Cost effective hay replacement diet

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Flyingsolo

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Cost effective hay replacement diet

We have just taken on an older pony who came in fairly poor condition. Eating was very slow. After a health check, worming, feet and now teeth he is doing much better eating more etc and has really picked up on condition in a short time, but its slow going.

Problem is he just isn't that interested in hay. Dentist found him to have a wave mouth which I understand can cause problems with longer stem fibre so I now understand it's likely that is why he isn't that keen on his hay. We have tried a few different hays too, softer, harder, longer stem, shorter stem but he is just a bit 🤷‍♀️ he is more than happy to eat various chaffs etc but it does take him while.

So, I guess I have inadvertently ended up with a pony who needs a bit of a hay replacement diet

What is the most cost effective way to do this? I know sugarbeet/speedibeet is a good partial replacement and fairly inexpensive in the grand scheme of things but what do you all use in this situation? Some of the chaffs are eye wateringly expensive for basically grass!!

Any thoughts much appreciated! Thank you 😊😊😊
 
Even if you use things like sugarbeet , make sure he gets plenty of chaff as he needs to chew - it's only the chewing action that generates the saliva, which buffers the stomach acid

Don't know about cost effective buy Fast Fibre can also be used as a hay replacer.
 
Have you tried a senior haylage? I think silvermoor do one.

For my oldie she got a bucket of speedibeet and grass nuts soaked when she lost a lot of teeth. She also got a grass chaff just to chew on. She quibbed almost all of it but I wanted her chewing.

Be careful with complete feeds like fast fibre as they have vits and mins included so you could overdose them if used solely as a hay replacer.
 
Sossigpoker said:
Even if you use things like sugarbeet , make sure he gets plenty of chaff as he needs to chew - it's only the chewing action that generates the saliva, which buffers the stomach acid

Don't know about cost effective buy Fast Fibre can also be used as a hay replacer.
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I've never seen a horse not chew sugarbeet. I've been feeding it to many horses, and a pony with no molars and even the toothless one chewed when he was nose deep in it.
 
Jojo2go said:
I've never seen a horse not chew sugarbeet. I've been feeding it to many horses, and a pony with no molars and even the toothless one chewed when he was nose deep in it.
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Well of course they will chew it a bit but as it is watery , they won't chew it as much as hay or chaff. That's the point.
 
Sossigpoker said:
Well of course they will chew it a bit but as it is watery , they won't chew it as much as hay or chaff. That's the point.
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Depends on how much water you add, or drain off. ;) We've had some who like it wetter or dryer, but that isn't a big deal for the ones who eat their hay well and get it for adding their supplements too. For the elders, I prefer it just plumped up, not soupy so there's more texture to it.
 
When I had one that couldn't eat hay I fed Speedibeet and Healthy Hooves (plan chaff is cheaper but she wouldn't eat it)!in one trug and another of Simple Systems Haycare.
 
I feed my dentally challenged oldie on Simple Systems Haycare, Sainfoin pellets, Speedibeet, and Honeychop chaff. The EDT ( and Sossigpoker , earlier) said it was important not to just feed mash, chewing is important.
 
I used to feed Simple Systems Haycare in one trug and Pure Feeds Meadow mash in another smaller serving. Gobbled up the tastier and more expensive meadow mash but ate the Haycare more slowly I used to add some mint to it to make it a bit tastier. The HC does take quite a while to soak into a mash. Wouldn’t eat Speedibeet and couldn’t chew chaff.
 
My dentally challenged oldie eats speedi-beet with chaff all very wet. He also eats the leaf out of lucerne hay, I only buy the leafy stuff. I've got hay cubes which I will soak to try him on too, but haven't done it yet.
 
A chopped hay replacer or high-fiber chaff (like plain oat straw chaff) can be cost-effective. Soaked sugar beet is cheap and great for fiber just bulk it up with soaked grass pellets or alfalfa pellets for extra calories. Avoid fancy branded chaffs; look for simple, unmollassed options. If he’s managing short chop, try soaking hay pellets or cubes for easier chewing. Keep an eye on weight gain and adjust as needed.
 
My mare was on a short soft diet this winter, Baileys meadow cobs, fast fibre and linseed oil to keep weight on, plus grass. She’s always been a good doer but it was incredibly hard to keep weight on and ensure she was eating enough forage to not go without eating. You can’t trickle feed a mash (even with a slow feeder).
 
The cheapest option is long soak unmollassed beet and grass nuts, or a generic fibre nut with a powder balancer or micronised linseed. Simple systems is fab stuff but costs more
 
My 30y.o. has soaked sugar beet mixed with bran to balance out the calcium/phosphorus, and dried grass chaff mixed through it. Weigh dry ingredients to be sure you are feeding enough. I have used Silvermoor's veteran haylage, but had to withdraw it after old boy's guts couldn't cope with ryegrass. Switched to Equilage veteran, which suits him well, but does need chopping into shorter lengths. A pair of hand sheep shears is useful for chopping small amounts. If yours cannot manage hay or haylage, you may have to provide an extra bucket of damp grass chaff and bulk it out with something like Mollichaff.
 

I use one of these paper cutters to chop Haylage into inch long bits for my 29 and 30 year old beauties.
I feed the chopped Haylage in the huge gorilla buckets you can get.
It’s saved me a fortune and is better for them than hay replacers, I think. Less processed 👍
Obviously this will only work if they have some chewing capacity but just need a helping hand.
 
I would try and get hold of a chaff cutter and chop the hay. I used to be time poor when I had an elderly pony (he was about 40 when he passed away) and used to feed him sugar beet with chopped oat straw mixed in and a mugful of linseed. He got NAF Pink Powder added in summer and a dry scoop of Veteran Vitality (soaked!) in the winter.
 
As many suggest feeding chaffs, I’d use my agri chipper and chip up and bag whatever soft hays/haylages I would prefer to feed.
Kilo price of many chaffs is 70p-€1+, kilo price of baled hay/haylage from 20p-60p, depending on weight.
I’ve just spent €24 on 20kg bagged high protein chaff - over €1 per kilo.
It all adds up, so chipping your own forage would be much more economical.
You’d chip a £10 20kg bale of hay/lage in 5 mins, and would have saved @£10 from buying bagged chaff, for that 5 mins of work.
You could do a weeks worth of forage in half hour saving £35+ = £140+ per month.
If you’re currently earning £70 per hour you may aswell buy bagged chaff and save the chipping diy work, but if not, the savings are significant.
The chipper would pay for itself in the first year.

I got a great deal on a secondhand chipper on ebay for around 400. It chips everything - even thin leaves to a mash, all the way up to 2inch thick branches…..everything is a chaff in the collector bag. Really fast to do easy chopping of something like hay/haylage. You can line the collector bag with thick plastic 60ltr bags, so it automatically bags it for you to feed from.
My collector bag is the size of a bale of shavings, heavy 40kg when full of wood/leaf chip- would be lighter full of hay chop.

I cant recall to mind the exact make model of my chipper but it’s one of the best tools I’ve ever bought….i use it for mainly for woodchip paths and composting chip materials - reply or pm if anyone wants to know make/size etc and I’ll check.
 
I spend ten minutes per horse per day cutting enough Haylage for them, per day. Even using a paper cutter that cost fifty pounds, I’m quids in and the horses are healthier 👍
 
From the cost effective perspective the cheapest good quality chaff I found is called Handy Chop. About £8 for a 15kg bale. It's just chopped dust extracted meadow hay so not necessarily the best for weight gain.

I'd speak to simple systems, they believe in fibre only diets and will give you the ratios to balance the diet. Red grass pellets are about 20% protein, those plus some linseed and a chaff might be all you need.
 
I have a pony who can't chew chaff, she won't even try.
She gets several feeds a day of speedibeet and Mole Valley Farmers own Quick soak fibre. I then add linseed for a bit more fat content. She is doing well on that. It is however VERY messy and I'm sure she wastes a lot!
 
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