oats advice please!

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I would like to start feeding my new horse oats this winter but am a little confused over the different types.
He will be the only horse on the yard being fed oats, and as I have been told that oats don't have a long shelf life, need to know which type stays freshest longest to avoid any wastage.
He is currently fed chaff, beet and a basic pasture mix.
Thank you!
 
they last as long as any other feed stuff. I would suggest rolled oats.. why have you decided to mix a straight into a mix?

Personally if you were after more energy i would be more inclined to feed a more hi-energy mix over oats onto of a mix, as you are in effect, unbalencing a balence nutritional mix.

Lou x
 
Thanks Lou - excuse my ignorance! So what you are saying is that oats should only be fed as a straight feed? Would feeding oats with chaff be acceptable? I have tried him on a couple of higher energy mixes over the summer and they didn't seem to make any difference.
 
oats may not make any diffrence, it may be more of a fitness issue.
I am saying that a mix is already balence nutritionally.. so why unbalance the level by adding oats.
Lou x
 
If you are going to add straight oats, or even replace your mix with them, then consider feeding alfalfa instead of chaff - and if you drop the mix you might need to add a broad multi vit supplement.
 
Why not try mixing oats with a feedbalencer, chaff and beet? Then you have a nutritionally balanced feed with extra energy when needed? I think rolled oats is the one to use, but I've read tiger oats are OK?(I think?!) Couldn't get any of those in my local feed shop though!
 
Please take careful note of your horses reaction to the oats

I used oats to increase my horses energy as he was very slow and lethargic

he became even more slow on the oats, so i had a re think and put him on the EPSM diet

He's got much more energy now than he's ever had.
Some horses just can't tolerate high energy foods
smile.gif
 
I feed straight oats and a bag lasts for ages. I feed them with Bailey's lo cal balancer and a handful of chaff to bulk it out. I will add some sugar beet when we get further into winter. This seems to work very well and I am sure it is cheaper than feeding great scoopfuls of mixes.
 
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