Feeding thirds/sharps

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APD123

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Anyone got any views on using this feed to put weight on your horses? I've had it recommended to me and having done a bit of digging, would like to know your views?

I bought a 16.3 ish in Feb, and he was pretty skinny, I've been building him up slowly, not wanting to chuck loads at him because of the spring grass coming through. But the fields aren't doing as well as I'd hoped and he's still just a little bit on the ribby side. I'd like to get a little bit more on him ideally. Currently feeding once a day on a calm and condition with a nice herby chop with small oil %.

Any views either way?
 
Are you feeding hay? And you're probably not feeding enough of his hard feed ration if only feeding once a day.
 
Middlings or thirds as we call it around here is a fantastic feed for putting on condition. I rate it highly! It's cheap as chips & the horses love it....in the winter I add warm water to it to make it like a bean mash.
It must be fed with with sugarbeet or alfalfa to balance the calcium to phosphorus ratios.

That said I only feed it to my hardworking horses who are getting ad lib hay/ Haylage.
 
Try adding some linseed meal. Thirds are called that because they are the dregs of what is left over after milling, so actually not that great quality.
 
If you don't have as much grass as you hoped then I would feed extra hay - as much as he will eat. My rule for a poor doer is to up the forage to the limit of the horse's appetite before upping the bucket feed, usually cheaper on the pocket and better for the horse too, especially if in only light work.
 
We're on livery and he's out in a herd, I couldn't give him extra hay without either having him in (on his own) or feeding the other 10 in the field too. There is grass on the field, they're just not knee deep which I'd anticipated.

He isn't skinny now, just needs a little more coverage over his ribs imo. I don't want to throw loads of hard feed at him, just get a little bit more condition really.

Linseed might be the ticket, haven't fed it for years though. I'll do some more digging :)
 
TGM said:
If you don't have as much grass as you hoped then I would feed extra hay - as much as he will eat. My rule for a poor doer is to up the forage to the limit of the horse's appetite before upping the bucket feed, usually cheaper on the pocket and better for the horse too, especially if in only light work.
Click to expand...
Agree with this bring him in for part of the day to give him some hay.
 
Middlings is a by product from the milling process but I wouldn't write it off for that.
It's actually the 'middle' part of the outer husk of the grain. The outer part being what we call bran.
So in terms of not being fed because it's a 'waste' product by that classification we shouldn't feed sugar beet or bran either!

OP middlings is currently out if fashion as a feed, hence why you won't find many who feed it on here.
 
I have used sharps in the past for poor doers and had as much if not more success with that then conditioning feeds! And it's about quarter of the price! As others have said its not widely known of nowadays but I was always impressed with it.
 
My 16.2 bought in April was poor and ribby, he's in at night on adlib haylage and turned out on reasonable grass during the day. i feed him a scoop of calm and condition + chop twice a day. I did add oil for the first few weeks as his coat was a bit lacklustre and his ribs were very apparent. He's worked 5-6 days a week and he's put on condition and muscle without getting silly, he's not there yet but it's still early days. He's not a horse that gorges on grass or haylage and there's always haylage left in the morning, so I feel that he needs the 2 feeds. No experience of "thirds"
APD123 said:
Anyone got any views on using this feed to put weight on your horses? I've had it recommended to me and having done a bit of digging, would like to know your views?

I bought a 16.3 ish in Feb, and he was pretty skinny, I've been building him up slowly, not wanting to chuck loads at him because of the spring grass coming through. But the fields aren't doing as well as I'd hoped and he's still just a little bit on the ribby side. I'd like to get a little bit more on him ideally. Currently feeding once a day on a calm and condition with a nice herby chop with small oil %.

Any views either way?
Click to expand...
 
Middlings as we called it, were used for the hunters as the season progressed, along with boiled barley and linseed.

I am not sure I would want to feed it to a horse in light work.
 
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