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The Västergötland stud farm, Alebäcks Stuteri, is one of the leading stud farms in Sweden, with over 250 horses and 800 hectares of agricultural land. The farm produces 12,000 bales of silage every year which is exported to breeders internationally as fodder for famous trotting stallions such as Right on line and Dream Vacation. The farm is run by the Björnsson family and the main activity consists of breeding and selling trotting horses. Erik Björnsson explained to Silage Insights that his family began to produce and feed silage to their horses over 15 years ago, and is today making silage for breeding has become a profitable niche product for the family, with bales sold to trotting studs throughout Europe. 
"We grow forage on 250 hectares, plus 50 hectares of lucerne (alfalfa), which yields 12,000 bales a year. We keep about 20% of the bales for use in our stud and the rest is sold to our customers". Over the past 10 years during which baled silage has been used at Alebäcks, there has been a move away from wet feed towards drier fodder. "Today we, and our customers, want to have feed that is as 'hay-like' as possible for the horses, so when producing our silage we aim for about 70% dry matter. It really has become more a sort of oxygen-free form of storage rather than silage in the original sense". A feeding method using baled silage in large rectangular bales (80 x 90 cm) has been developed at the stud farm. "From an environmental and cost perspective, bales have proven themselves, without comparison, to be highly efficient at relieving the burden of work for the staff, minimising the number of transports and fuel consumption on the farm, and allowing us to quickly feed over 250 horses several times a day". < Back to Autumn 2008 Newsletter |
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