Feed balancers…interesting comparative testing….

[quizzie]

As there have been several threads recently about the “best” feed balancer , I came across this while looking at the alternatives avaliable.

it was of particular interest to me as I know I live in a high iron area.

https://forageplus.co.uk/iron-in-horse-feed-balancers/

 

[PurBee]

Thats an eye-opener. Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to take a look at globalvite highest spec vits and mins as that has, out of all tested, much more total elemental minerals %. Thats the reason we give a balancer afterall - for mineral content.
Despite the article being about iron, i find the TEM info really useful.

Iron is a concern if we feed pellet balancers, as we usually have to feed that 1kg per day, but powder balancers normally are 50-100g per day, so the mg/kg really ends up being vastly less iron per daily dose. But if someone has a horse with iron issues or known high iron, and avoiding it as much as possible, this info is really useful.

Bloody annoying to discover the labels of analytical constituents are complete BS - dont these feed companies actually test their products with an independent lab?!

It’s likely the addition of salt in all these products - as that has a corrosive effect on other minerals in storage, and can alter their compound form, thus releasing the ‘contaminated’ mineral aspects causing an end product which is entirely different in vales than when freshly mixed and packed.
A reminder to buy the freshest we can, if packing date is printed on the product - or avoid balancers with salt added altogether.

 

[sbloom]

I've been completely on board with feeding low iron, but there's been a bit of a backlash against it on a few posts on FB, and I don't mean by old traditionalists who say it's fine. I'm currently on the fence and confused, wish I could remember/find the posts.

 

[criso]

I've done a few forage analyses and they've all come up very high iron so tended to avoid it.

@PurBee while globavite might have a high overall level of elemental minerals, I'd still want to know the ratio of ingredients and which forms. Bioplex Copper and Zinc actually provide a lower % of elemental mineral than the Sulphates but are believed to be better absorbed.

Forageplus, PE and a couple of others are great at telling you how much available ingredient is supplied by the recommended dose i.e the TEM

I was looking at ingredients for other products on the other thread and they list levels of ingredients by mg per kg or %.

So first you need to know the form e.g. copper sulphate or Bioplex to get the concentration so you can work out how much actual elemental Copper per kg.

Then given it probably says feed 2 x scoop per day, you need to know how many mg a scoop delivers.

Then you may be able to work out the TEM of Copper. Now repeat for all the other ingredients.

So people see a great long list of vitamins and minerals and are impressed but it may not be supplying anywhere near what is needed of most of them.

 

[NightStock]

I was also under the impression high iron was an issue, would be interested to hear other thoughts if you can find them Sbloom.

I actually saw this report last year and contacted Progressive Earth in alarm as was using their balancer and her (much longer than below) response reassured me but also gave me misgivings about FP and using their products in future. if your current supplier is on there you may wish to check with them before taking this report as gospel?

Just to reassure you and anyone who may choose to buy Progressive Earth Ltd products.

We do not add iron to our balancers, if there was any bioavailable iron in any of our balancers, we would have to list it on the label, by law!

We use qualified professional equine nutritionists when formulating all our balancers. Together with our nutritionists we ensure our products conform to the requirements of EU and UK legislation governing the manufacture of animal feeding stuff.

Our balancers are manufactured in a UFAS (Universal Feed Assurance Scheme) BETA NOPS (Naturally Occurring Prohibited Substances) (BETA Scheme) accredited warehouse.
This means they follow a strict code of feed safety and that our balancers are produced using only the highest quality feed assured ingredients under strictly controlled production conditions.
The scheme is audited and certified by an independent certification body, in accordance with the internationally recognized standard EN45011 demonstrating a commitment to providing top quality equine feed.​

 

[PurBee]

I was also under the impression high iron was an issue, would be interested to hear other thoughts if you can find them Sbloom.

I actually saw this report last year and contacted Progressive Earth in alarm as was using their balancer and her (much longer than below) response reassured me but also gave me misgivings about FP and using their products in future. if your current supplier is on there you may wish to check with them before taking this report as gospel?

Just to reassure you and anyone who may choose to buy Progressive Earth Ltd products.​

​

We do not add iron to our balancers, if there was any bioavailable iron in any of our balancers, we would have to list it on the label, by law!​

​

We use qualified professional equine nutritionists when formulating all our balancers. Together with our nutritionists we ensure our products conform to the requirements of EU and UK legislation governing the manufacture of animal feeding stuff.​

​

Our balancers are manufactured in a UFAS (Universal Feed Assurance Scheme) BETA NOPS (Naturally Occurring Prohibited Substances) (BETA Scheme) accredited warehouse.​

This means they follow a strict code of feed safety and that our balancers are produced using only the highest quality feed assured ingredients under strictly controlled production conditions.​

The scheme is audited and certified by an independent certification body, in accordance with the internationally recognized standard EN45011 demonstrating a commitment to providing top quality equine feed.​

Well that was a polished reply you got from PE.

The facts are that animal feed legislations vary’s wildly to human food products.
Most produced minerals, whether by lab or naturally sourced, can often contain contaminants. Heavy metals are common. It costs more to refine a product to be as pure as possible, removing the contaminants.
Lab grade absolutely pure minerals are eye-wateringly expensive compared to ‘just’ animal food grade.

So while PE may not add ‘bioavailable’ iron to their products, the minerals they are using are of a lower quality spec than FP, and a few other companies, as the blind study funded by FP showed many of them do have iron bound contamination.

To be expected. And imo, not at very worrying levels, unless you needed to absolutely avoid all iron completely for your horse, because it has the equine equivalent of hemochromatosis, or other serious iron condition.

 

[criso]

PE themselves sell a range of magnesium products with some lower or ultra low iron so that acknowledges that some iron is may be present in some minerals even if none is added.

Doesn't necessarily mean it's enough to be significant.

 

[PurBee]

Heres an interesting journey one owner went on with her horses and getting iron levels tested.

https://www.laminitishelp.org/2410/...ron-levels-when-treating-laminitis-in-horses/

We need to worry more about hay and grass levels of iron, as they eat kilo’s of the stuff - whereas powdered balancers are fed in grams, 20th of a kilo or 10th of a kilo.

Pellet feed minerals balancers are more to watch the iron levels in, as they are fed at rates of 500g+. I used to feed gain opticare but that was 1kg, and i didnt like the iron levels, and soy, and…lots of things.

 

[quizzie]

Heres an interesting journey one owner went on with her horses and getting iron levels tested.

https://www.laminitishelp.org/2410/...ron-levels-when-treating-laminitis-in-horses/

We need to worry more about hay and grass levels of iron, as they eat kilo’s of the stuff - whereas powdered balancers are fed in grams, 20th of a kilo or 10th of a kilo.

Pellet feed minerals balancers are more to watch the iron levels in, as they are fed at rates of 500g+. I used to feed gain opticare but that was 1kg, and i didnt like the iron levels, and soy, and…lots of things.

That's an interesting read...I live in an area with acid pH, clay soil, where in the 1600's iron ore extraction was the major local industry....hence my concerns about iron levels!

I also agree that the PE reply was very carefully crafted...they did not appear to state that the analysis was wrong, and indeed if it was able to be disproved, I would assume they would have got an injunction so the article was removed?

 

[NightStock]

Actually I only shared the part that was 'polished' as I felt it was unfair to publish a response to my personal email but she did confirm it was 'absolutely untrue'. I thought it was pretty bad form to publicly rubbish your competitors, it always leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I see companies doing it, you should be able to sell your business on its own merits.

I'm not sure about FP being better quality but I had looked elsewhere due to my horse refusing to eat it, she prefered Pro Earth so that is why I made the switch.

All the balaners do seem suggest forage testing and feeding to balance that is the way to go, unfortunately on livery I don't currently have a consistent supplier but if that changes I will get it analysed.

 

[PurBee]

That's an interesting read...I live in an area with acid pH, clay soil, where in the 1600's iron ore extraction was the major local industry....hence my concerns about iron levels!

I also agree that the PE reply was very carefully crafted...they did not appear to state that the analysis was wrong, and indeed if it was able to be disproved, I would assume they would have got an injunction so the article was removed?

If you have a reliable hay supplier and always buy from them, its worth getting your hay iron levels tested, and your grass if your soil ph is acidic, then you have a more realistic idea of what theyre getting from forage, and how much wiggle room you can give iron levels in other feeds you might feed them.

I have high iron where i live too and soil prone to acidity. When i experimented with raising ph with a granule calcium/magnesium mineral mix, from the agri-store, in a 800kg bag - applied to 2 fields as an experiment, grazed the horses on it that year, and the black mare, became a true black colour. Beautiful coat quality too, best ive seen her! Feet that year just took-off in quality, no issues, stomping on gravel. Also, they preferred those fields, as they had choice of 5 fields, they chose the ones treated with the cal/mag granule mix.

re the analysis - FP (imo) have been an excellent company for using testing of forage to truly try to understand imbalances that are occurring in the modern agri-forage industry, and how they impact equine health. Many other websites use their scientific data to produce article content! They purposefully did a blind trial so no lab employee could ‘corrupt’ the results. They didnt do it to finger-point at companies, it helped show how every feed producer, including themselves!, have iron contaminants in their feeds. As very high iron levels are a concern for mammalian health in general, their study showed how it can be in foods not even listing iron levels.
Perhaps the feed companies mentioned have requested the lab results to review, and have been satisfied it’s all above board. I cant see why a reputable company like FP would undergo and fund such a study with intentions of corrupting the results, in this litigation climate we now exist in.

 

[PurBee]

Actually I only shared the part that was 'polished' as I felt it was unfair to publish a response to my personal email but she did confirm it was 'absolutely untrue'. I thought it was pretty bad form to publicly rubbish your competitors, it always leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I see companies doing it, you should be able to sell your business on its own merits.

I'm not sure about FP being better quality but I had looked elsewhere due to my horse refusing to eat it, she prefered Pro Earth so that is why I made the switch.

All the balaners do seem suggest forage testing and feeding to balance that is the way to go, unfortunately on livery I don't currently have a consistent supplier but if that changes I will get it analysed.

The study article is lengthy, but FP state they did the analysis because they formulate feed plans for clients who use non FP minerals, so they test them to know levels of iron contamination, to have a truly accurate idea of iron-intake for the client’s horses.
I can understand them publishing it because its eye-opening how much animal grade minerals are contaminated with metals.

They compliment PE further down in the ‘ratio V scattergun’ approach to formulating balancers, as they are amongst 4 others, constructing the balancer towards scientific ratio knowledge, rather than adding in a bit of everything willy-nilly, like many companies do.

I feel they have tried to present it from a neutral perspective, considering they are an equine feed supplier themselves. The trouble is, no other company would do such an analysis unless they ARE in the equine mineral business. We don’t have the funds to give to equine nutrition bodies to do tests of all products on the market, as they are funding more indepth nutrition-based studies.

I had the opposite experience to you with the balancers! Mine liked FP when i fed that years ago, then i switched to another, , and another, then last year i tried PE, and they really werent impressed.
I had to use half dose in a large bucket of speedibeet to dilute the taste enough so they’d eat it! I was glad to finish the bag because my gelding especially just threw his bowl contents all over the floor, and taking forever to nibble through bits. It was ridiculous. He’d never done that with any other balancer, and there’s been some he’s not keen on.
Once i switched again, he’s eating the bowl feed fine without lobbing it all over the floor. I had no idea why, as they all look and smell roughly the same to me. I forget which PE version i used..’winter’ one more likely.
I tried it based on recommendations here but i couldnt get them to eat it. Even the ‘eat anything’ mare, took ages to finish her bowl which is normally inhaled within 90 seconds. I had to leave them for half hour to nibble through it.
I wanted to get it tested myself, to really know what was in it, so this article is revealing perhaps contam. issues are the cause for their rejection, but im not convinced a mere few mg of iron would put them off certain balancers, but something else potentially, manganese, aluminium etc. extensive testing required to really know. FP study just tested iron.