Feeding straw - feed quality affecting youngsters growth?

[Kallibear]

My 2.5 yr old cob has moved with his buddies onto a bare field with adlib good quality straw (livery arrangement)

However he's still growing and I desperate he makes the biggest he can (he's little, I'm not). Obviously I'm not stuffing him full of concentrates (he gets a scoop of hi-fi with his Balieys Low Cal Balancer) but i'd like him to get the maximum amount of energy and vits and mins required for growth.

He is currently a good weight, having slowly lost the fat he aquired through breaking out of his paddock all summer. He was on adlib haylage last year and maintained his weight well over the winter. He lives out 24/7 unrugged. He can go onto adlib haylage with a different group if required.

Will being on lower quality feed (i.e straw) restrict his growth at all?

(also posted in breeding, but there's more traffic in here and i'm parinoid about his growing!

)

 

[lilym]

shouldn't restrict him too much - but I wouldn't feed something that young on straw - i'd move him to the haylage group and monitor him. Also, i'd swap the lo-cal for stud balancer.

 

[Chavhorse]

When I kept my horse in Cyprus we used to keep them in Sand paddocks (no grass) and feed straw (no Hay or Haylage) but they used to receive all their calorific and mineral needs in hard feed as it was generally accepted that the straw had little or no goodness in it and was merely there to act as something to keep the gut moving.

The only straw with some goodness was called Sanos and had the whole head on it but we still used to ensure that they got all their calories and vits and mins in the hard feed that you could monitor.

I agree with lifym move him to the Haylage group and monitor.

 

[Tiggy1]

Young cattle are fed straw when growing but they will have a hard ration too

 

[TGM]

Hay is usually between 4.5% (for poor quality) to 10% protein, whereas straw is only about 3%. So if straw is the major part of the diet, there is going to be a protein defiency, which would have to be corrected by high protein supplements. However, as straw does also carry the risk of causing impaction colic AND you have the option to put him in a different group on haylage, then I would swap to the haylage group!

 

[eggs]

Over feeding would make your youngster fat not taller! I agree with feeding a good quality stud cube/balancer to make sure he receives the correct vits/mins.

I would also be tempted to moving him to the field with haylage.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

As TGM has said, straw is very poor quality foodstuff for a growing youngster. Even if your horse has a supplementary hard feed to make up for the straw, do remember that straw can cause impaction colic. If he was mine I'd have moved him already.