Do you feed bran? Poll.

Do you feed bran daily as part of your horse's ration?

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Just to stick and oar in the "high fibre" argument, bran is actually only around 12% fibre - that's lower than high fibre cubes that are around 20% and Hi-fi which is around 35%.......
 
I used to feed bran years ago, along with straights such as boiled barley, oats and linseed jelly etc. Nowadays I just feed mostly hay and fibre feeds, although I do miss bran for poulticing and making mashes. Something comforting in mixing warm nice smelling feeds!
I think the processing is different nowadays (I stand to be corrected on that, but I'm sure I read it somewhere!) and the bran isn't as good as it used to be.
Fed in excess I'm sure it is harmful, but then again what isn't?
 
touchstone said:
I used to feed bran years ago, along with straights such as boiled barley, oats and linseed jelly etc. Nowadays I just feed mostly hay and fibre feeds, although I do miss bran for poulticing and making mashes. Something comforting in mixing warm nice smelling feeds!
I think the processing is different nowadays (I stand to be corrected on that, but I'm sure I read it somewhere!) and the bran isn't as good as it used to be.
Fed in excess I'm sure it is harmful, but then again what isn't?
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I'm sure you are right. Modern milling techniques take all the grain away from the husk (bran), in the old days this wasn't the case, so you actually got quite a lot of feed value from what was priced as a 'waste' product.
I only ever feed bran in the form of a mash to horses which have colicked on vet's advice, with a dollop of molasses.
 
Wow what a load of tosh, Big head syndrome!!! Bran is good to feed so long as you balance it out with limestione flour & it also helps to feed sugar beet. I have fed bran for over forty years with limestone & beet. We had two ponies live to 30 & 39 years, & never had any colic in all those years! My old vet swore by it for ponies to keep away laminitus as it kept the food moving through the body, and the ponies never got laminitus either!
Large quantities should be avoided for young horses while they are gowing & old horses must have limestone for bone strength. But to scare monger about big head syndrome, which would be an extreme case, is stupid.
As with anything you feed, MODERATION is the key!
Question: Why do so many horses get colic now?
Answer: Is it because you have all stopped feeding bran? None of my horses ever get colic!
 
Mabel Mare said:
Question: Why do so many horses get colic now?
Answer: Is it because you have all stopped feeding bran? None of my horses ever get colic!
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Neither have mine EVER [in the past 39+ years] and I've never fed bran. Not sure if colic is more common these days, is it?

Surely the old fashioned 'weekly' bran mash goes against everything people now know about equine digestion. Same goes for occasional linseed mashes or anything else that's fed intermittently.
 
Yes, always have and always wiil my horses are in perfect condition therefore i will not change what they are fed, no matter what any one else says or thinks as long as my horses are healthy and happy then my oppinion is the only one that matters,
 
I find it quite interesting the amount off people who do use bran, I think as long as you know how far out the phos/ cal levels are and use limestone to correct it than should be ok. But the people who aren't aware please google and read a bit on it.
Out off interest though if a feed was made today with such phos/cal levels so badly wrong, would people buy it?
 
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