Supplementing hay for straw chop?

I give it to my fatty in summer when he has to be on a bare strip I tip it straight onto the ground a water bucket sized amount about three times a day he's in the stable most of the day and has some haylage lite while he's in the stable .
He eats the chopped straw when he needs to he's not exactly in love with it . I feed it dry.
 
Oat straw tends to be most favoured if used as a chop. It was recommended on here (can't remember who) to buy a bale of oat straw and put it through a garden shredder.
 
It's very easy to buy plain oat straw chop bagged .
Honeychop make one as do halleys who send it straight to you (that's what I do)
There's a couple of others too but I can't remember at the moment.
 
I've already got the chop, found some own-brand, unmolassed oat/barley straw chop in the local feedstore, £6 odd for 15kg. Fatcob is going to be out muzzled for part of the day (currently daytime, but that will change to night once the others do), but I'm looking at maybe changing some of the hay while he's in for chop?

Through winter he's been on 4kg soaked hay per night, tricklenetted. Would it be fair to cut that down to say 2/3kg (now they've changed to summer turnout?) but chuck a couple of scoops of chop in a tub trug to fill him up a bit? Do you find they gorge on it? He eats like his throat's been cut, regardless of how hungry he really is :rolleyes:
 
ShadowFlame said:
I've already got the chop, found some own-brand, unmolassed oat/barley straw chop in the local feedstore, £6 odd for 15kg. Fatcob is going to be out muzzled for part of the day (currently daytime, but that will change to night once the others do), but I'm looking at maybe changing some of the hay while he's in for chop?

Through winter he's been on 4kg soaked hay per night, tricklenetted. Would it be fair to cut that down to say 2/3kg (now they've changed to summer turnout?) but chuck a couple of scoops of chop in a tub trug to fill him up a bit? Do you find they gorge on it? He eats like his throat's been cut, regardless of how hungry he really is :rolleyes:
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Mine don't gorge more pick , fatty is greedy but does eat this when in need rather than for recreation ( eating is his Favorite hobby )
 
My mare really only tolerates the Halleys straw chop but I found it has been brilliant in helping her weight loss AND keeping her happy (she loves her bucket feed and has to have a little something to is her vits and mins with and someing whilst the oldie has his). I put a handful of speedibeet and handful of alfafa nuts in with it.
 
I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding going on here regarding"chop". Historicly ,"chop" was the feed used by carters for working horses. It consisted of chopped oat straw and oats. The idea was that it could be fed to a cart horse on the move ,from a nosebag. (early eqivalent of air to air refueling for horses:D)The only reason the straw was chopped was so that it could be eaten from a nosebag .
So unless you suddenly decide to go into the rag and bone trade ,dont bother chopping. Just buy some nice bales of oat straw and hurl out the odd section to them. They wont mind .
 
Mike007 said:
I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding going on here regarding"chop". Historicly ,"chop" was the feed used by carters for working horses. It consisted of chopped oat straw and oats. The idea was that it could be fed to a cart horse on the move ,from a nosebag. (early eqivalent of air to air refueling for horses:D)The only reason the straw was chopped was so that it could be eaten from a nosebag .
So unless you suddenly decide to go into the rag and bone trade ,dont bother chopping. Just buy some nice bales of oat straw and hurl out the odd section to them. They wont mind .
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Yes but I will don't want bales lying around and spores wafting about .
But that's want I feed my horses in work oats , chopped straw , linseed speedibeet. In quantities to suit each horse.
Sourcing good oat straw in bales can be difficult and you need space to store it where chopped you go online pay by PayPal two days later it arrives. Easy peasy.
 
Mike007 said:
I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding going on here regarding"chop". Historicly ,"chop" was the feed used by carters for working horses. It consisted of chopped oat straw and oats. The idea was that it could be fed to a cart horse on the move ,from a nosebag. (early eqivalent of air to air refueling for horses:D)The only reason the straw was chopped was so that it could be eaten from a nosebag .
So unless you suddenly decide to go into the rag and bone trade ,dont bother chopping. Just buy some nice bales of oat straw and hurl out the odd section to them. They wont mind .
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I'd love to, but yard rules stop us bringing bales of straw in. We do supply our own feed though, so I can get away with a bag of chop and just cut down on hay.

Should I start off by throwing a couple of scoops in a trug and see how he goes? Is he okay to munch on chop after exercise (i.e. putting him in for the night after being exercised), or do I need to treat it like chaff and wait for him to cool off?

Numpty questions really, but I hadn't heard of supplementing chop until I came on here!
 
Goldenstar said:
If you would give him his hay in the situation he will be ok with the chopped straw.
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There is no reason to restrict access to fibre/forage after exercise.
Intoduce the straw chaff as you would any other new feed. Our fatties have had a measured amount of haylage (all that's available/practicable) and big trugs of oat straw chaff all winter. They usually eat the chaff quite slowly to pass the time but if they've had to stay in later than usual, or all day in the snow, they've had extra chaff in the morning and fallen on it as if they were starving.

ETA, it has certainly helped in the weight loss programme
 
Great, thank you :)

I've never been one to restrict forage before / after exercise. Hard feed yes, but I've never (touch wood) known a problem with forage.

He stuck his head in the bucket rather enthusiastically yesterday - he slowed down after a couple of minutes once he realised it wasn't as tasty as he was expecting! He left most of it, so I left him with a few handfuls overnight which was gone by morning.

His weight is finally starting to look a lot better, but they've just moved to rather lush looking summer fields. If it helps to fill him up with no sugar, we're on to a winner!!
 
If my cob is standing in, he gets a net of hay and a bucket of oat straw chop. I also chuck it in with a bit of fast fibre to bulk it out.
He quite likes it and its better than standing with nothing to eat. Just introduce it over a week or two.
 
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