Is chaff bad for horses?

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AWinter

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Apologies for the aggressive title but I wanted to draw people who might know more.

I’ve recently been told by someone that chaff is bad for horses, it affects how their digestion works and causes ulcers? Something about it being so short I’m not 100% sure, this has come from the people campaigning for awareness of KPU.

The only study I can find was with alfalfa chaff fed in large quantities appeared to cause lesions.

I’m not too fussed about using it as a feed but I like to do a lot of clicker training and using chaff is ideal for this.

Any thoughts/further information ?
 
cmkeventing said:
If anything the opposite. Soft chaff is perfect to feed before exercise to prevent ulcers. Like all feeds there will be something better for one horse than the other but chaff should be the base of all feeds.
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I suppose I’m more looking for evidence that the claim it causes ulcers is unfounded.
 
It's Dr. Christina Fritz who says that chaff causes gut issues - apparently it's because of the small length of the forage - it isn't chewed adequately before being swallowed and then sits in the gut for a long time and can contribute to dysbiosis? She's German so I'm assuming that this is either based off of her own studies in Germany or studies we haven't necessarily heard of over here. I cut it out anyway as it seemed a waste of money for what it is and I only feed very small token feeds to my horses to carry balancer/oily herbs etc.
 
I've known "modern" bagged chaff to cause impaction colic because of it's form. I dislike all modern feeds because you never actually know what is in them (and it's usually stuff you don't want your horse eating). Wouldn't surprise me if there's a link with ulcers but I'd like to see the research.

Never had any problems with old fashioned chopped hay and straw chaff, but then it had no additives and was a lot rougher and required more chewing.
 
Miss_Millie said:
It's Dr. Christina Fritz who says that chaff causes gut issues - apparently it's because of the small length of the forage - it isn't chewed adequately before being swallowed and then sits in the gut for a long time and can contribute to dysbiosis? She's German so I'm assuming that this is either based off of her own studies in Germany or studies we haven't necessarily heard of over here. I cut it out anyway as it seemed a waste of money for what it is and I only feed very small token feeds to my horses to carry balancer/oily herbs etc.
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I don't think there are any studies - Dr Fritz and her band of zealots have been going on about that for ages. I asked. I got nothing back.
 
Miss_Millie said:
It's Dr. Christina Fritz who says that chaff causes gut issues - apparently it's because of the small length of the forage - it isn't chewed adequately before being swallowed and then sits in the gut for a long time and can contribute to dysbiosis? She's German so I'm assuming that this is either based off of her own studies in Germany or studies we haven't necessarily heard of over here. I cut it out anyway as it seemed a waste of money for what it is and I only feed very small token feeds to my horses to carry balancer/oily herbs etc.
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Science is global. If there are any peer reviewed studies, then we would have heard about it, particularly with a common feed like chaff. There are people employed in the media specifically to look for studies like this. My own was picked up by Horsetalk in NZ and that was rather niche!
 
Maybe ‘mechanical ulcers’ could theoretically be formed IF the chaff is very coarse, stemmy and dry, and the horse eating it just inhales it without chewing much to soften it.
They’d have a stomach full of sharp stemmy material, that has potential to scratch the inner stomach wall, moreso if the stomach gets very full with that type of chaff.

It’s more likely a scenario if a large amount of dried very stemmy chaff is fed at once, eaten quickly, so half of it has absorbed stomach acid, the other half is sitting in the stomach dry awaiting more stomach acid production to soften it.
The stomach wall would then be in a drier state than is usual, despite being a mucous membrane, and thus potentially more prone to scratches from unchewed sharp stemmy stems.
(Don’t forget equine stomach size is similar volume to a rugby ball - quite small considering the overall size of the horse)

I’ve cut my hands pulling hay off a round bale - just catching the sharp side of a stem that then slides through my hand cutting it, just like a paper cut.
Stemmier forages can be surprisingly sharp.
Cut up into little chaffy bits you’ve then got 4 sharp corners of each small chaff piece aswell as the sharp side of stem itself.

Wetting it, and not having too stemmy chaff, nor a super-tasty chaff + hangry horse, would negate what must be a rare but theoretically possible ulcer cause.
 
I had a quick google for studies, and the trouble with research is there are so many small studies done, because basically there is no money is in doing full trials it would really have to stand out, and the feed companies make a lot of money turning a low cost product in to something they can sell for profit.
It makes to sense to me because chewing producing saliva starts the digestion process, so chew time is important. So I would imagine it's whether the chaff is a part of a feed, if it has been moistened, and how much you are feeding.
ker.com

Food for Thought: Details of the Equine Digestive Tract - Kentucky Equine Research

An understanding of the structure and function of each section of the system can help horse owners keep their equine charges free of digestive upsets.
ker.com ker.com
 
honetpot said:
I had a quick google for studies, and the trouble with research is there are so many small studies done, because basically there is no money is in doing full trials it would really have to stand out, and the feed companies make a lot of money turning a low cost product in to something they can sell for profit.
It makes to sense to me because chewing producing saliva starts the digestion process, so chew time is important. So I would imagine it's whether the chaff is a part of a feed, if it has been moistened, and how much you are feeding.
ker.com

Food for Thought: Details of the Equine Digestive Tract - Kentucky Equine Research

An understanding of the structure and function of each section of the system can help horse owners keep their equine charges free of digestive upsets.
ker.com ker.com
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Yeah I was thinking perhaps it could be argued that due to it being short chop, there's less chewing time so less acid buffering saliva being produced. But considering it's usually added to even easier to chew feeds to bulk it out and extend chewing time, it's probably better than feeding without.
I did actually try mixing cut down hay into feeds instead of chaff (as in, cut down from full length but still much longer than chaff is cut) a few years back, out of curiosity. Can't say I noticed much difference in chew time, but my lot back then were absolute gannets!
 
Fransurrey said:
Science is global. If there are any peer reviewed studies, then we would have heard about it, particularly with a common feed like chaff. There are people employed in the media specifically to look for studies like this. My own was picked up by Horsetalk in NZ and that was rather niche!
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I was just sharing what I remember from a talk I attended ages ago, I have no idea of the accuracy of the information though. Christina Fritz said that chaff could sit in the gut for up to 10 days undigested and cause dysbiosis, I don't know where she got that information from or how accurate it is though.

Similar to Rowreach, I don't feed chaff because there are too many fillers. As mentioned above, I don't really 'do' hard feeds other than in tiny quantities to feed minerals etc.
 
Thanks for all your thoughts, I was looking at the Emerald Feeds meadow chaff which is soft with no filler but it is very short chop. Will perhaps stick with using grass nuts for training. I know so many people who use copious amounts of chaff with seemingly no issues but I guess we don’t really know.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I fed it dry because I offered so much as a hay replacer that wetting it could easily have started it growing mould, overnight
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I feed my oat straw dry as she just picks at it and only eats it when she needs to but her feed chaff does get well dampened.
Selfishly I hope there isn’t any truth in it as it’s what I use to carry my supplements and get on well with it.
 
Chaff slows down eating time, bulks out feed and prevents gastric ulcers splashing up into the oesophagus. It’s only fibre at the end of the day so is no different to feeding chopped straw.

I feed no cereals or straights, all are on fibre only diets with my old boy having a balancer too. main bulk of the meal is chaff, and the two older ones have sugarbeet too.
 
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Alfalfa chop can be very coarse and sharp, particularly if coated (e.g. Dengie Alfa A). I also feed it damp if I use it, I don't like how it gets up their nostrils if dry.
 
Rowreach said:
I've known "modern" bagged chaff to cause impaction colic because of it's form. I dislike all modern feeds because you never actually know what is in them (and it's usually stuff you don't want your horse eating). Wouldn't surprise me if there's a link with ulcers but I'd like to see the research.

Never had any problems with old fashioned chopped hay and straw chaff, but then it had no additives and was a lot rougher and required more chewing.
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Doesn't it tell you on the bag what is in it?
I agree what you say about the old fashioned chaff, that is all we have in NZ and have never heard of a problem, have fed lucerne chaff for years.
 
I feed Hi Fi Senior, have done for years now, never had a problem. But as long as horses have unlimited access to clean water there shouldn't be a problem with anything. I've seen horses flush their mouths in water to swiftly deal with any spiky stalks found in traditional chaffs too.
 
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