Feeding brand vs. generic feeds?

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kit279

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I was just wondering how many of you feed 'brand' name feeds (Baileys, Spillers, D&H etc) to your competition horses versus less well known feed makes that might be local to you or straight feeds?

Do you notice a difference with the branded feeds?

I ask because I've got a horse that looks like he will want siphoning with feed this winter in order to live out which suits him temperamentally but means that he will struggle to keep his condition. I don't mind spending the extra on him if it will make a real difference but looking at the labels on the feedsacks, I'm struggling to see what the additional ingredients are in the branded feed. Rather like going to the supermarket and deciding whether to buy bargain basement or Kelloggs cereal.... ;)
 
Just like you say - Rather like going to the supermarket and deciding whether to buy bargain basement or Kelloggs cereal...

Thats exactly it, most of them have no differences at all and you end up paying for the label!

Mine were on Spillers conditioning cubes last year but only because i got a good deal on it. This year they will go back on to - Sugar Beet, Barley and the conditioning molichaff.. I forget which one it is! and ab-lib hay.

Both are TB's and very much prone to weight loss, they lived out 24/7 last year through snow and all and I didnt see that they held anymore weight on spillers than usual :)
 
If you do decide to feed a generic feed then contact the manufacturer for a nutritional analysis. If you are feeding a generic 'conditioning' feed then make sure that it has a decent calorie count - I know someone on here was feeding a poor doer a generic conditioning feed and it turned out it only had 9 MJDE/kg where most branded ones are at least 12 MJDE/kg if not more.

Also check what amount they recommend feeding per day to supply the RDA of vit/mins, if that is important to you. A local brand of pony nuts I fed once required a huge amount of feed to be fed, presumably because the vit/mins were not as concentrated in the feed as other makes.

You might also want to ask what the sugar/starch levels are if your horse is sensitive to them.

You can get some good generic feeds but it does depend on what you want from them and you do need to check them out well as they do vary greatly!
 
The most major difference between branded and generic is that branded are tested for competition use and generics are not! That being said we feed straights, cheaper, easier and can feed specific to the horse's requirement eg weight gain, weight loss, high energy, low energy without having a million different bags of stuff in the yard
 
I started feeding a plain White bag of pony nuts to my horse last year. It was unbranded and when I looked on the ingredients it was similar stuff to what's in branded feeds but cheaper version. Like sugar beet shreds instead of non molasses beet shreds, molasses, oat feed, wheat feed and a vit and min premix. It also had a very
faint 'Saracen' stamp on the label ;).
My horse liked them, they did him fine but after a few weeks they went mouldy!! Because of that I didn't buy them again, I thought for £2.30 extra I'll splash out and buy branded as at least I know exactly what's in them, starch levels ect and I know they won't go off.
The cubes at the bottom of my cheap bag were literally green after a few weeks yuk!
 
Gamebird said:
Ditto Amage - as potentially competing FEI I need the testing guarantee otherwise I wouldn't be all that bothered.
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This. Mine did perfectly well on a mix from the local mill that was originally for fattening cows and pigs. I now have the added complication of needing to be Soil Association approved which kind of narrows my choices especially as my TB needs high energy feed!
 
kit279 said:
I don't mind spending the extra on him if it will make a real difference but looking at the labels on the feedsacks, I'm struggling to see what the additional ingredients are in the branded feed.
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Another point to consider is that sometimes although the ingredients are similar, the proportion of ingredients may be actually be quite different - ie one feed might have a higher proportion of an expensive and important ingredient than another.
 
Hee hee, they prob would have been fine for you then.
It usually takes me 2/3 weeks to get through a bag of nuts depending on how much I use. He usually gets 1/2 to 1 scoop a day :).
 
My super-fit polocrosse ponies have hi-fi and £6 economy mix with pink powder/red cell, they've looked fabulous all season and felt amazing (but I think scabby argie unpampered imports are much easier to deal with feed-wise :p ).
One of mine does have cherry oil molichaff (I think thats the conditioning one) during the winter as he's bottom of the pecking order and usually drops weight.
All horses have been on both branded feeds and this cheap one and I've never noticed any difference whatsoever.
 
I have mine on Dengie Alpha-A Oil chaff then Castle conditioning cubes with are the basic ones my supplier stocks. My supplier ran through the ingredients of the other main brand conditioning cubes and compared them to the cheeper feed and there was practiacally no difference, they were just £3 cheeper
 
I used to feed Spillers but couldnt keep up with my Feed Merchants pricing structures so moved over to Charnwood Millings own mixes and cubes which have been BRLLIANT value.

I have 4 horses and spend £80 a month of hard feed and chaff, compared to £170 for the Spillers version of the same stuff. Horses look great on it to. Even the wriggly and very huffy and puffy Chesterman who burns off enough calories in his paddock to send a spaceship to the moon.
 
A lot of the "own brand" feeds are actually made by "known" companies anyway... the only thing which does tend to suffer thoughis the premix, (vits, mins etc) so would generally suit on their own for light work, but anything heavier would need topping up IMHO.
 
mrussell said:
I used to feed Spillers but couldnt keep up with my Feed Merchants pricing structures so moved over to Charnwood Millings own mixes and cubes which have been BRLLIANT value.

I have 4 horses and spend £80 a month of hard feed and chaff, compared to £170 for the Spillers version of the same stuff. Horses look great on it to. Even the wriggly and very huffy and puffy Chesterman who burns off enough calories in his paddock to send a spaceship to the moon.
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Thanks for that tip - can you talk me through Charnwood? Do you order in bulk in one go or do you go and pick it up. I'm quite keen to order in all my feed in one go... Also which feeds of theirs do you use for which horses? If you can give me a rough indicator of price too, that would be so helpful as their website doesn't say how much their products are.
 
As a broad generalisation there isn't much, but if you compare a cheap generic pony nut with a very specific nut like a racehorse cube, you would see a difference

The main things I would look for are
Starch content (it's cheaper to put higher starch cereal based ingredients in, even for 'low energy' products

Check the levels are appropriate for your requirements, not just energy but fibre levels too

If you're uncertain check they are a UFAS approved mill, & if you're worried about prohibited substances, check for NOPS scheme membership (not fail safe but a helpful guide.... As not all feed mills have joined)

It's generally product spec where you'll see a difference, fibre/starch/fat/oil etc, so look closely, & if it meets your needs it can be a great saving!

(saying all that I feed dengie & baileys feeds, with Equiform supplements on top.... So not remotely generic!)
 
kit279 said:
Thanks for that tip - can you talk me through Charnwood? Do you order in bulk in one go or do you go and pick it up. I'm quite keen to order in all my feed in one go... Also which feeds of theirs do you use for which horses? If you can give me a rough indicator of price too, that would be so helpful as their website doesn't say how much their products are.
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Well, they are extremely helpfull to speak to and they do extra discounts for 10 or more bags (of any type of feed).

They also stock Garlic Honeychop which I use. I try and keep it simple;

Chester has the Cool Power cubes along with their leisure mix, and garlic chaff.

http://www.charnwood-milling.co.uk/horse_specs/horse-cool power cubes.htm

The old fuglies (good do-ers) have the value mix only. (plus chaff obviously)

The garlic chaff is £4.75 a bag, the leisure mix is £6.85 and the Cool Power cubes are £6.90 a sack.
 
The cubes that are lasting 3 weeks with the bag open are clearly stuffed full of preservatives! Personally I'd rather they went mouldy that feed that stuff to my horses.

For conditioning cubes I buy my Farm Supplies shop own brand (made for them by a company who make a famous name range) £6.15 a 20kg bag, and either soak them overnight in rapeseed oil from the supermarket or add it to already soaked sugar beet.
 
I feed straights. Haven't noticed much difference from branded feeds. I've never had anything (including straigts) go mouldy, though, even after weeks.
 
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