Has anyone successfully changed from feeding balancers to using a mineral lick in field?

[HollyWoozle]

I know this topic has been discussed before and I have looked through some old threads, but not sure what to do. We have five horses and ponies who all live out 24/7 - two are on pretty much no grazing with soaked hay as one has EMS and the other is his companion, they have Spillers 'Lite and Lean' balancer and I am happy to keep them as they are.

The other three are fed Spillers Daily Balancer at the mo as our grazing in the main field is, and always has been, pretty poor (which is actually to our advantage as they are all relatively good doers and don't work). We feed good quality hay throughout the year. Aside from that, they can nibble some willow trees from time to time and a bit of hedge. The smallest of these three did at one stage show a mild vit B deficiency, at which point the vets gave a supplement and we then started on a balancer. He was a little bit lacklustre prior to that and the deficiency was all vets could find.

My question is whether or not we can wean them off the balancer and feed a lick in the field instead, the primary aim being to save money with rising costs. It would also help my parents who feed them as they wouldn't need to prepare meals (they mix the balancers just with a bit of light chaff). Would only consider this if not detrimental to them of course. The two biggest horses, around 600kg each, have not showed any differences before or after being fed a balancer. They always have free access to a salt lick and none of them ever touch it (have tried different types), regardless of whether or not they are fed balancer. I heard good things about the Simple Systems field lick but that is primarily just salt? I also saw the HerbiLIX one suggested on here. Have looked at Equibites before but don't think that is very cost-effective.

Any recommendations please? Thank you.

 

[HollyWoozle]

Edited to say - I found another old topic I had missed, recommending Dallas Keith licks, but can't see how to delete this topic now. Doh!

 

[NR88]

I can't see how a lick would be an effective replacement. There would be no way of monitoring or ensuring adequate intake.

Also equine tongues are not designed for licking to the extent needed to take in the RDA of salt or minerals. Much better to add a tablespoon of salt to feeds.

Personally I'd swap to a balancer like Progressive Earth Pro Balance Plus. It is £25.99 delivered for 1.8kg. I would use a base like Allen & Page Fast Fibre, grass nuts or Pink Mash, and only a minimal amount to mix, then add salt and powder balancer.

It won't take your parents much time to soak and mix, you can be ensured that the horses are getting what they need. It should also work out cheaper than feeding the commercial balancers at the recommended amount.

 

[tda]

I contacted Dallas Keith after wanting to do the same with my herd, but they have no stockists in our area ?

 

[Nasicus]

Personally I'd swap to a balancer like Progressive Earth Pro Balance Plus. It is £25.99 delivered for 1.8kg. I would use a base like Allen & Page Fast Fibre, grass nuts or Pink Mash, and only a minimal amount to mix, then add salt and powder balancer.

According to their feeding rate, a bag would last approx 10.2 days fed at rate of 175g (75g x 2 for the bigguns and 25g for the pony if small) or 9 days if the pony is bigger and needs the 50g intake totalling 200g per day.
Including delivery it's £29.99 for a 1.8kg bag from their ebay store, so OP would be looking at £81+ for 30 days if they ordered the 3 bags for the month at once to save on delivery.

I dunno how much OP is already spending and whether that's a saving on their current spend, and I'm by no means knocking progressive earth, I just fancied doing the math lol

 

[NR88]

There is a 6% discount for multiple purchases and a 10% discount for the first order from their website. I'll leave the maths to you! ?

I happened to be in the feed store last week and they had the Spillers balancers starting at £32.99 upwards. I couldn't tell you what type it was; I can only recall yellow, orange and green colours on the bags.

Admittedly it has been a while since I looked into balancers. At that time Spillers Lite & Lean appeared the "best" in regards to what it contained and low iron however Progressive Earth, Forage Plus and a brand starting with E but not equimmins were "better" imo.

I try to put the best in that I can and when I last did my sums PE with a mash (grass/pink/FF dependent on horse) carrier worked out less, and better value to me, than a commercial cube.

 

[Vodkagirly]

I would like to do the same, most licks including dallaskeith are molasses based though and i think mind would gorge.
I've ordered a rockies five star and the baby red to see how we do with them

 

[Lintel]

I think my boys would eat the lick in one.....
I'd be more comfortable keeping with a balancer but will follow with interest!

 

[HappyHollyDays]

I have one with EMS and an ex laminitic and use Spllers light and lean but it’s now £32 a bag so tried to find a mineral lick which contained everything they needed but couldn’t find anything suitable. The only one I could find was salt and magnesium and came in a trug but worried it didn’t have everything they needed so I contacted Science Supplements and asked them if they would produce one. They said no which is a shame as I do think there is a gap in the market.

 

[whirlwind]

Our lot don’t get fed over summer apart from a couple that tend to run a bit lean but everyone normally has balancer (gain opticare) linseed and sugarbeet in winter. I’ve ordered a couple of the Dallas Keith licks to try so will see how that works out. For us it’s more the logistics of feeding that’s awkward as they all live out so unless you just have a bit of a free for all you’ve got to start putting up slip rails in shelters and tying up others and if it’s just one person it can be hard to manage. Will see how they get on. Only 6 native types out on 11 acres of rough grazing and lots of trees/ hedges so I’m never really sure if they need the balancer anyway.

 

[Nasicus]

I feed this to my good-doers:
https://www.feedmark.com/en/slimaid-2

Concentrated balancer pellets, can feed them from the hand or in a bucket on their own. No need to mix them in with anything, so pretty convenient for your parents.
They have big discounts quite regularly, 40% off at the moment with the discount code on the website.

 

[HollyWoozle]

I should add that I am here most days and can also help with the feeds, but the horses live here at my parents' property (I work in office here) and they like to feed them. I feel it gives them a good reason to get up and go outside and to keep involved if you know what I mean, but it would be simpler for them to simply hay the bigguns and leave a lick out basically. But we won't do it if unsuitable.

I can't see how a lick would be an effective replacement. There would be no way of monitoring or ensuring adequate intake.

Also equine tongues are not designed for licking to the extent needed to take in the RDA of salt or minerals. Much better to add a tablespoon of salt to feeds.

Personally I'd swap to a balancer like Progressive Earth Pro Balance Plus. It is £25.99 delivered for 1.8kg. I would use a base like Allen & Page Fast Fibre, grass nuts or Pink Mash, and only a minimal amount to mix, then add salt and powder balancer.

It won't take your parents much time to soak and mix, you can be ensured that the horses are getting what they need. It should also work out cheaper than feeding the commercial balancers at the recommended amount.

Thanks for this, @NR88. Unfortunately that would work out significantly more expensive than what we pay now, but I appreciate your input.

According to their feeding rate, a bag would last approx 10.2 days fed at rate of 175g (75g x 2 for the bigguns and 25g for the pony if small) or 9 days if the pony is bigger and needs the 50g intake totalling 200g per day.
Including delivery it's £29.99 for a 1.8kg bag from their ebay store, so OP would be looking at £81+ for 30 days if they ordered the 3 bags for the month at once to save on delivery.

I dunno how much OP is already spending and whether that's a saving on their current spend, and I'm by no means knocking progressive earth, I just fancied doing the math lol

I'm glad you did it for me, thanks, haha. Progressive Earth stuff sounds great but would be more costly than the Spillers daily balancer option. Smaller pony is a 13.1hh native type and a good 350kg min.

Our lot don’t get fed over summer apart from a couple that tend to run a bit lean but everyone normally has balancer (gain opticare) linseed and sugarbeet in winter. I’ve ordered a couple of the Dallas Keith licks to try so will see how that works out. For us it’s more the logistics of feeding that’s awkward as they all live out so unless you just have a bit of a free for all you’ve got to start putting up slip rails in shelters and tying up others and if it’s just one person it can be hard to manage. Will see how they get on. Only 6 native types out on 11 acres of rough grazing and lots of trees/ hedges so I’m never really sure if they need the balancer anyway.

That's also part of it, convenience I guess, but I suppose horses are rarely convenient I guess, darn it! Do let me know how you get on with the licks - we can definitely carry on as we are, but if there was a slightly more affordable and easier option which still met nutritional requirements then would be great. The pony does get fed in separate area so the horses don't nick his portion.

I feed this to my good-doers:
https://www.feedmark.com/en/slimaid-2

Concentrated balancer pellets, can feed them from the hand or in a bucket on their own. No need to mix them in with anything, so pretty convenient for your parents.
They have big discounts quite regularly, 40% off at the moment with the discount code on the website.

Thanks for this, will definitely look into it.

 

[criso]

If i was going down the progressive earth route and wanted cheap and cheerful, I'd feed pro mineral. it's got the basic minerals you need and at a better level than most commercial balancers.

£14.99 for 1.8 kg but you'd save buying a bigger bag

 

[skint1]

I know you're wanting to move away from a balancer but if you are looking for something not so much volume to feed a good doer, I've had my mare on GWF One Cup for a few months now, she looks good on it

 

[PurBee]

I’ve had to switch my minerals due to brexit import costs of uk balancers to ireland. It doubled my costs.
The main irish balancer has soy as bulking agent and mine just dont seem right on it, ive tried it many times. Mineral levels arent fab either.

So i’m trialling licks AND added minerals - i couldnt find 1 lick that contained ALL they need. (No balancer on the market does either but thats another post!)

I’ve got 1 bucket lick that contains baseline minerals in molasses - thats 20 quid a bucket lasting 2 horses around 10-12 weeks. Then ive got another lick 10 quid thats got salt and copper - as copper is needed to balance, the bucket contains minimal amount.
There’s a magnesium lick in the range i buy from but it wasnt in stock. I add magnesium to my fields so dont sweat them not getting 10+grams per day as they have some in the grass.

Then i give minimal speedibeet with some topup magnesium, omega 3 in winter, and salt, brewers yeast, as neither lick has decent amounts, and lack b vitamins.

I buy in bulk the powders, so now roughly spend around 70-80 quid on minerals every 3 months for 2 horses. I was spending that per month on my favourite uk balancer + added minerals.

Amazingly, my 2 are doing great on it. My black mare is who i go by as her coat changes so quickly if nutrition is off and her hoof health suffers - this spring/summer on the licks shes been gleaming and a black black colour, with very good foot health.
Despite brexit being a pain, its forced me to try alternatives, which so far work, and im saving loads of money.

 

[maya2008]

I once fed something similar to this:
http://www.equsana.com/product/equsana-minivit-allround-vitamin-and-mineral-treats-for-adult-horses/

So all the vitamins and minerals in a treat form. At the time, my horse was in no need of feed, and we were on livery so space was at a premium. I could just give a few ‘treats’ a day and that did the job. Then said horse became allergic to alfalfa so… bucket feed it was! Worked well for a while though.

 

[Vodkagirly]

Has anyone tried his one?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08FJ5Q46G/ref=psdcmw_340841031_t1_B00OBK7UU8

 

[PurBee]

Has anyone tried his one?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08FJ5Q46G/ref=psdcmw_340841031_t1_B00OBK7UU8

i’d want to check out the values of nutrients per kg of that lick, but the link doesnt provide that.
As it has a varied blend of oils i’d want to see the value of omega 3 and 6 primarily to make sure they are the correct ratio. if it was thats a great addition to have with a lick - a great idea.
I’m not keen on soymeal or wheat, but if it was minimal amount i’d consider it.

Many novelty ingredient licks are boredom breakers - to use one for getting the actual RDA dose the horse should have, because they cant lick a lot, means the licks need to contain high doses per kg. (With the caveat to watch a horse isnt gobbling mouthfuls of it and breaking off chunks with teeth!)