Is chaff a waste of time and money?

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lauren_237

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We've recently bought a 16.3 thoroughbred due to be delivered in a couple of weeks. It's our first time keeping a horse at home and I'm trying to decide what feed he actually needs...I've been reading through some of the other threads which direct away from the use of chaff, which has left me a bit confused due to my old yard using chaff all the way through the winter.

Should I be giving him some chaff or just stick to hay/haylage, beet etc..? All help and advice appreciated
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EDIT: He'll be on grass during the day and then in at night and is going to be used for hacking and light jumping.
 
I mentioned this is my thread :P

I've always fed it as standard just as I have always fed a beet of some kind (sugar or speedi etc.). Its only lately Ive felt it is a waste of money. Yes, you're meant to feed high fibre but TBH most people probably feed 1 or 2 handfuls in a feed which isn't much at all. I think its fine as a hay replacer or something (ie. if your horse is ill and you're encouraging him to eat so you feed it in big amounts etc.). As long as you feed lots of hay and grass which it sounds like yours will, I dont see much point in chaff.
 
Depends how and why you feed it. I feed it because alfalfa chaff is good for horses with a history of ulcers, and I also feed it 30mins before any form of exercise to buffer the stomach against splash ulcers.
 
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Depends how and why you feed it. I feed it because alfalfa chaff is good for horses with a history of ulcers, and I also feed it 30mins before any form of exercise to buffer the stomach against splash ulcers.

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Same...
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I also use a chaff based feed (Happy Hoof) for my fatties on restricted grazing and for my cob to stop him bolting and choking on his fibre nuts..

I think chaff can be a very useful product
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i always feed it, about a level scoop (or more) per feed, usually 2x daily. which one i use depends on the horse; Graze On (same as Readigrass) is my usual one, but anything growing or competing hard gets Alfa-A as well or instead. Anything on a diet gets Hi Fi Original or Hi Fi Lite.
i add sugar beet, balancer, mixes etc as necessary, but i always feed chaff without fail.
 
TBH I love alfalfa chaff for my 4 horses - great for the native breeds - bulks out their feeds, guarantees good quality fibre, they love it - to go with their Baileys Lo Cal.

In the winter I give them SpeediBeet as well, in addition to loads of hay. The 2 in work do TREC, and Dressage and seem to do really well on it!
 
Depends on the horse! I don't feed any chaff to mine at the moment - they have haylage available all the time they are in the stable, so are getting plenty of long fibre. Veteran mare eats slowly and chaff slows her down too much and often means she leaves some - so she just gets sugar beet and oats.

Other two just get a small amount of high fibre cubes - these are soaked to a firm mash, so no danger of choke.

However, I have fed it when I have needed to - old pony had dental problems so had huge tubs of Happy Hoof as a hay replacer, whilst another pony did well on Alfa A as a bucket feed. If I do feed a chaff I prefer an alfalfa or grass based one rather than the chopped straw ones that I feel are hugely expensive for what they are!
 
Chaff is brilliant.

It bulks out a feed increasing chewing time and satisfying the horse's need to chew and have fibre in the diet. Meaning it is also good for horses prone to ulcers/colic.

It helps with the passage of food through the gut.

The digestion of chaff uses bacteria and the action of this produces heat which helps to keep the horse feeling warm.

Contact feed companies for feeding advice of your TB.

A horse should have 1.5-2.5% of body weight in feed a day.

For a TB, chaff alone probably wont be enough, but it depends on workload and temperment too.

For an average TB in light work during winter, I would feed a cool mix/nuts, chaff (and sugar beet if horse is starting to loose condition) as well as haylage/hay over night/when stabled. This should provide your horse with all the vits/mins and calories needed as well as providing your horse fibre in the form of chaff for digestion etc as noted above. As horses have evolved to be almost constantly chewing a horse should always have hay/haylage available when stabled.

Think of chaff as the same as fibre in a human diet.
 
Friend and I discussed this last night - Yes to things like ReadiGrass/Graze On/Alfa A/HiFi, but the Mollichop types are just sticky yuck.
 
contact feed companis for advice on feeding - they are very helpful. And make sure you know what he's being currently fed obviously.

I feed chaff as mine bolts otherwise - plus she does not need any hard feed 75% of the year just a good amount of decent quality chaff (Hifi type) and a multivit.
Mine suits a high fibre diet, and i'm not one to feed hard feed unless the horse actually requires it.
 
chaff bulks out the feed and they eat the mix or nuts slower,it avoids a quick build up of starchy food in the stomach by mixing it with the fibre This is better for the horse. years ago working horses,hunters and so on were fed 4 fields a day, a typical feed being 2lb or rolled oats and1lb chaff [ which is, originally a 50/50 mix of hay and oat straw]. They then had long hay at night . This way a small stream of food passed through the horse over 2 hours without the stomach being overloaded.
Nowadays we try to feed two bucket feeds a day, or even worse,one. No wonder there are problems.
 
I have a TB who gets chaff.
He has good quality haylage and turnout on poor pasture. He is in good condition and a fairly good doer.
He is quite sensitive to sugar so can't have sugar beet of any sort (including speedibeet/easibeet).
He also can't have the economy molassed chaff that our local feed store does as this is 24% sugar.
Both of these sent him psycho.

However he is fine with Alfalfa (Dengie hi fi and alfa a) and Marksway mollichaff who use lower sugar coating.
You can really tell the difference with the Mollichaff which feels almost silky instead of sticky.

He has a multivit and a couple of supplements for his feet/joints so I do need something to carry this and the Mollichaff Herbal is good as it also disguises the taste.
He is also unbearable in his stable if he doesn't get something in a bucket. When he was on an exclusion diet for allergy testing I tried to convince him that chopped up haylage was a feed but the bucket got flung out of the stable at me.
He also gets Alfa A depending on work, it's higher protein.
The only real difference between what I'm doing and buying hi fi (which is a mixture of straw or alfalfa) is that I can vary the proportions depending on time of year and workload.

I try to keep him on a forage only diet and i think he's looking OK at the moment. Needs a bit more muscle but he's been off for injury. Any excuse for a piccie.

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i feed Alpha-A to some of mine and straight feeds to others.

Pilfer only gets mix as he eats slowly anyway.

Millie gets Alpha-A with Topspec.

Vinnie gets a handful of Alpha-A with his conditioning feed as it helps stop him spitting it everywhere!

mine have forage available 24/7 in the form of grass and haylage so no need to bulk up their 'dinners.'
 
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Chaff is brilliant.

It bulks out a feed increasing chewing time and satisfying the horse's need to chew and have fibre in the diet. Meaning it is also good for horses prone to ulcers/colic.

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Thing is - why is it good to bulk out feed? I've always thought feeding little meals was far better than a big one which is what it turns into with chaff added.

With regards to chewing and fibre - surely horses always have access to grass or hay at all times (I would hope!) so they should be chewing fibre all day long!

I'm taking mine of chaff, I've always fed Alfalfa based ones but I dont see the point. They'll still get their fibre but in the form of speedi beet etc.
 
Chaff is great

Buy the best quality hay (and/or straw) you can get hold of put it through a chaff cutter add whatever you want and feed away - its cheap easy and good for your horse
or
buy chaff, pay over the odds for rubbish that is so unpalateble even to a horse that it has to be mixed with all sorts of nonsense so the horse will eat it!

I wont touch commercial chaff again, I have seen the light at the end of the chaff cutter!

Ask your feed merchant why companies bulk chaff out with ash, sugar beet pulp, mollases, clay, and other things you might not want to feed your horse.
See if they can list what goes into the commercial chaff they are trying to sell you

But most of all remember your horse has evolved to eat for the large majority of its day and night, changing that pattern is risking ulcers - keep your horse chewing!

good luck
ps Im biased I restore and sell old chaff cutters!
 
Mines fed just an Alfalfa based diet. I too have been wanting to cut down costs, so mine is just fed on a balancer, Alfa Oil and Speedi beet, as I dont like feeding mixes/cubes on their own because of the higher starch rate. Also, ALfa Oil ends up more cost effective anyway I believe... we will see!!
 
Mine are fed chaff based diet - I use Simple Systems and depending upon work load, weight etc, use Just Grass, Ruff Stuff (grass chaffs) or Green Gold, Lucie Stalks (alfa chaffs). I also feed a little speedibeet and their supplements.

This suits my horses very well, I have not fed a mix in years and found when I changed from mix and molasses chaffs to the Simple Systems one, our old clydesdale had far more stamina and energy.

Chaff feeds can be very good if you take the time to see what is in them and get one to suit the diet you want. They are also good if you just want to be able to give the fatty a little feed along with others or with a vit supplement in with not much in the way of feed value.
 
I just have to correct a small myth, which often arises when people criticise commercial food manufacturers of any animal feed.

No manufacturer ADDS "ash" to their feedstuff.

They are legally required to state on the label what percentage of ash is left when a certain weight of the feedstuff is incinerated. It represents the raw mineral content of the food i.e. non organic content, and I think is supposed to allow standard comparisons between different feedstuffs in complex nutrition calculations.

This is very misleading as the majority of people read the label and assume that it is an "ingredient" - it isn't!
 
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