Following the Bran "rant" does anybody feed straight feeds anymore?

I think if you feed a mix such as pasture mix or comp mix you may as well feed straights and save money/have more flexibility as those mixes contain cereals anyway.

After my mare had tummy troubles (and died) and the vet suggested I fed a totally cereal free diet I have shied away from cereals with my new horse hence I don't feed straights OR mixes.

In a way I suppose I do feed straights as I'm feeding only HIFI and balancer at the moment but if my horse needs more condition then I will add fibre nuts/kwick beet and/or oil. I won't add cereals, he doesn't need them anyway he always has energy from his fibre diet (TB).

If I did feed a cereal straight feed it would be oats as they are highest in fibre and lowest in starch but I may consider barley for condition.

I don't need to use them though so I doubt I ever will. Would probably use an oil supplement if I needed more condition or energy.
 
I feed straights, maize, barley oats and chaff.

The reason I changed was to cut out wheat - wheat is traditionally bad for horses yet I have only found 1 mix that didn't contain any!! (too hard to get hold of)

Much cheaper and he looks fantastic on them :)

Make sure you get a vit and min supplement though, to make sure that it is balanced :)
 
I've feed straights for a while, took some time to find the right balance though.

I was dubious about it, but whole soaked oats seem to be working a treat for my very good doer Welsh Cob. I'm finding his weight easy to maintain, I can increase them with workload, and once I got into a routine the soaking isn't too much trouble
 
Yep, me!! I feed straight oats and sugarbeet with alfalfa chaff, they do very well on this and energy levels are far better than when they were on traditional mixes. They have a mineral lick in the field for free access and to top up on anything they need, This diet is soo much cheaper, I worked out it saves me around £40 per month!
 
thatsmygirl said:
What goodness has oats got?
Isn't strights high starch?
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Blimey , Oats are WONDERFULL. They contain a good amount of oil and protein and digestible fibre. The plumpest oats may be Canadian, but the best oats for horses are English. The reason is simple. English oats have less starch and more husk.therefore they also have a higherpercentage of protein and oil.
 
We feed straights too - no mixes at all these days! We replaced speedibeet with equibeet, longer soak (although we only do overnight rather than 24 hours), low sugar and £3 a bag cheaper, we use grass nuts, micronised linseed, wheatfeed, graze-on and oil plus multi vitamins. If the horses need a little more then we will add a bit of barley and sometimes mixed flakes. To be fair, most of the ponies don't get proper feeds, just a token so they think they have had one and to get their vits down them. We also feed carrots in moderation. This is so much easier to adapt to each horse/pony according to need and they don't all get everything, each feed is tailor made to the horse it is going to.

I am absolutely convinced that the 'fashionable' mixes are to blame for the rise in laminitis cases over the years, owners feed them thinking they are doing the right thing but have 'forgotten' how to adjust feeding to the horse's needs they way we did years ago.
 
I'm keen to swap to straights, I fed barley when he lost weight/condition. I also know that the mixes are a rip off.
At the moment ted has scoop honey chop, and half scoop of nuts.
But I'm having trouble with his behaviour, so want to feed straights to get on top of this, am feeding magnesium supplement at the moment, but can't understand why I need to. :/
 
I only feed straights in winter as during summer mine are mostly just on grass and hay. In the autumn I reintroduce speedibeet/Kwikbeet, soaked oats, alfalfa plus multivitamins..much cheaper than mixes and I can easily adjust quantities to suit the needs of each horse
 
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