Mineral Deficiency

[Singing Dawg]

Does anyone have any idea what minerals may be missing. 3 ponies and 2 horses, being stripped grazed with plenty of grass in front of them, eating some areas totally bare then eating roots.

Should I have bloods done, or soil sampling? Both?

They have had access to a broad spectrum mineral up till about a month ago, I will reintroduce this tomorrow but wonder if there's something more in this.

Any recommendations on mineral/vitamin supplements that won't break the bank?

TIA,

SD.

 

[ThePony]

Best way is to get a grazing analysis done. I used these people http://shop.forageplus.com/ who I would totally recommend. You get the sampling pack and instructions after you have added the grazing analysis online. Then you take your sample and send it off. About a week later you get the results back. So interesting too! Our grazing (on the surface of it, it appears good, vaired, not rich grazing) but actually it is shocking!

Off the back of this we have decided to have a feed plan done so that we can know exactly what amounts of different minerals need to be added to their diet to give them a balanced diet. Not a cheap solution, but really the only way of giving them what they need.

Without knowing what is in the grazing, you really have no idea what your horses may be deficient or overdosed in.

 

[classicalfan]

We leave buckets of mineral and salt mix in each field. The horses take what they need. The minerals/vitamins content is never constant in the grass, forage, etc (at certain times of year certain plants draw up differing amounts) so this is cheaper than having constant analysis. Just good old horse sense!

 

[Oberon]

Those of us who have had foreage analysis' done are finding that the UK appears to show a trend of high calcium and manganese but low copper and zinc.

High manganese block absorption of copper and zinc (I think..), which means the horses tend to be very deprived.

Copper assists in metabolism and zinc is important for foot health (among other things).

Lots of horse feeds add calcium to their feeds - so the horse gets way too much of it (think that alfalfa is packed with it and everything has alfalfa in it nowadays....)

Problems with general vit and min mixes is that they are balanced evenly with manganese, calcium, copper and zinc - so you go back to square one as the foreage they are eating isn't balanced in the first place.

It's like randomly throwing sand at a pothole and hoping it lands level.

Most horses cope OK, but you get the ones with lami, poor hoof growth, crumbly hooves, infections, mud fever etc, etc.

Those vit and min licks for the paddocks have negligible amounts in them - no where near enough to do any good.

 

[Singing Dawg]

Thank you, all very interesting and helpful