HaySoft High Fibre Haylage (Green)

HaySoft High Fibre Haylage – Green

HaySoft High Fibre is the green-bagged haylage from the family farm in Essex that makes the whole HaySoft range. Haysoft describe it as made from the best rye grass, cut early in May or June when nutritional values are high, and say the result carries far higher levels of vitamins, minerals and protein than hay does. It is baled moist and mildly fermented, so it feeds dust-free and straight from the opened bag with no soaking.

That description is worth reading twice, because "high fibre" in a product name is not the same thing as low energy. This is an early-cut ryegrass haylage and Haysoft's own wording puts it above hay for protein, not below it. They publish no analysis anywhere on their website — no protein, sugar, starch or energy figure at all — so for a horse whose diet depends on knowing those numbers, this is not a forage to buy blind.

Performance & Benefits

• Early-cut rye grass, harvested in May or June when Haysoft say nutritional values are at their highest.
• Mildly fermented and tightly packed, which is what gives a moist, dust-free forage.
• No soaking and no steaming — it goes from the bag into the net.
• Higher in vitamins, minerals and protein than hay, by Haysoft's own description of it.
• Grown, baled and bagged on one family farm in Essex and its neighbours, so batch variation is narrower than a bought-in forage.
• Green bag, which is how Haysoft distinguish the High Fibre from the pink Original and the Timothy.

Suitable For

• Horses and ponies in work that will use the protein and energy an early-cut haylage carries.
• Stabled horses where dust is aggravating a cough or a respiratory diagnosis.
• Yards wanting a sealed, handleable bag rather than a large round bale that has to be used fast.
• Horses that refuse soaked hay, or owners who have run out of patience with soaking it.
• Not the forage to pick for a laminitic, a good-doer, or a horse with EMS or PPID on the strength of the name — Haysoft publish no sugar or starch figure, and a tested low-sugar forage such as Simple System Timothy Chop is the safer route there.

Feeding

• Feed as part or all of the forage ration, alongside hay or in place of it.
• Introduce it over a week or two. A change of forage upsets a gut faster than a change of hard feed does.
• Weigh what you feed. Haylage carries far more moisture than hay, so the same weight on the scales is less actual forage.
• Use an opened bag within a few days and keep it cool and out of the sun while it is open.
• Haysoft publish no feeding rate for it, so feed to bodyweight, workload and condition rather than to a figure.

Composition & Analysis

• Composition: rye grass, cut early in May or June and mildly fermented. Nothing is added to it.
• Haysoft publish no analytical figures for this product. No protein, fibre, sugar, starch, energy or dry matter percentage appears on their website, so none is quoted here.
• Haysoft give 30–35% moisture at packing for the Original, but publish no moisture figure for the High Fibre.
• Sold as a sealed single bag; Haysoft's own listing for this product carries 20kg in its title.
• The previous version of this page described it as low in energy and suitable for laminitics. That contradicts Haysoft's own description and has been removed.

Care & Caution

• Look at every bag as you open it. Mould, a slimy surface, a sour or alcoholic smell, or a bag that has been punctured in storage means that one goes on the heap.
• Haylage that has been opened and left warm carries on fermenting. Use an opened bag within a few days.
• Never feed forage you are unsure of. Spoiled haylage is the classic route to botulism in horses, and the risk is small but not nil.
• Rye grass haylage is not a low-sugar forage by default. A horse with laminitis, EMS or PPID needs a forage with a known sugar and starch figure, and this one has none published.