Cost effective feeding without compromise.....

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horsefeed

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I am feeding 10 at the moment, all different ages, weight, types etc, until recently I have been using budget pony nuts, molly chaff, oil and beet in winter but poorer doers not looking at their best already and we have a long winter ahead! I have done a lot of research into feeding and going to switch to below over next few weeks, if anyone has any suggests please comment....

All get adlib hay, kept in yard with shelters in varying size groups depending on their friendship bonds.

2 donkeys get adlib straw instead of hay, 1 slice hay each a hay + mineral block

8 Horses - Alfa A Oil and sugarbeet in varying amounts dependent on weight/work

Then I can thinking about adding Blue Chip for the poorer doers and Naf Vit/Min Supplement for the better ones.

On calculations this doesn't work out that much more expensive it makes its easier and I think I am feeding better quality feed, what are your opinions?
 
I would swap the alfa-a to grass chop for the better doers. It's no more expensive but has less calories than alfalfa believe it or not.

I feed my good doer on soaked grass nuts and grass chaff (add whatever else like vits n mins)
 
The alfalfa pellets were £7 but check around as bigger stores do discounts like Mole Valley.

You soak them and they fluff up and are soft and dry (as long as you don't over-water) so no need to add chaff even.
 
I think I'd probably go for a combination of alfalfa pellets, grass pellets, oats and oil (plus the vit&min supplements). The pellets give you the option of feeding soaked or not (soak to increase volume for good doers, or for the dentally challenged; feed neat to supply more calories in a smaller meal), and by varying the relative amount of grass and alfalfa you can increase the protein content where needed. Regular oil will be a cheaper source of extra calories than an oily chaff. Oats would be a cheap, straight addition for more energy where needed (as an alternative or in addition to oil).

I find packaged chaffs a bit of a waste of money - they make for a nice "bucket filler" or carrier for supplements, but if you're after saving money, I recon you can get more bang for your buck with pelleted fibre. After all, by feeding ad lib hay, you're already providing lots of fibre and chew time. As for speedibeet, there's nothing wrong with it. But it has to be soaked, so is less versatile than a pellet which you can feed either way, and grass/alfalfa pellets will be an equally good source of fibre.
 
Cost effective ways of feeding multiple horses with differing needs:
Grass and/or Alfa nuts - soaked
Grass/Alfa chop
Oats
Micronised linseed meal
Coolstance copra meal

I personally wouldn't bother with any commercial pelleted balancer - blue chip/top spec and the like

If you want to add vits & mins then the really high spec ones do work out quite expensive, £0.8-1.00 per 500kg horse/day - I'd question how many horses really need those if on reasonable grazing/hay. Good broad spectrum vit/mins that can be bought in bulk would be Benevit advance (feed mark often have sales/discounts on - especially at the big events), or Top Soec all in one - but directly of their website (20 kg I think).
 
Having been responsible for feeding a group of horses with different needs before, I'd look at grass/alfafa nuts with added micronized linseed plus adlib good quality hay.
 
Feeding linseed is a pretty expensive proposition if the plan is to feed oil/fat in larger amounts purely as a source of slow-release energy. No doubt linseed is superior when it comes to the fatty acid profile, but that may be a question for the pocket book. I pay right around £25 per 20kg these days for the micronised linseed. That's fine at 100g/day, but would become quite expensive if fed by the pound.
 
supsup said:
Feeding linseed is a pretty expensive proposition if the plan is to feed oil/fat in larger amounts purely as a source of slow-release energy. No doubt linseed is superior when it comes to the fatty acid profile, but that may be a question for the pocket book. I pay right around £25 per 20kg these days for the micronised linseed. That's fine at 100g/day, but would become quite expensive if fed by the pound.
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Id look at your supplier! its £18 where i am in hertfordshire and thats charnwood mills!
 
dianchi said:
Id look at your supplier! its £18 where i am in hertfordshire and thats charnwood mills!
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To be fair that supplier is pretty unmatched pricewise in most places. I know of people in other parts of the country who have mail ordered and paid £6 delivery charge and still saved money on their local supplier or ordering direct from Charnwood.

£25 is highish, most places seem to charge £22 - £23.
 
My fault! I just checked, and I pay £21.50 at my local shop for a 20kg charnwood linseed. I misremembered. Anyway, I think my point stands that linseed is expensive compared to regular vegetable oil from the supermarket if all you're interested in is adding some calories in the form of fat.
 
I've never fed veg as I prefer the anti inflammatory properties of the omega acid profile of linseed and even when adding calories I only up it to mugs not scoops so about 200-300g but out of interest how do the quantities you feed compare.

So calorie wise how much oil would you feed to provide the same calories of say 100g linseed?
 
I don't know that vegetable oil is a necessarily good way to add calories... I could be wrong but my thinking behind that is that whilst linseed products are expensive, there is good reason why people prefer it to other oils. Especially in winter when horses are stabled and have lower omega 3 in their diets compared to when at summer grazing.

That's what I use linseed for, purely to balance the ratio IF they are stabled. If out at grass then I don't bother. There's no need to as grass contains plenty.

Personally, I would stick with more forage and oats for adding calories, it's much cheaper and doesn't need balancing as much as other grains. It's non-heating too.

The other thing is that it takes a while for horses to adapt to digesting oil.. they can but they have no gallbladder to store bile so it has to be made as and when but it does take as long as six weeks for a horse to do well on oil.
 
I'm not an advocate of oil feeding either. I think other options for adding calories should be looked into first. But the other person was talking about feeding Alfa oil. This contains 12% oil (rapeseed). IMO, it would be cheaper, easier and more flexible (if one is inclined to feed fibre+oil) to feed plain alfalfa pellets and add a glug of rapeseed oil off the supermarket shelf if necessary. If you can afford to feed linseed or linseed oil instead, so much the better. But it sounded to me like the OP was asking for cost savings.
 
supsup said:
I'm not an advocate of oil feeding either. I think other options for adding calories should be looked into first. But the other person was talking about feeding Alfa oil. This contains 12% oil (rapeseed). IMO, it would be cheaper, easier and more flexible (if one is inclined to feed fibre+oil) to feed plain alfalfa pellets and add a glug of rapeseed oil off the supermarket shelf if necessary. If you can afford to feed linseed or linseed oil instead, so much the better. But it sounded to me like the OP was asking for cost savings.
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Yes she was :) I was just saying that there's the cheap and there's the false economy I guess...

Rapeseed has some omega3 to be fair but not in the same ratio as linseed... I guess you pay a premium for it :)
 
Just a thought... a few trainers I know just feed everything veteran cubes... allen &page if I remember correctly. Mixed in with grass chaff or grass cubes (depending on who had teeth). She had at least 25 horses there and a good few were famous aged eventers!
 
horsefeed said:
I am feeding 10 at the moment, all different ages, weight, types etc, until recently I have been using budget pony nuts, molly chaff, oil and beet in winter but poorer doers not looking at their best already and we have a long winter ahead! I have done a lot of research into feeding and going to switch to below over next few weeks, if anyone has any suggests please comment....

All get adlib hay, kept in yard with shelters in varying size groups depending on their friendship bonds.

2 donkeys get adlib straw instead of hay, 1 slice hay each a hay + mineral block

8 Horses - Alfa A Oil and sugarbeet in varying amounts dependent on weight/work

Then I can thinking about adding Blue Chip for the poorer doers and Naf Vit/Min Supplement for the better ones.

On calculations this doesn't work out that much more expensive it makes its easier and I think I am feeding better quality feed, what are your opinions?
Click to expand...

Blue Chip will cost you an arm and a leg, isn't it about £30 a bag?
Why not put them on a feed balancer, pink powder is really good and very cost effective? Sugar beet is good as it bulks out feed but doesn't really do much else, it is a slow release energy so will keep them warm and full basically - bit like porridge for us.

Making sure their teeth are in good condition so they can get the most out of what they eat is probably a better option.
 
Id look at Havens Draversbrok or Basis Sport - a cube you could possibly feed to everything as I know people do
The bags are 25kg so work out as ace value for money and no need to add anything to them at all hence time saving too!
 
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