Can alfa-a be heating?

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nomini

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Just trying to get to the bottom of why my mare has suddenly become really sharp and difficult to ride. Having her back done tomorrow and teeth have been done recently. Only thing that has changed is her diet and she is now having 1.5 scoops alfa-a on top of her other feed so just wondering if it can be heating?
 
Yes, Alfa A is a higher energy feed than say, Dengie Hi Fi. Why did you introduce Alfa A - did you want more "oomph" or did you just want a quality chaff - if you just wanted to feed chaff then I would switch to Hi Fi. If you wanted more energy but have now got a horse that is too sharp, remember that all feeds done suit all horses and try an alternative source of energy like unmollased sugar beet or Equi Jewel?

My gelding used to be IMPOSSIBLE if he got any Alfa A but this year I have had to introduce it as he needs more energy as he approaches 20.
 
I only put her on alfa-a cos my gelding is also on alfa-a so was easier to have them on the same feed! My gelding can go on anything though, so will prob swap to hifi then. I had her on alfa-a last winter but was bringing her back into work after an injury and she was VERY lazy so put her on that to give her some 'oomph'. Think I will take her off the alfa-a this year and put her on hifi then and see if that makes a difference! Thanks for your help
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Yes - apparently turns our very placid Clydie into a bouncing rearing beast - hence I avoid it.

I did give it to Chancer when younger, but he is far more laid back on SS greengold which is alfa as it contains no molasses.

You could try alfa lite.
 
Yes as its higher in suger and starch, try changing to Alfa A High Oil instead, this has more slow release engergy, Alfa-A Oil has a similar energy level but is 2% starch so it really is ideal for condition without the fizz....and this straight from the horses mouth (Dengie Feed Advisor)
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I have been told this before. My Highland Pony was only ever fed ALfa-A and S/B. Before I bought him he had a reputation as PC Plod it was only when I added some course mix that we found he had va va voom.

Everything in yard gets A-A and I never feel overhorsed. Fairly important as I am a hack happy geriatric!! However, I nver feed anything like the quantities recommended by manufacturers and in books on stable mgt - if I did I would probably be in ITU.
 
Just out of interest; does anyone know off-hand what percentage/ratio of alfalfa is in any of these feeds?

Any yes, real alfalfa can make horses zip around if fed in too high quanitities for the amount of work being asked of them. I don't know what else is in these chaff mixes. We grow alfalfa in our hay however we have the correct mixture (in my opinion) of other grasses too; many hot season grasses but also some cold season grasses. The percent of what goes with what is important in hay production, so it seems logical that the same would be said for chaff mixes.
 
Tia, the Alfa A range are almost pure alfafa - depending on the product they are coated with molasses, molasses extract or oil, and contain some preservatives as well, but they don't contain any additional fibres in the form of grass or straw, for example.
 
Wow! Well you certainly wouldn't want to use it as a hay replacer, like you can with HiFi Lite. Do they have leaves and flowers in the bag? Or is it mainly just chopped up stalks?

Our hay runs at around 15% to 35% depending on which field it was taken from. I like alfalfa but not too much of it. Our first year here, almost all of our fields ran at 90% alfalfa
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. Needless to say, I didn't feed it to my horses.
 
Definitely not suitable as a hay replacer! Most people use it in relatively small quantities - either like a traditional chaff to stop horses bolting hard feed or to replace hard feed. Haven't used it for a while, but can never remember flowers being present - seemed to be mostly stalks and some leaves.

If you are familar with HiFi Lite, it is like that without the chopped straw added!
 
worked perfectly as a hay replacer for my old pony - she didn't have the teeth for hay any more, and needed something to help keep the condition, so she had conditioning cubes for her feed and alfa-a to replace hay - wouldn't use it for a younger horse perhaps, but was fantastic for keeping the fibre intake and condition up in an oldie.
 
It is not a hay replacer in the sense that it has a quite different nutritional make-up to grass hay, whereas products designed as hay replacers have similar levels of energy, protein etc to grass hay. This is why Dengie recommend their HiFi products as proper hay replacers, with HiFi Senior being specifically designed for veterans with poor dentition.
 
...and my pony needed greater nutritional levels than grass hay, because she was losing condition, hence why I fed her alfa-a, and it worked, and it continues to work for a 37 year old horse at work that has similar problems - if she had just needed a hay replacer then I would have used hi-fi!!!
 
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...and my pony needed greater nutritional levels than grass hay, because she was losing condition

[/ QUOTE ] So therefore you weren't using it as a hay replacer in the sense I was talking about (which was in reply to Tia's comment "Well you certainly wouldn't want to use it as a hay replacer, like you can with HiFi Lite")! However, if it worked for your pony then that's great!
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To me a hay replacer is something that provides similar nutrition to your normal grass hay on a weight for weight basis - Alfa A doesn't do that, although it is undeniably a very useful feed.
 
Yes I thought that it would probably be mostly stalks. Alfalfa is quite a fragile plant so am actually fairly surprised that they use it for chaff as I can't imagine there would be much left of the leaves and flowers once processed.

Re; the following comments; you're right TGM, that was exactly what I meant; as purely a grass hay replacer based on lb per lb, not as being used as part of a conditioning feedstuff
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Alfalfa is not high in starch and sugars, it's surprisingly low, which is why can be a useful feedstuff for laminitics
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Its just stalks. Mine are on it at the moment. They both look fab, one is a 6 month old weanling and the other her 16 yr old mother on box rest.
 
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