Cheapest Way of feeding....

dominobrown

dominobrown

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Don't shoot me....
I think the way 'things' are going the price of horse feed will sky rocket (already did after the Ukraine war).

I feed mine all Saracen's feed though its starting to get more and more expensive.

I have 6 horses total... all warmblood, ISH, or Ex-racers.

When I had a livery yard I used to feed straights, I always had such a variety of horses I used to have:
Alfalfa cubes, grass pellets, chaff, sugar beet, linseed, rice bran, oats, bran and then supplements.

Do you think straights are cheaper? By the time I had added all my supplements and made this and that it was. It was also very complicated. I liked it a could make little tweaks, but at the same time, now for instance, the ex racer in work has a scoop of releave and a handful of chaff. The time it used to take me to make feeds... :eek:

p.s I am not getting in an argument of whether you should/ shouldn't have horses etc. I can afford to feed my horses whatever but the cost of living in skyrocketing. I have a good job now but less time but my feed bill is *a lot*.
Luckily we make our own haylage now so its just the cost of red diesel/ wrap etc to contend with.

If I had natives I think you could get away with feeding very cheaply, just good haylage and then a top of some vitamins and minerals, unfortunately poor doers like my elderly ex racehorse wouldn't winter well like that!
 
There are so many factors that influence what we can and should feed.
When were there teeth last done?
How much forage do they have? How old are they? What work are they doing?

I like straights but I just keep it super simple if I can!
I've feed an entire yard on sugar beet, grass nuts oats and chaff. Obviously you'd need to alter the amount of each for each horse, but even the poor doers held weight.
I think in winter that oldies often do well on a lunch time break from turn out. For example 12 - 2pm. They come in, have a feed and a big net of forage. This way you are sure they are not missing out on forage outside , you can check thier rugs and make sure they are warm enough.
I'd definitely try straights, but keep it simple and add things only if you need too.
 
With 6 horses I have a variety, its more a question of whether straights actually are cheaper, and to ensure its balanced, I used to feed similar to you but would balance the calcium as that is quite a high calcium v phosphorous. Also the time thing is that to have a well paying job to afford horses means that you cannot be at home at lunchtimes etc.
I used to swear by sugar beet but I haven't fed it in a while now, saying that a main ingredient in releave is sugar beet. Also I find with cheaper conditioning feeds the 'condition' part comes from barely/ cereals which I see noticeable difference in behaviour.
 
dominobrown said:
Don't shoot me....
I think the way 'things' are going the price of horse feed will sky rocket (already did after the Ukraine war).

I feed mine all Saracen's feed though its starting to get more and more expensive.

I have 6 horses total... all warmblood, ISH, or Ex-racers.

When I had a livery yard I used to feed straights, I always had such a variety of horses I used to have:
Alfalfa cubes, grass pellets, chaff, sugar beet, linseed, rice bran, oats, bran and then supplements.

Do you think straights are cheaper? By the time I had added all my supplements and made this and that it was. It was also very complicated. I liked it a could make little tweaks, but at the same time, now for instance, the ex racer in work has a scoop of releave and a handful of chaff. The time it used to take me to make feeds... :eek:

p.s I am not getting in an argument of whether you should/ shouldn't have horses etc. I can afford to feed my horses whatever but the cost of living in skyrocketing. I have a good job now but less time but my feed bill is *a lot*.
Luckily we make our own haylage now so its just the cost of red diesel/ wrap etc to contend with.

If I had natives I think you could get away with feeding very cheaply, just good haylage and then a top of some vitamins and minerals, unfortunately poor doers like my elderly ex racehorse wouldn't winter well like that!
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You also used cubes and pellets back then, plus sound to have been using a lot of supplements, which are rarely cheap. Did /do your horses actually benefit from all of them? I kind of suspect many benefit of the owner’s conscience, rather than improve the horse.
Straights are likely to work out cheaper - dependent on what you are hoping to feed and achieve. What do all these WBs, TBs, ISHs do, these days?
If you’re keeping them warm enough, fit enough etc to hunter trial, event or do something demanding, it’s bound to stretch the pockets. If you’ve far less time to ride anyway, can any be let right down or roughed off outside with decent rugs as necessary?
If you’d got a good old Irish Draught, ID/TB x, or native x instead - could save a comparative fortune on short feed, provided they’ve plenty of grazing, hay /haylage!
Maybe some really good rugs to swap on and off, all autumn and winter? Wormed, dentistry, paddock maintenance, all help hold condition. Good luck.
 
No I didn't feed cereals, I used mostly grass/ alfalfa soaked pellets. I am not a fan of high cereals, the only one is rolled oats which fed in a small amount I found to be ok. I am not a fan of wheat feed and barley etc in feeds. A lot of commercial feeds are so high in fillers.

Sorry, I think the point of this thread is being lost a little, I don't think I have worded it very well! What I am doing is researching into the most cost effective way of feeding a horse. The way things are going I foresee commercial feeds sky rocketing in price.
It was intended to be more of a discussion which others may also find useful.
All more horses are fine, and are managed very well and I have three decades worth of experience of caring for horses so I am not looking for generic obvious advice.

Sorry for the bad explanation to start with!

Also I have noticed every so often I like to change how I feed, I seem to go through phases :p
My Feed XL phase was an expensive one!!
 
It doesn't matter how you feed, it will only be as cheap as you want it to be - straight will be more expensive than the complete feeds if you feed a variety of them with supplements vs just complete feeds, and vice versa. I think we over complicate feeding to be honest, chuck a load of fibre in them and put a supplement in if you feel better about it or see a noticeable difference is my MO. I feed a handful of dengie meadow lite because it has the least D/E I could find, £15pm and then a small cup full of fibre mash because he likes it and it lasts 2 months a bag at £16.
 
True.
I used to care for cobs that got nothing other than good haylage in winter and access to salt/ mineral lick and they looked fantastic, in work until the 30's. Feed companies I think do over complicate things, and a lot of balancers and supplements are just fillers like grass meal with some generic vitamin mix that's not exactly 'balanced' anyways.
 
Sanversera said:
I remember times before bagged feed mixes. I fed bran oats barley linseed flaked maize.
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I do have some old books like Sheila Wilcox's Eventing book who talk through feeding, though ready made feeds where just coming on the market.
My old neighbour bred hunters and used his first job was at the racecourse in the 1940's (maybe 30's?). He still didn't believe in bagged feeds, I remember helping him as child... he used to feed barley, sugar beet, boiled linseed, milk powder sometimes I think? Wish I could remember more as those horses always looked great and he used to do it very cheaply.
 
Straights bought in bulk and foraging for them/growing your own and alternative forage sources, I like Feedipedia for the data though obviously it is mostly produced with commercial cattle production in mind but does have data for other species
 
FieldOrnaments said:
Straights bought in bulk and foraging for them/growing your own and alternative forage sources, I like Feedipedia for the data though obviously it is mostly produced with commercial cattle production in mind but does have data for other species
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Ooooo… rabbit hole located!

As much as I like Saracen’s I think we have had 3 or 4 price increases in the last 2 years and I have to order it in which I am terrible at remembering to do, and none of them are looking exceptional, no one is looking bad mind.
The old exracer is 25 this year and doesn’t winter well, it’s her teeth (monitoring with the dentist etc etc), but that will be what ends her I think 😢
 
when i first bought lily she was on spillers balancer, chaff, mash, and a few supplements - now i’ve got both girls on blue chip concentrated balancer, which works out cheaper as i subscribe, they only have 1 feed a day as the balancer is such a small amount, and lily has her glucosamine.

topchop 0 chaff and a tiny bit of mash, both bags last me absolutely ages and don’t cost a lot to buy. i did have to make the upgrade to spillers mash as lily decided she didn’t like fast fibre, but it’s only about a quid more🤣

honestly i never noticed a change using any of the supplements, the glucosamine is the only one ill keep buying as lily injured her medial meniscus in both hinds and she’s 13 now so it makes sense of preventative maintenance.

i think the biggest hack is the have native ponies though, i couldn’t afford to feed 2 TB’s🤣
 
I used to feed blue chip as with the tokens and loyalty card it used to work out cheaper, I then moved onto a brand that had pink bags but I think they went bust.
Yeh with thjoruhbreds and young stock etc in work its getting quality sources of protein and fat in an economic manner is hard.

With glucosamine do you feed it straight or is a joint supplement? When it comes to supplements I tend to find 'straights' or look at mg pr day and price per day etc!
 
dottylottie said:
when i first bought lily she was on spillers balancer, chaff, mash, and a few supplements - now i’ve got both girls on blue chip concentrated balancer, which works out cheaper as i subscribe, they only have 1 feed a day as the balancer is such a small amount, and lily has her glucosamine.

topchop 0 chaff and a tiny bit of mash, both bags last me absolutely ages and don’t cost a lot to buy. i did have to make the upgrade to spillers mash as lily decided she didn’t like fast fibre, but it’s only about a quid more🤣

honestly i never noticed a change using any of the supplements, the glucosamine is the only one ill keep buying as lily injured her medial meniscus in both hinds and she’s 13 now so it makes sense of preventative maintenance.

i think the biggest hack is the have native ponies though, i couldn’t afford to feed 2 TB’s🤣
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Whereas I'd much much rather have a poor doer I can stuff full of feed than a fatty that only has to look at grass to get cresty 🫣
 
Where I live it used to be a Fell pony stud. When I had liveries the fat ponies used to go out in the back fields. They were the last fields before it turned to open fell ands where STEEEP! Pain in the arse to catch ponies however nothing ever got lami. Though again I am awkward and don't have natives, even though I literally have perfect environment for them.

Done some searching and found a thread from when the Ukraine war broke out, same stuff.
Now thinking about feeding peas.....
I honestly think horse feed could see a massive price hike this year...
 
The problem I have with bagged feeds is that to get the recommended mineral levels, you have to feed the recommended amount, which is, unless it's changed, about 1/5th of a bag a day for a 500kg horse. 1) That's expensive! 2) My horses would be off their heads.
I also dislike feeding soya, so that rules out most bagged feeds, aprt from Allen and Page.

Feeding straights is cheaper I feel ( £9.99 for molassed SB, vs around £20 for Saracen?) and if you don't want faff, just buy a complete balancer from Progressive Earth or Forage Plus.
 
Cragrat said:
The problem I have with bagged feeds is that to get the recommended mineral levels, you have to feed the recommended amount, which is, unless it's changed, about 1/5th of a bag a day for a 500kg horse. 1) That's expensive! 2) My horses would be off their heads.
I also dislike feeding soya, so that rules out most bagged feeds, aprt from Allen and Page.

Feeding straights is cheaper I feel ( £9.99 for molassed SB, vs around £20 for Saracen?) and if you don't want faff, just buy a complete balancer from Progressive Earth or Forage Plus.
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Well exactly, a bag of feed only lasts me 3 days or so? Or that what it feels like! And I don't feed the recommended amounts. Its just not economic. And yeah ingredients that you would rather not have.. I wonder if soya is a hormone disrupter in horses like it is humans? 🤨
 
Beet (either Trident or Omega Quick Soak) and basic cubes are the cheapest available, I don't think traditional straights are that cheap anymore (unless you could buy them direct from farm perhaps?). Chaffs are expensive for what they are and how much you get in a sack.

I feed Omega quick soak beet at £11.99 for 20kg and Castle Horse Feeds Diamond Cool cubes at £10.99 for 20kg (you can get cheaper cubes, I think Mole Valley's Horse & Pony cubes are under £10 a sack and I think there's discount for buying multiple sacks). I also add linseed at £27 for 20kg and whatever chaff best suits the weather/grass/condition situation at the time, currently feeding Dengie Meadow Lite (which only has 15kg in a sack which makes it the most expensive thing I feed bar the linseed) but if I really needed yo tighten my belt, they could do on just the beet and cubes. I've already stopped using A&P because it's got too pricey.
 
We are set up here with 2 years worth of hay, would love to add some Lucerne hay to what we have, so I could feed some out for a protein boost.
I've been looking at sprouting barley. A few years ago I was growing Barley into forage. Was an interesting task! It did work, but unfortunately with the numbers we have now it's not really viable unless we had a more commerciall set up.
I've been looking at sprouting the barley in buckets to about 1cm of growth, usually 2-3 days germination.
There are lots of benefits to feeding sprouted grains, might be worth a look?
If you can buy and handle grains in bulk, they are so much cheaper!
 
I suppose it depends on a) if your horses are reactive to particular feeds and b) if any need tight NOPs control.

The cheapest easiest way to feed is likely to buy conditioning cubes from alternative brands (soak for oldies if needed). Round me they are about £12/20kg.

I topped up all my youngsters with these on top of their suregrow during the worst of the winter. And they worked.
 
Marmalade76- you are so right about straights being not that cheap anymore, and chaff has just sky rocketed. I am wondering whether it would be worth looking at an old chaff machine to make my own. I think 100 years ago people would think you were mad spending £20 on chaff as it was something you made, not bought.

Highfive- interesting about sprouted feed- interestingly when down a rabbit hole I ended up researching feeding chickens fermented and sprouted feeds... apparently farmers in Africa do this often as it increases the energy output and make the feed go further. I did experiment making fermented chicken feed and its a faff but it works. No I am not saying to ferment a bag of horse and pony cubes :p but sprouting grains has been done before with horses. I actually have a book that goes into great detail about a machine that 'sprouts' little squares of sprouted grass/ grains that you then feed to stabled horses, like a little patch of turf. Never caught on but for horses that were stabled 24/7 it must of been nice!

Ihatework- none a particularly reactive, though when I was first thinking about switching to cheaper feed and forgot to order the saracens again I did get an own brand conditioning cubes from a feed store and the ex-racer didn't do as well on it. I am not a massive fan of barely and I think he is a bit sensitive, I found the bog standard horse and pony cubes better. Now thinking them and sugar beet, chaff and for the horses in harder work or needing condition add some linseed and peas for upping fat and protein and oats if needing more carbohydrate energy. Salt and powder balancer. I currently feed stamm 30 which is good but pelleted balancers do have pointless fillers in.
I used to like grass/ alfalfa nuts but they have also shot up in price!
 
My two are pretty easy at the moment! The Irish Eejit gets his TS balancer soaked as he's prone to choke. I've tried weaning him back onto the pellets but he's such a greedy boy that it's not worth it. And my Fell mare is on TS balancer plus a handful of Happy Hoof chaff. If she goes a bit slim over the winter or the weather is particularly bad, she gets a wee bit of sugar beet. She's 31 this year and her teeth are starting to go a wee bit.
They've both come through this winter looking really well but we've definitely had an easier one up here. Plus we had loads of grass coming into it so they've benefited from that. I strip graze them over the summer and luckily had sheep in Autumn or there would have been far too much.
 
When we had the stud and livery. Everything was fed a base feed of chaff and sugarbeet and then the 'good' bits were added as needed. Boiled barley and linseed were my mums favourite for energy and weight gain/maintenance. Its just weather you can stand the smell. It doesn't last long cooked in summer either. But oats, flaked peas and maze and rolled oats were also readily available.


I think sometimes we can over complicate feeding when we start looking at supplements etc - if your not careful you just end up producing (or the horse does) very expensive pee!
 
I do think we overthink feeding these days. I remember talking to an ex mounted policeman who told me that all the horses on the yard got a scoop of pony-nuts twice a day, job done! This was 25 years ago so may have changed since!

When I worked on a big comp yard in my younger days they all got a scoop of pasture mix if they were training or a scoop of competition mix if they were out competing, that was that. All unbranded feeds bought straight from the mill in bulk.

Balancers are a great modern invention mind you. I'm on the fence how useful they actually are but view them like taking a daily multi-vitamin, you probably just pee a lot of it out but it might top up 1 or 2 things you don't otherwise get from your diet. But they're a handy feed to have available, especially if you have one that doesn't really need a feed.

I do find the advantage of 'straights' (as in not necessarily 'complete' feeds, I know a lot of modern feeds aren't true straights) is that you can just adjust quantities depending on what you need without overhauling the diet all the time. For example my oldie lives off grass nuts, fibre beet and linseed at varying quantities throughout the year depending how his condition looks. In winter I do add in CushCare as I need the calories and tbh I'd struggle to feed the same amount of concentrated calories from straights alone. In that way modern feeds are a good invention I think, as they condense a lot of 'good stuff' into a nice palatable bucket feed.
 
foxy1 said:
Interesting point about soya; I did some work at a stud where they fed straight soya bean meal but would take the mares off it well before covering them.
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I think it’s just coming to attention of most people about hormone disrupters in humans, nevermind horses yet. They are banning this Cyclotetrasiloxane which is found in make up which is a significant endocrine disrupter.

I might need to go down another rabbit hole, maybe one for things we feed/ surrounding horses which causes infertility, especially for breeding horses. Might be a good dissertation for repo vets….
 
I feed a 100% fibre diet as it's my preference & what works for us - Simple System Purabeet & Blue Bag grass nuts all year in various percentages (over the summer the blue bag pellets will increase).

Then ad-lib straw chaff overnight so he always has forage available (he's on weighed soaked hay)

Supplememt wise he's on electrolytes, broad spectrum vitamin & mineral, magnesium, cinnamon, oily herbs (oregano, thyme & rosemary), vitamin E and a joint supplement - again, quantities tweaked depending on time of year etc.

I try to keep it as simple as possible but like having a fibre based diet which I can tweak for energy or other requirements.
 
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