Silage for Horses: a Growing Market in Scandinavia

By Cecilia Müller and Markku Saastamoinen

Today, there are between 250,000 and 300,000 horses in Sweden. These numbers are continuing to rise and the horse market has become the fourth largest source of income for Swedish farmers. The number of horses in Finland is now over 60,000 and growing by some 5% a year. The increases are mainly with horses used in riding and recreation. With these increased numbers comes an increased demand for feed, and more farmers are now specialising in producing forage for horses.

For many horse owners, their animals are a recreational interest rather than a source of income. Owners usually have one or only a few horses, whereas a 'traditional' farmer has much greater numbers of animals. This leads to different criteria when purchasing feed.

Decisions are driven by considerations of quality, reassurance and well-being of the animal — the cost of the feed is less important.

The use of silage as a feed for horses is growing as people begin to see its advantages in relation to hay.

Several distinct benefits of using silage are helping to drive this trend. The first and probably most important is the reduction in problems with mould spores, which are a particular danger for horses. Mould spores can cause irreversible damage to horses' airways; airway problems are the second most common cause for culling horses in Sweden and trigger high veterinary costs. When feeding silage to horses, the mould spore problem can be reduced by keeping the bales airtight.

As most owners feed small numbers of horses they cannot use a large bale of silage fast enough. Once it is opened, it has to be used within 3 – 4 days to prevent spoilage of the feed. Small bales are therefore more practical. Some farmers rewrap the silage from large bales as small bales for use with a small number of animals and for ease of handling.

For high dry matter (DM) silage it is important that the bale is well compressed and airtight to avoid mould growth. But it is difficult to obtain good silage bale density when using small bale machinery used to make hay bales. The role of the film is therefore very important, as existing machinery is not designed for high compaction of silage or haylage. Specialized producers making silage for horses are now using up to 10 or 12 layers to ensure possible damage from handling does not affect airtightness.

In Finland for example, big bale silage with a DM content of 35 – 45% is still the major type of silage for horses, with haylage increasing in popularity. Haylage, with its higher DM content of 45 – 60%, is produced specifically for horses.

Silage can be fed to all horses, including brood mares, young horses and performance animals. Research in both Finland and Sweden is indicating that silage additives can contribute to achieving the best standards of hygiene and nutritional quality. The research in Finland suggests improved palatability can be achieved with acidbased additives.

Until recently, there was no advisory services in Sweden to provide information on the nutritional and health benefits of using silage and there is no overall horse owners association. The only sources of information and advice were vets, academics, trainers and feed sellers, and occasional seminars for farmers and horse owners. As of 2005, an advisory service for horse-owners has been set up in Sweden for a trial period of one year. Finland has education initiatives to demonstrate to farmers and horse owners how to make good forage. Feeding grass silage to horses is well established in Finland, having begun in the 1970s. Even so, hay is still the main fodder.

Two changes would encourage further use of baled silage by horse owners — reduced bale size and increased knowledge and awareness.

Cecilia Müller is a PhD-student at the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and is researching the possibility to produce and feed silage and haylage to horses.

Markku Saastamoinen, Ph.D., is an equine specialist and director of the MTT Equine Research in Finland and has extensive experience in horse nutrition and the use of silages.

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