Advice on swapping feed brands

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Jayzee

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Evening,

Looking for advice and or experiences of swapping from high value feed brands (such as; Baileys, Dodson and horrell, Topspec, Allen and page) to the cheaper brands (Heygates). I have done a sin an added up my cost for my 5 horses. Based on a spreadsheet I think I could make a huge saving on swapping feeds. I currently feed depending on the horses workload and type a mix of topspec fibre plus cubes ( I know a lot of people do not like them due to sugar but I have had all my horses looking very well on them), Baileys ease and excel cube and Dengie healthy hooves with added fast fibre. While I am happy with how the horses look its costing nearly £300 a month for them on this.

I am considering swapping the nuts to a cheaper brand but nervous of doing so. Has anyone done this and been happy with the feed? Not sure if I'm over thinking this!

Horses are 2 17hh warmbloods (eventing off season, dressage, showjumping) youngster, shetland and happy hacker
 
Honestly I’ve used both and could not tell a difference. The horses preferred pony nuts 🤷‍♀️ (I use Pegasus chaff + pony nuts)
 
I would question whether they need much feed at all. Could you feed more hay and simpler feed with supplements? It may not save money though. The last few years my 'feed' has been minimal with a variety of horses (natives-warmbloods) but none were 'poor doers'
 
Have a look at Castle horse feeds, the shop I use stocks it and their Diamond cool cubes are £10.99 and cheaper than Pegasus.

I find Mole Valley has the best prices for both branded feeds (Eg the Dengie stuff I've been using is £3 cheaper than my local shop) and their own brands but they are a bit too much of a trek for me to go too often but for the amount of feed you're using you could get free delivery (orders over £100).
 
marmalade76 said:
Have a look at Castle horse feeds, the shop I use stocks it and their Diamond cool cubes are £10.99 and cheaper than Pegasus.

I find Mole Valley has the best prices for both branded feeds (Eg the Dengie stuff I've been using is £3 cheaper than my local shop) and their own brands but they are a bit too much of a trek for me to go too often but for the amount of feed you're using you could get free delivery (orders over £100).
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I don't think it is free for feed to be delivered, is it?

It's too heavy.
 
I feed Mole Valley own brand over winter as it's made in Mars mills so same as spillers pretty much. I stop feeding it in Feb as I need stricter NOPS as compete FEI.
One of my main issues with unbranded is the nutrition info is poor so if feeding something like ease and excel then you can't really tell how much starch is in an unbranded. The protein is often poorer as well.
It might be worth looking at Emerald Green who do an excellent alfalfa nut which is high in protein and good value. With a chaff you are effectively wasting your money so I would cut that out unless you have an ulcer horse as decent hay/haylage dies same job. I would just feed something like the emerald green nut and add oil from supermarket if needed calories and maybe some speedi beet if you are feeding supplements to carry it better and then you can soak small amounts so a bag would last for ages.
 
To be honest I have fed Heygates, Mole Valley, Pegasus, High Light and local feed merchant's own brand feed (depends what is cheapest) for years and not noticed any difference between them and the branded feeds. I did however feed Bailey's Ease & Excel to my horse with Cushings as I did want to know the starch and sugar content. Also if a horse was competing I would switch them to a NOPS accredited brand.

My local Mole Valley did free delivery if the order was over £150.
 
If you have easy feeders that aren’t especially reactive to feeds then makes complete sense. Only thing I’d be cautious of is if any compete under rules, then I’d use a big brand as safer with NOPS
 
Thanks all. Yes very valid point about NOPS.

I think i will keep the fussier warmblood on baileys ease and excel but swap the others out of the season. The 2 in higher work I do think need feeding but the others are probably fine with very little.
 
I would actually look at the ingredients of what you're already feeding to compare to what you're looking at. a lot of them will be full of fillers and binders, so you may even be better off going for something like a simple grass nut (emerald green is good and fairly cheap) and then adding in any extras that they might need? like linseed or other supplements.

I'm not will to pay £15-30 for a bag of feed that actually doesn't have anything good in it!

I feed Thunderbrooks meadow nuts, which aren't cheap but my local Naylors gave us 10% discount when we ordered 10 bags of feed, so my friend and I got 5 bags each. then I get linseed from mole valley for £29 but it lasts a good 2 months, I then bulk out with a alfalfa free chaff, making a decent quality feed for my big warmblood at a cost of around £1.50 a day. and for my good doer gelding less than £1 a day
 
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