Forage analysis... experts please?

[Carlosmum]

A friend has had a forage mineral analysis done on some hay. The results have come back as fairly average ie most minerals sampled were on the 'mean' or slightly low. The one outstanding problem is high sodium levels, this may explain why some of the ponies (particularly the stabled stallions) are refusing to eat it.
Does any one have any ideas how this can be resolved, the field is permanent pasture... old parkland on chalk has had a hay cut taken every year for 30 or more years. Fertiliser applied every other year normally. Applying seaweed has been suggested but IMO this just adds more salt.
Ideas/thoughts appreciated, ripping up & starting again is not an option so it has to be achieved another way.
Virtual Christmas cake available if I can find a shop that hasn't sold out of dried fruit!!

 

[maggiesmum]

Not sure if they did the analysis or not but forageplus are very good for advice on minerals.

 

[flintfootfilly]

Can you post the results? (either type them out, or copy the sheet?)

It is disgraceful that forage analysis reports continue to show things alongside the numerical result, like "low", "average" or "high" when these comments do not reflect the adequacy of the level. They only indicate how that particular sample compares to others that lab has tested.

So in a largely selenium-deficient area like the UK, it is quite possible for the selenium on a forage report to be shown as "average" when in fact is it way below what is required for healthy maintenance of a horse.

To give an idea, these are the amounts recommended by NRC (like the American equivalent of DEFRA), based on a wide range of studies. Bear in mind that requirements vary according to the age and use of a horse, but these give a guideline for a horse at maintenance:

Phosphorus % 0.14

Magnesium % 0.075

Calcium % 0.211

Sodium % 0.1

Potassium % 0.25

Chlorine % 0.4

Manganese mg/kg 40

Copper mg/kg 10

Zinc mg/kg 40

Selenium mg/kg 0.1

Cobalt mg/kg 0.05

Iodine mg/kg 0.35

Iron mg/kg 40

Sulphur % 0.15

I agree with the previous poster who said it's worth getting advice from a nutritionist when interpreting the results, but the above may at least give a bit of an idea.

For me, it's copper, zinc and selenium which are deficient, and this is common across a lot of the UK.

My selenium is only 0.03-0.05mg/kg, and this is a level widely associated with muscle disease in a variety of species worldwide. No surprise that my gang have developed muscle problems similar to EPSM from having been on that grass/hay with no vit/mins added for many years.

I'd suggest you check the results out in the light of the above figures, and see what really comes out as high or low, and go from there.

Sarah

 

[DreamingIsBelieving]

Don't mind me - I'm just posting to subscribe (I'm sure there's a way to subscribe to a thread without posting on it but I haven't found it yet!).

 

[JillA]

Thanks for that flintfootfilly - I did compare my results against your list and selenium and copper are shown as low but they do fall significantly short. Now to supplement for the shortfall - I have a variety of health problems with my horses and this could be an underlying contributory factor.

 

[flintfootfilly]

For what it's worth, the balancers that I stick with now (having spent a long time weighing up pro's/cons of each, and comparing the analyses) are Blue Chip and Dengie Alfa A balancers.

The key thing for me is that they should contain around 1mg of organic selenium (ie 1mg of selenium in the form of selenium yeast), as this form is known to be more bioavailable than inorganic selenium (sodium selenite).

My own experience was that 10 months on a balancer with only inorganic selenium did not result in a sustained improvement of muscle enzyme levels in regular blood tests. Whereas those enzyme levels improved 4-5 months after starting to supplement with organic selenium.

Sarah

 

[criso]

The low, high, mean levels are meaningless and not designed to show recommended levels for horses. These analyses are done for all sorts of reason.

The other thing you should bear in mind is that minerals interact with each other. So if your iron or manganese are high, they prevent the uptake of other minerals like Copper and Zinc.
Magnesium, calcium and phosphorous should be a ratio to each other.

So where I am because my calcium and manganese levels are sky high I have to feed more copper, zinc and phosphorous than in a previous yard which has similar levels if not lower levels of copper and zinc.

 

[Carlosmum]

Can you post the results? (either type them out, or copy the sheet?)

It is disgraceful that forage analysis reports continue to show things alongside the numerical result, like "low", "average" or "high" when these comments do not reflect the adequacy of the level. They only indicate how that particular sample compares to others that lab has tested.

So in a largely selenium-deficient area like the UK, it is quite possible for the selenium on a forage report to be shown as "average" when in fact is it way below what is required for healthy maintenance of a horse.

To give an idea, these are the amounts recommended by NRC (like the American equivalent of DEFRA), based on a wide range of studies. Bear in mind that requirements vary according to the age and use of a horse, but these give a guideline for a horse at maintenance:

Phosphorus % 0.14 0.27

Magnesium % 0.075 0.15

Calcium % 0.211 0.58

Sodium % 0.1 0.41

Potassium % 0.25 1.5

Chlorine % 0.4 0.61

Manganese mg/kg 40 55

Copper mg/kg 10 5.2

Zinc mg/kg 40 21.2


Selenium mg/kg 0.1 0.1

Cobalt mg/kg 0.05 0.04

Iodine mg/kg 0.35 0.09

Iron mg/kg 40 92

Sulphur % 0.15 0.15

I agree with the previous poster who said it's worth getting advice from a nutritionist when interpreting the results, but the above may at least give a bit of an idea.

For me, it's copper, zinc and selenium which are deficient, and this is common across a lot of the UK.

My selenium is only 0.03-0.05mg/kg, and this is a level widely associated with muscle disease in a variety of species worldwide. No surprise that my gang have developed muscle problems similar to EPSM from having been on that grass/hay with no vit/mins added for many years.

I'd suggest you check the results out in the light of the above figures, and see what really comes out as high or low, and go from there.

Sarah

Thank you I have added my figures in against your Flintfootfilly. My query really wasn't so much about balancers more what we could do to improve the pasture to reduce the sodium content of the forage and make it more palatable. I'm thinking either fertilising with a specific product not just N/P or K, the sodium has to come from somewhere & I guess its in the soil type which was probably seabed 10,000000 yrs ago!