Price of horse feed!

I'm not sure most horses really need hard feed. It’s a very human thing to consider meals- horses are grazers, it would be better to give an extra slice of hay IMO, unless the horses has high energy/ protein demands due to the level of work.
I do supplement my winter grazing with grass nuts and a mineral powder, but it's very cheap to feed and 1 scoop (unsoaked) does 4 horses
 
TheMule said:
I'm not sure most horses really need hard feed. It’s a very human thing to consider meals- horses are grazers, it would be better to give an extra slice of hay IMO, unless the horses has high energy/ protein demands due to the level of work.
I do supplement my winter grazing with grass nuts and a mineral powder, but it's very cheap to feed and 1 scoop (unsoaked) does 4 horses
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Or your horse will only eat so much hay, and otherwise lose weight. Hay is definitely cheapest way though, as you say
 
TheMule said:
I'm not sure most horses really need hard feed. It’s a very human thing to consider meals- horses are grazers, it would be better to give an extra slice of hay IMO, unless the horses has high energy/ protein demands due to the level of work.
I do supplement my winter grazing with grass nuts and a mineral powder, but it's very cheap to feed and 1 scoop (unsoaked) does 4 horses
Click to expand...

See in the past I would have agreed with you here, but my mare who is over 50% cob/Irish Draught drops weight no matter how much hay I stuff in over the winter (I know this is natural and I do want her to be light going into the spring, but not looking like an actual rescue case). Therefore she does better when she is fed.
 
TheMule said:
I'm not sure most horses really need hard feed. It’s a very human thing to consider meals- horses are grazers, it would be better to give an extra slice of hay IMO, unless the horses has high energy/ protein demands due to the level of work.
I do supplement my winter grazing with grass nuts and a mineral powder, but it's very cheap to feed and 1 scoop (unsoaked) does 4 horses
Click to expand...

It depends on your circumstances. Lot of horses on a small acreage, growing youngsters, horses with lots of blood (thin coated TB type) and older horses may need extra calories from hard feed. Lots of riding schools have to feed hard feed.
2 out of my 4 need hard feed through winter, 2 are fine without.
 
TheMule said:
I'm not sure most horses really need hard feed. It’s a very human thing to consider meals- horses are grazers, it would be better to give an extra slice of hay IMO, unless the horses has high energy/ protein demands due to the level of work.
I do supplement my winter grazing with grass nuts and a mineral powder, but it's very cheap to feed and 1 scoop (unsoaked) does 4 horses
Click to expand...
I would have agreed with you up to this year when my boy started looking poor around a month ago. Typical that just as feed prices escalate he starts needing more feed ?
 
Dexter said:
Honestly, yes. I think she would take the risk of bombs. I wouldnt, but my situation is different so its easier to be rational. I very much doubt shes alone in how she feels.
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i doubt the reality would be better, for anyone, having to fix war damage is not going to make the financial situation any better and nuclear war would just be the end full stop
 
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little_critter said:
I would have agreed with you up to this year when my boy started looking poor around a month ago. Typical that just as feed prices escalate he starts needing more feed ?
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I'm getting the weight drop off and feeding the amount of hay, I wouldn't normally expect to do till January. There appears to be grass but it grew late after the drought so maybe not as much in it despite appearance.
 
I'm between riding horses just now. Cob for sale adverts used to say "needs restricted feeding" as a disadvantage. I'm starting to see adverts saying "can live on fresh air". The two youngsters are natives & pretty much run on coarse grass all year round and I'm going to be looking for a good-doer to ride.
My main worry is one of my dogs who has allergies & is very restricted in what he can eat. His food goes up & up & I'm feeling trapped in a corner because I can't change what I give him without making him ill. I feel sorry for people with horses on special diets.
 
I have to admit predominantly always feed straights and chaff.....if I had something that needed feeding up linseed or a bag of crushed barley which I would boil a bit in a pressure cooker...
 
criso said:
I'm getting the weight drop off and feeding the amount of hay, I wouldn't normally expect to do till January. There appears to be grass but it grew late after the drought so maybe not as much in it despite appearance.
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precisely what one of my neighbouring farmers was saying only last week. Plenty of grass but just no value in it.
 
hollyandivy123 said:
I have to admit predominantly always feed straights and chaff.....if I had something that needed feeding up linseed or a bag of crushed barley which I would boil a bit in a pressure cooker...
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I agree this is probably the cheapest option, and my local Mole Valley sell straights at a very reasonable price BUT it is hard to do this when you are on a livery yard with limited space- at my previous yard we were only really allowed 2-3 feed bins per horse, and no additional storage for feed, so that pushes a lot of people into feeding a mix which is more expensive.

But I would also say prices for straight feed has gone up in the last 12 months, too.

paddy555 said:
precisely what one of my neighbouring farmers was saying only last week. Plenty of grass but just no value in it.
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I feel like this too- my YO has just put bales out in all the fields, as even though the grass looks good, some of the horses were starting to lose weight- and I could tell from my pony's behaviour he was hungry. It looks like there is plenty of grass in their field, but I guess dry summer plus crap weather now means it doesn't contain as many sugars as normal for the time of year.
 
It’s gone be tough , I am fortunate all of mine are extreme good doers and are only getting a balancer and they are muzzled in the field for weight control and to make the grass last .
We are not working them hard this year for various reasons .
 
We lost our poor doers last summer. The rest are natives currently on 1.5 acres as a herd and no one is slim. We're feeding some haylage to keep them off the acorns (don't have a field without them in, this is the one with the fewest trees!) but only for that reason - they're all in good condition and all in a good amount of work. I did buy little for our 'spare' pony this year though - 11.2hh Welshy eats basically nothing so it was a 'feed prices are rising, it'd be lovely to get something we can keep for years but I don't want to feed another 13.2hh' decision! She's been a bit of a special one to get going under saddle, but my time is free and feed most certainly is not!
 
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£19.50 for a bag of Alfa A Oil now!

I'm looking round to swap what I can to save a feq quid, Have switched from Baileys Top Line Cubes to Baileys Stud Cubes as they're very similar and that saves about £3 a bag
 
paddy555 said:
precisely what one of my neighbouring farmers was saying only last week. Plenty of grass but just no value in it.
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I would agree with this. I put feed blocks out for my sheep, currently about £28 each and normally at this time of year they wouldn't be taking much. If allowed they are getting through 2 every 8 days. Can't keep that up all winter.
 
Spillers apple mash now 17 pounds a bag. Was 11 pounds two years ago. Was buying two a week. I’ve dropped to one. Just giving a token amount. And adding a carrot in each bowl.
 
I paid £17.75 for speedibeet yesterday. I'm very lucky, I have native and native crosses. 3 horses in full work have 1 Stubbs scoop dry weight per day between them. They also have a balancer. The balancer has gone up from £31 to £36.
 
That’s interesting others are finding their horses are eating hay even though it looks like there should be grass. I was wondering what was going on.
 
TheMule said:
I'm not sure most horses really need hard feed. It’s a very human thing to consider meals- horses are grazers, it would be better to give an extra slice of hay IMO, unless the horses has high energy/ protein demands due to the level of work.
I do supplement my winter grazing with grass nuts and a mineral powder, but it's very cheap to feed and 1 scoop (unsoaked) does 4 horses
Click to expand...
I feed mug mash and mug grass nuts twice a day (soaked). Add linseed and vitamins and minerals. I’m not feeding for calories. Aiming to top up protein and make willing to eat vitamins and minerals.

A bag of grass nuts and bag of agrobs mash lasts my big clipped horse a month!

Adlib grass / hay / Haylage bulk of diet.
 
I moved away from Pro Earth to Hoof Transformation as it was cheaper but still good quality.
I've moved from Fast Fibre to Grass Nuts as they're less expensive.
Linseed has shot up in price.
It does make me concerned about Winter as my horse needs supplement for her hooves and the other one needs something daily all year for her danilon.

I moved the dog to a cheaper food too as that was getting mental. I really feel for those that need specific diets for their horses/dogs.
I'm glad my horse with diastemas is doing grand on hay at the moment as she was costing me £40 plus a week last winter in feed.
 
My oats Have gone up from £3.50 to £7.50 in a few months. Readigrass £15 to £22.95 too. Dreading my next slobbermash order.
 
Bought a bag of carrots from Mole this afternoon. I had to sit down with shock, they had only gone up 50p, I was expecting 2 or 3 quid or more at least the way things are going.
Sugar beet still rationed to 2 bags per customer.
 
Wishfilly said:
I agree this is probably the cheapest option, and my local Mole Valley sell straights at a very reasonable price BUT it is hard to do this when you are on a livery yard with limited space- at my previous yard we were only really allowed 2-3 feed bins per horse, and no additional storage for feed, so that pushes a lot of people into feeding a mix which is
paddy555 said:
Bought a bag of carrots from Mole this afternoon. I had to sit down with shock, they had only gone up 50p, I was expecting 2 or 3 quid or more at least the way things are going.
Sugar beet still rationed to 2 bags per customer.
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We had a smaller beet harvest due to the draught this year
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