Mineral comparison spreadsheet- Equimins AC vs Forage plus

[Reacher]

Hi
Am trying to decide between ordering another forage plus winter / skin and hoof balancer for Mr H versus using Equimins advance complete which already I feed one horse anyway and trying to compare amounts of minerals between the two is making my eyes bleed.
Just wondered if anyone has one of those handy spreadsheet analysis comparisons they wouldn’t mind sharing? Even if it uses a different FP balancer it should be enough info to help me.

I’ve already noticed FP contains iodine and my grazing is high in iodine so don’t want to supplement it. I already have some straight zinc, copper and magnesium so can top up the Equimins with those.
Thanks

 

[shortstuff99]

I think @ester had a spreadsheet?

 

[criso]

I did one ages ago comparing fp, pe and equivita but couldn't add equimins as that info wasn't available online. Do you have the equimins analysis as amount supplied in mg per daily recommended dosage for an average horse, not % or ingredients.

 

[Reacher]

THe Equimins data is here (sorry on phone can’t do decent screenshot)
And FP is here
https://forageplus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Forageplus-comparison-of-balancers-NEW.pdf

But its difficult comparing like- for- like

I did one ages ago comparing fp, pe and equivita but couldn't add equimins as that info wasn't available online. Do you have the equimins analysis as amount supplied in mg per daily recommended dosage for an average horse, not % or ingredients.

 

[ester]

I did somewhere because I'm also the loser who emailed equimins to say their website and the tub didn't match up at one point. I can have a look when home.

 

[Reacher]

PS I can multiply up the weights, it’s how to compared copper to cupric chelate of whatever (etc) where I struggle

 

[Tiddlypom]

I’ve not got a spreadsheet, but as an observation my 3 do better on the fairly basic Pro Balance+ than they did on Forageplus winter skin and hoof health balancer ?.

I switched one horse to the Pro Balance+ as it does not contain linseed (she reacts to linseed), she did so well on it that I switched the others too.

 

[Reacher]

I did somewhere because I'm also the loser who emailed equimins to say their website and the tub didn't match up at one point. I can have a look when home.

Perfect - thankyou!

 

[Reacher]

I’ve not got a spreadsheet, but as an observation my 3 do better on the fairly basic Pro Balance+ than they did on Forageplus winter skin and hoof health balancer ?.

I switched one horse to the Pro Balance+ as it does not contain linseed (she reacts to linseed), she did so well on it that I switched the others too.

That’s interesting - maybe it depends on your grass/hay mineral balance. I had a grass analysis done a couple of years ago so can see how they would balance or double up on different minerals

 

[criso]

When i did the comparison before the fp and pe were very similar in proportion of main minerals however the recommended daily dose was different with fp suggesting you feed more. Since then pe have brought out more varients.

 

[criso]

THe Equimins data is here (sorry on phone can’t do decent screenshot)
And FP is here
https://forageplus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Forageplus-comparison-of-balancers-NEW.pdf

But its difficult comparing like- for- like

Yes, looking at their website I remember why I didn't bother. They give the amount of compound per kg plus they use more than one type of some things. So you need to know that the bioplex/chelated version of copper is 12% copper and the sulphate is 25%. I'm getting 245mg of actual copper compared to 400mg in FP and 200/300mg in PE pro hoof/pro balance plus

 

[ester]

Right I've found it, and the email convo I had with David in June re. some missing info from the website which should now be there. I just want to scan it for sense and will see what works best to get it up on here.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Mine won’t touch Equimins, it stinks so I’m not surprised and I’ve binned FP in favour of Science Supplements. 3 years on FP did didly squat for DP’s thin soles but 6 months on SS have made all the difference.

 

[ester]

So I do have some historical mg/kg values for copper and zinc for equimins so they must have had them published at some point, but from my workings they have changed a bit

I have the rest of the minerals too if people also want that bit posting too and happy for anyone to check my working! It's late/I hadn;t actually finished the copper/zinc bits last time. I very much tend towards one column per excel operation so I can check it so it doesnt screenshot as one in it's current form. The sheet is compared to FP pellets.

 

[criso]

I calculated on a lower dosage as i read the recommendation for ponies but about the same.

Interesting that the fp pellets have less Cu and Zn than their other products. They didn't exist when i did my sheet.

Also everyone else in the market seems to have over twice zinc to copper but Equimins goes not much difference.

 

[ester]

I think I tried to go about 500kg for each so they were comparable, but as I say that bit was a while ago.
My previous equimins numbers were 0.28 for zinc and 0.4 for copper but that would have been from a few years ago when I first compared it to what I was feeding per forage analysis which might have been 6ish years ago.

 

[palo1]

When I asked the same question a few months ago one of the puzzles and answers was related to the sort of copper and zinc that are included in equimins. I have been feeding Equimins AC for a few months now and absolutely no change in hoof or skin condition in relation to FP. The good thing is that Equimins is much cheaper and mine will eat it up! I am not, at this point concerned about the levels of copper and zinc and I am not adding extra of either also.

 

[Bernster]

being very non spread sheety - but very appreciative of benefitting from other people’s analysis. Does equimins work out cheaper than the FP for a similar miracle composition then? I looked at FP and it had a good mix of the right things I needed, but if there’s a cheaper alternative that does broadly the same, I’d be keen to know!

 

[ester]

There definitely was a costs spreadsheet but I don't think it was one of mine as my original comparison was self-mixed minerals (which does make the kitchen look like a drugs den) v. equimins.

The biggest pusher for me was that getting him to eat the self-mixed was problematic - though agrobs wasn't in the country then! (just checked, my spreadsheet says 2014 lol)

 

[ycbm]

Mine won’t touch Equimins, it stinks so I’m not surprised and I’ve binned FP in favour of Science Supplements. 3 years on FP did didly squat for DP’s thin soles but 6 months on SS have made all the difference.

Mine's loving the Equimins powder in 100g of soaked grass nuts. A bit relieved because I bought the whole winter's supply at once.
.

 

[criso]

I did a sheet which included costs but it's too out of date now and didn't include Equimins as I couldn't get the data.

FP and PE came out about the same, as I said the proportions of key minerals was pretty much the same but the dosage varied, if you adjusted so there were the same levels then the difference in price disappeared. The exception was Pro mineral which used the cheaper versions of copper and zinc not the chelated/bioplex versions. At that time Equivita also used cheaper versions of copper and zinc and they worked out cheaper too.

Postage made a difference as FP are quite high if you only buy one small item but give free postage over a certain amount. PE postage starts reasonably for one item but soon adds up. From buying some straights from Equimins, their postage is very reasonable in that you don't need to buy much to get free postage.

 

[Reacher]

So I do have some historical mg/kg values for copper and zinc for equimins so they must have had them published at some point, but from my workings they have changed a bit

I have the rest of the minerals too if people also want that bit posting too and happy for anyone to check my working! It's late/I hadn;t actually finished the copper/zinc bits last time. I very much tend towards one column per excel operation so I can check it so it doesnt screenshot as one in it's current form. The sheet is compared to FP pellets.

Thanks very much Ester, sorry for the late reply.
I would be interested in the other minerals if not too much bother to post them and I’m happy to have a go at checking them

 

[Reacher]

being very non spread sheety - but very appreciative of benefitting from other people’s analysis. Does equimins work out cheaper than the FP for a similar miracle composition then? I looked at FP and it had a good mix of the right things I needed, but if there’s a cheaper alternative that does broadly the same, I’d be keen to know!

Don’t know if it’s a “miracle composition “ ? but I can have a go at the price comparison at weekend

 

[Bernster]

Ooh that would be awesome if you did !

 

[ester]

Thanks very much Ester, sorry for the late reply.
I would be interested in the other minerals if not too much bother to post them and I’m happy to have a go at checking them

Perhaps pm me your email and I can send you the whole sheet?

 

[Reacher]

Perhaps pm me your email and I can send you the whole sheet?

Perfect - will do ?

 

[Reacher]

Ooh that would be awesome if you did !

Will do - being sad I quite like a good spreadsheet ?

 

[Reacher]

I have an apology to make - I had not forgotten about this but work stuff etc was getting on top of me and I was sure I would have loads of spare time at Christmas yet time passes quickly and here we are and its nearly New Year...!

As a start I have put on a current thread:

https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/supplement-comparison.799165/

an old vitamin / mineral spreadsheet which I downloaded from internet (probably via HHO) many years ago - I thought I'd lost spreadsheets but found them when rummaging around my hard drive....

Note that the prices are out of date but easy to pro rata by current prices (if everything else equal). I don't think they answer your exact question though since I dont think equimins advance complete is on it.

In my case when I discovered that Equimins has quite a lot of "unintentional" iron in it (according to Forage Plus website) , I decided to move from Equimins to FP.

Ooh that would be awesome if you did !

 

[Reacher]

Ooh that would be awesome if you did !

I've finally got around to it.... sorry again @Bernster for taking forever...

I have only compared the zinc and copper amount being fed at the recommended dose rates and compared the cost per day.

I used the Equimins data that @ester kindly provided me with and the Forage plus data from the FP website. (These look a little different to the values in Ester's spreadsheet but perhaps the ingredients have changed in the meantime?) .

To my surprise the costs come out very similar (as in the other thread I have not used the most economical size of tub or hunted down the cheapest sellers)



What I will say (and part of the reason I was slow to do the comparison) is when I discovered how much "hidden" iron there is in Equimins (*) (and other brands) I decided I would be using FP once my Equimins was used up
(*) from article on FOrage Plus website https://forageplus.co.uk/iron-in-horse-feed-balancers/

 

[Noble]

Reacher I would be interested in the hidden iron in the Equimins AC as I feed this product thinking the iron was very low, looking at FP there is now very little difference in the cost and I would be happy to switch (especially as I have found a 10% off coupon).