Feeding costs advice (maths required)

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junior_7178

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Im trying to work out how much it costs me to feed my horse per week.
This may sound a strange request,but at the moment my livery cost INCLUDES all hard feed so i dont have to buy/order etc my own feed.

ATM he's eating ;
1/2 scoop of pasture mix am/pm
1/2 scoop of Alfa A am/pm
1/4 scoop of sugar beet am/pm

So ive worked that out at 7 scoops of pasture mix per week,7 scoops of Alfa A per week and 3 and half scoops of sugar beet per week (i think this works out at less than one dry scoop per week before soaking).

He also has a spoon full of garlic and one of salt per feed.

What i need to know is how many scoops i get from one sack,how much a sack is...i know this will vary.

Also if anyone else is on a basic feeding routine similar to this,how much do you think it costs you to feed your horse per week/month??

Thanks for your help.
 
I suggest taking plastic bags to the yard. put the feed in each bag, a scoop if this, half a scoop of that, in separate bags, whatever it is you feed your horse. take home and weigh then you can work it out. eg of a sack of nuts is 20 kg and he gets half a kilo per feed then the cost of that amount is the cost of the sack of nuts divided by 40, or if he gets 1 kilo of oats per feed and its a 25kg sack then its the cost of the sack divided by 25. just apply to your own feed stuffs.
 
just thinking, can you actually do this, i mean do you have access to the feed room? what brands are the feeds, ? feed usually comes in 20kg or 25 kg sacks. its very difficult to estimate without knowing the scoop size .
 
I did this. I divided the cost of a sack, into how many days it lasted me.
eg £10.50 / 21 days (Alfa A)

If you weigh your scoops, the you'll be able to calculate how many from a sack (usually 20kg) (The Baileys feed site has a feed calculator which tells you roughly what a scoop holds)
 
Yep, I do the same/similar to Janette. However, I know how much a stubbs scoop of each of my feeds weighs.

He gets 400g Alfa A a day (10.95 - lasts me about 3 and a half weeks), 1600g soaked Alfabeet a day (11.50 - lasts me about 8 weeks), 2kg spillers conditioning cubes a day for now (9.95 - lasts 10 days), 1kg pasture/cool mix (7.75 - lasts 20 days), 500ml veg oild (17.95 for 20L - lasts 1.5 months. Winter only), atm 1.5 cups F4F (£80 for 20kg - lasts about 12 weeks) but I am changing to Feedmark Benevit which is a lot cheaper, Black Oil Sunflower Seeds (20kg sack is £20 and lasts about 8 weeks).

So during winter it works out weekly as £30 for my 17.3hh Warmblood
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The other horse doesn't really get a lot (2 handfuls hifi lite and 1 cup F4F a day). Obviously big horse gets less from spring-autumn and also when his condition is right and/or his topline has been built up he will probably be moved over to the recommended amount of cool mix instead as I have struggled to maintain his weight without a mix sadly. He doesn't get oil in summer and gets speedibeet instead of alfabeet; I will also think about cutting the cool mix right back to probably next to nothing.
 
When I was on DIY I did the same with all my feeds and supplements (I had a spreadsheet). It calculated how much I needed because I went to the feed shop once every 3 weeks so I would buy different things at different times.

Your horse doesnt sound as though it is eating very much - I should think the alfa a should last 8-10 weeks, the mix probably about the same and sugar beet even longer.

CC1983 - that is seriously a huge amount of feed! I didnt realise the new one was that under weight?
 
Hi CBAnglo - that is what I thought when I wrote it out yesterday so I weighed it all again today and he's actually on 400g cool mix not 1kg
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And the Alfa A lasts 6 weeks, not 3 (lasted 3 when I was feeding 2 scoops a day).

He basically gets his feed split into 3 feeds a day (used to be 2, but 3 is better for him) and each feed has: 1/3 scoop Alfa A, 1/3 scoop Alfabeet (soaked so it weighs more obviously), 1/6 scoop cool mix, 2/3 scoop spillers conditioning cubes, half cup F4F (changing to Feedmark Benevit), small cup BOSS, 150ml oil (winter only).

Each feed then weighs a bit under 2kg. This works best for him because the bulk of the Alfa A and beet was meaning he was not getting through his feed (small appetite) which was contributing to his struggle with his weight, so giving him something of greater density but the same amount of energy (cool mix/ alfa a), means his feed can be smaller but the same weight and, therefore, the same amount of energy, if that makes any sense. The small amount of cool mix I am giving is also very nice because it is herbal and tastier for him, so encourages him to eat.

I don't know if you remember my post from about 5 or so weeks ago where he had dropped off and was not a good condition for time of year. I decided it was because he had gone onto hay and had always had haylage. I put him on spillers and some oil (on his ex owner's advice) and he picked up; however, having just moved him, the stress has caused him to drop off a lot. I have changed the feed with this in mind. He isn't a welfare case, but it was frightening how fast the weight was dropping off: just as I had it under control, off it went again, obviously because of the stress.

He is a very very big horse as well: I can't afford for him to get too thin. I hate mixes with a passion, but my new YO is very knowledgeable and experienced with big horses and has helped me out after me bursting into tears!! He is a good doer in summer as well!

I am happy at he moment because I arrive to a clean manger in the mornings - unheard of!
 
Oh, fussy eater and poor doer.

I have 2 poor doers but they will eat everything in sight. They looooove food and are fed 3 times a day too so fairly easy to maintain weight, but agree when they were moved they both dropped off a lot and it has been a struggle to put it back on. I am just increasing their instant linseed, as that is usually good at putting the weight back on.

am sure it will be easier next year, when he is more settled and in a routine. For some reason I though he was quite fat when you got him as he wasnt being worked really and previous owners liked stuffing them?
 
When I got him he was being stuffed full of chaff and being fed too much bulk. He was also on the porky side, but in the wrong ways if that makes sense - he wasn't being worked at all never mind correctly. When I got him, he began to drop weight, but then the weight loss sped up and we worked out it was because of the move from haylage-hay as well as new home.

The weight just dropped so quickly, probably because he is so big. I began to get it all under control but then we moved him and the stress of the move as well as the fact he went off his food for a few days, made him drop off at super speed again. So I am probably going to keep him on some kind of mix. I still stand by the fact he was being fed too much in his last home - filled full of stodge when it was the height of summer; however, I believe he needs more in winter in the form of a higher energy feed, thereby replacing some of the bulk with a mix.

It is going to take time for him to settle for sure, but it is also going to take a long time for me to get used to him, his needs and his weight fluctuations. I think it is always difficult finding something that will suit your horse when he is new to you. I am pleased that I have a 'big horse expert' on tap now, though, as it really reassures me.
 
This is interesting....and something I've never done!!

I probably should, however both of mine have a very simple diet...100g of TopSpec, each per day, 3/4s scp Alfa A each.
 
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