kateandjack]

I'm just wondering if silage in the us refers to something different to here in the uk, because we are always warned to never feed silage to horses because of the colic risk but mainly the huge risk of botulism.

[fidgetknickers]

I'm in the UK - we are lucky enough to have very carefully packed and monitored silage production nearby, because we regularly run short on hay and haylage. The silage we've been feeding is all from undamaged packaging, and if it shows the slightest bit of mould or different smell (it generally smells almost the same as out local haylage, just a touch sweeter) it gets turned over to the cows. We've not had any colicky problems at all, and were advised by a vet that provided we took care not to use damaged bales or mouldy bales, botulism risk would be minimal, particularly as it wasn't being fed as the only source of forage :)

[kateandjack]

Oh sorry, I assumed you were in the US for some reason.

I don't know then. I guess if you were really careful it would be OK, but *I* personally wouldn't risk it.

Maybe ask your vet for some advice.