How cheap is it to make mineral sup?

[weebarney]

Is it cheaper to make your own mineral supplement or buy ready made ones? Im thinking specifically pro balance, its costing me a lot of money to give it to 5 horses. Ideally i'd get analysis done of field and forage and tailor make a sup but realistically it would have to be cheaper than buying the pro balance.

 

[Oberon]

You usually find the initial outlay is higher but long term and with a larger herd, I would expect it to be cheaper to mix your own minerals.

I needed (specific for elderly horse and my land)

1/2 tsp zinc
1/2 tsp copper
1 tablespoon magnesium
1 tsp lysine
1 tsp biotin
2000iu vit E

I also learnt to avoid feeds high in phosphorous, calcium and iodine (seaweed, bran and alfalfa were out).

I use Pro Balance + now though, as I am too lazy to mix my own minerals

 

[weebarney]

Thanks oberon, where do you buy the ingredients from?

 

[criso]

Not sure it is cheaper for me. I feed the bioplex forms of copper and zinc (the form used in pro hoof and the forage plus balancers) at quite a high level due to off the scale levels of manganese. 20ml and 45ml respectively and it does get expensive.

but then none of the off the peg ones would supply what we need.

Both the companies I mentioned list exactly what is in their balancers and how much so it's easy enough to check.