When forage runs short: smart, safe ways to keep your horse thriving this winter

A summer of heatwaves and drought in many areas means that 2026 is another year that your horse’s usual forage source may be in short supply. In the UK, most horses are fed hay, haylage, or straw as the main long-stem conserved forage in their ration. If your usual forage isn’t available, you may need to consider an alternative.

When considering how appropriate a forage is for your horse, its digestibility and nutritional value should be considered:

• Haylage is generally made from younger grass and is more digestible than hay which tends to mean horses “do” better on it. This means it is usually better suited to horses in work or those that struggle to maintain weight
• Straw is harvested when the plant is very mature and has gone to seed producing the grain the crop is grown for. The straw is therefore least digestible and ideal for good doers who need fibre without calories. It can replace up to half of the forage ration for good doers or overweight horses and ponies
• Hay sits somewhere between the two. With earlier hay harvests in some areas this year, it may be more digestible and therefore provide your horse with more calories than you would usually expect

Any change in forage should be introduced gradually to allow the digestive system time to adapt. Straw, in particular, should be introduced with care. For a 500kg horse, start with 400–500g on day one and gradually double the amount every few days as a rough guide.

Long-stem straw is only suitable for horses with good dentition, and it should be avoided in horses prone to impaction colic. If you are unsure whether straw is appropriate, seek advice from your vet or nutritionist. Oat, wheat or barley straw can all be fed to horses with the main priority being that the straw isn’t dusty or mouldy.

Haylage contains more moisture than hay and you need to allow for this when ensuring your horse is consuming enough ‘dry matter’. As a rule of thumb, you need to feed 1.5x more haylage than hay, by weight to provide a similar amount of dry matter and ensure your horse is eating enough fibre.

Alternatives to long-stem forage

If long-stem forage supplies are running very low or have run out entirely, another option is to use feeds specifically marketed as forage replacers. Not all fibre feeds are suitable for this purpose, so it is important to choose products designed to replace some or all of the forage ration. Using those with an energy level most suited to how well your horse maintains weight is also important to avoid excessive weight gain or loss!

Where possible, opt for forage replacers that encourage longer chew times, such as short-chopped fibre feeds that combine ingredients such as alfalfa, straw, and grass, to help keep your horse occupied for longer.

Soaked forage replacers can also be used to supplement the usual forage ration, but they don’t provide anywhere near as much ‘chew-time’ and so should only be a proportion of the ration unless a horse has compromised dentition. Soaked forage replacers can be single ingredient products such as grass pellets, or a combination of fibre sources that may include ingredients like sugar beet, soya hulls, and oatfeed to name a few.

Unlike hay, forage replacers cannot be fed in normal haynets and should instead be divided between multiple buckets in the stable or paddock to encourage foraging behaviour. To make forage replacers last longer, try offering the ration in several presentations throughout the day.

Dengie has several fibre feeds in its range which are suitable as either partial or full forage replacement options, our complete forage replacers are outlined below.

Dengie Meadow Lite with Herbs – low calorie, molasses free blend of straw & grass. 5MJ/kg DE / sugar 3% / starch 0.5%

Dengie Hi-Fi Lite – low calorie blend of straw & alfalfa with a light molasses coating. 7.5MJ/kg DE / sugar 7% / starch 1.5%

Dengie Hi-Fi Senior – blend of grass & alfalfa with a molasses & rapeseed oil coating. 9MJ/kg DE / sugar 10% / starch 1.6%

Dengie Ulser Lite – a tasty blend of precision-dried chopped grass & high quality chopped straw with grass & alfalfa pellets. 8MJ/kg DE / sugar 6% / starch 2%

Dengie Pure Grass Pellets – 100% British grown grass in a convenient pellet. Can be added to treat balls or soaked into a mash. Suitable for other animals too! 10MJ/kg DE / sugar 12% / starch 2%

Expert advice at your fingertips

If you’re looking for advice on the best forage replacer or what to feed this winter, speak to one of Dengie’s highly experienced nutritionists on the company’s feedline 01621 841188, or for a personalised more in-depth plan, complete the Feed Advice Form