Forage Analysis followed by mineral supplementation

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sonjafoers

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For those of you that have had their forage analysed and then fed the necessary minerals can you say you have truly seen an improvement in your horses wellbeing?

If so can you give me some examples please. I'm also interested in those that have done this but not necessarily seen any changes.

I'm tempted to do it but at over £200 for what I need I'm not totally convinced yet :confused:
 
Giving you a quick bump as I'm interested too - I've only had soil tested to see what it needed to help grass grow better - we put some stuff on this summer but it'll be a while til we see results in the grass.

Interestingly our land was off the scale in magnesium and horses here are always really chilled and seem to have better feet, the big horse's feet have never been a problem here but they were a factor in his retirement from his professional career and a horse I had here for 5 years without problem feet has started to have problems 18 months after he left - could be coinsidence but it made me wonder whether inadvertantly they are getting a high dose of magnesium which is helping both feet and calmness!
 
Polos Mum said:
Giving you a quick bump as I'm interested too
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Thanks Polos Mum!

That's interesting about your magnesium, are you planning to get your grass tested once you start seeing results? I really want to do it but was just a bit surprised by the price especially if it's something that needs updating regularly.
 
sonjafoers said:
Thanks Polos Mum!

That's interesting about your magnesium, are you planning to get your grass tested once you start seeing results? I really want to do it but was just a bit surprised by the price especially if it's something that needs updating regularly.
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I simply get a urine sample tested, then I know exactly what my horses are deficient in. The company who do them will make up a tailor made supplement. I had some very good results this way, and it doesn't cost the earth.
 
Tell me more cundlegreen, tell me more.......

Which company do you use and do they have a website?
Is it something you do regularly?
Do you do it if there is a problem or just for wellbeing?

Interestingly I asked my vet a long time ago about blood testing for this and he said that it was only a snapshot at the time the blood was taken and therefore pretty much useless as a guide for ongoing supplementation.
 
Most people seem to be getting very decent results with one of the two low iron/high copper balancers on the market. I'd do that before I paid for forage analysis which can vary from bale to bale of hay. I don't do it because my manganese overload is in my spring water supply too, and their consumption of that varies with the temperature and how much sweaty work they've done.

Since supplementing copper I have seen consistently better concavity on my horses' feet all through the summer, instead of the tendency to go flat previously.
 
I did query the haylage issue with ForagePlus because as I don't buy it in bulk there's no way of me knowing what's in each batch I buy. They suggested I sample from 6-10 bales but I'm still not sure how accurate this sort of thing would be.

I didn't look at their balancers cptrayes but perhaps I should before I continue with this. Thank you.
 
I do this.

Although I feed hay in various quantities year round, I just balance to the grazing and it still works better than off the shelf supplements (have used meta balance and pro hoof before).

The difference in hoof quality is obvious - less event lines, less white line stretch and the biggest thing no thrush!!

It only cost me £60 though as I balanced the minerals myself.
 
I had a grass analysis and bespoke plan for all mine. I bought all the minerals I needed. My horses would not eat it after the winter, I now have them on Pro Balance which is as near to the minerals I needed.

I have noticed a massive difference. In their behaviour and looks. Their coats, hooves are better and all more relaxed. I know it costs alot but I now know what I am feeding is exactly what they need.
 
I did it with forage plus - the two times the horses stopped eating their feeds, spring grr, one mare abscessed and the other got big splits....

Here's mine

ForageAnalysis.jpg
 
I spoke to a local dairy farmer who told me what the forage around here lacks in and is high in. I now feed copper, zinc, and magnesium at the same dose as in forage plus balancers (be ause I and to guess that was a good starting point). Only a few months now, but can already see better tighter growth
 
I probably wouldn't bother TBH as they have a broad spectrum sup anyway and i'm not sure the cost savings of supp only exactly what they need would be worth it for me
 
I did and noticed a difference, in fact when I moved yards round there was a gap while I was waiting for the new analysis and you can see the difference in growth when I swapped onto the balanced as opposed to a more generic mix I did while I was waiting. The manganese levels are so high I am feeding levels of zinc and copper that would be dangerous somewhere else.
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I have had a few done and have never done both so it has not cost me £200 but a bit over £100

Yard 1 I did grass only as hay while produced on the farm came from a wide variety of fields
Yard 2 I did hay only as the hay fields were adjacent to the grazing fields
Yard 3 I did grass only again as we get hay from more that one source

I would not rely on what someone says about the area though as I have seen massive differences just moving 5 or 6 miles down the road.
Having said that, not a bad idea to start with one of the premixed balancers, then if you feel things could be better go for the analysis.
 
I probably wouldn't bother TBH as they have a broad spectrum sup anyway and i'm not sure the cost savings of supp only exactly what they need would be worth it for me
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If I fed a broad spectrum supp Id be overdosing on selenium which is dangerous. If your area is VERY high in magnesium you could be overdosing that which long run can cause heart and renal problems.....

If you're not sure about the others then you shouldnt be supplementing them!
 
To onto forage plus website and read teddy 2 shoes story. He's my youngster and the difference in him since starting his bespoke feed plan is simply outstanding.
 
TigerTail said:
If I fed a broad spectrum supp Id be overdosing on selenium which is dangerous. If your area is VERY high in magnesium you could be overdosing that which long run can cause heart and renal problems.....

If you're not sure about the others then you shouldnt be supplementing them!
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If suppliments are so bad why are balancers and the likes of fomular 4 feet so popular, and forage analysis so rare?

most exceses will be pee'd out (like humans who take loads of bit and min supplments), I'm happy mine are better off with their 4 feet once a day, if they show odd symptoms I'll think again
 
Iv had my soil tested and found to be v low in everything so guessing the grass will be the same.
Tbh iv looked at forage plus balancers and I would like to try them but I can't justify that kind of money with 4 horses as they are v expensive. I use equimins advance complete which has NO IRON and seems to be a good spec supplement in my eyes and mine look good on it.
 
Oh forgot to say advance is also linseed based so no crap in it like a lot of balancers and supplements.

Will watch this with interest
 
My horse had high liver enzymes (which was causing other problems) After trying everything else, I had hay analysed. It came back as very high in Iron & Manganese.

Put her on the minerals, liver enzymes came down to normal levels (and the associated problems went away)
 
I wonder if what is growing in our pastures has a lot to do with the analysis. I have no knowledge on this (I remember reading somewhere that clover is supposed to seal nitrogen in the soil?). Anyway, if you just have grass then I would expect that there would be an imbalance because different plants have different requirements and presumably this affects what goes into the land (if you are not artificially fertilizing that is). I know lots of people like to have nice paddocks filled only with grass (fair enough) but I think having a few different plants in must be beneficial in some way.
 
Polos Mum said:
If suppliments are so bad why are balancers and the likes of fomular 4 feet so popular, and forage analysis so rare?
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Because forage analysis is relatively new
Because on the whole people would rather feed one scoop rather than spending hours mixing potions
Because a lot of the commercial supplements have lots of additives to make them taste good and it can be be difficult to get them to eat some of the minerals.

Fed formula for feet for ages, made no difference at all.
 
Thank you everyone, very interesting & I think I'm going to have to give it more thought.

Our pasture is full of all sorts of plants but there is a lot of clover so that might be worth investigating. My concern though is the edibility issue as that will be a concern for one of mine, and the reliability of the haylage results.

There does seem to be a lot of favourable responses to it but TigerTail's comments are food for thought. With regards to other supplements I did try the Advance Complete mentioned and my horses lost their usual 'bloom' and looked noticeably poorer so I didn't buy a second pot. Equimins recommended adding linseed to it but they were on linseed anyway so we drew a blank.

I'm still on the fence for the time being.
 
Analysis is only new to th horse world ;) Dairy farmers have been doing it for years as it helps the cows produce the highest milk yield possible which only happens on a knife edge of nutritional balance.

Equine marketing is responsible for all the balancers we have - same as with rugs which are totally unecessary 95% of the time. You only have to read the ingredients list, and look at the pot weight to see you get a sneeze of minerals to a scoop of cheap fillers.
 
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