TB organic meadow nuts

[SEL]

There's a post on the PSSM FB page which has triggered a load of responses from people saying their horses won't eat a certain batch of these. The lady who has posted has got a horse who has come down with full blown laminitis and it looks like liver issues too.

She's made TB aware and I believe they're looking into the batch but obviously don't believe there's a problem.

Anyone had any issues? Seems odd to have a batch a lot of horses are refusing

 

[Melandmary]

This is also on an ems fb sight. A lot of horses aren’t eating the nuts. The batch number is on the fb page and apparently they are smaller than the usual pellets. It doesn’t mention that they have caused lami but thunderbrooks are refunding anyone who have purchased bags with that reference number.

 

[PurBee]

This is the reason why i dont feed most commercial brands of nuts or chaff, unless its a smaller producer who grows the grass/hay themselves and i can have a personal chat about grass species, field treatments, cutting times, processing methods etc.

You never know the quality of grass/hay or what mixture of plants are being ground-up and made into pellets/nuts.

The one experience that finally nailed the proverbial coffin for me on this issue, was with one major EU ‘distributor’ of various ‘top quality ?’ hays from all over the EU.
I had ordered as described on their website: ‘Organic mixed grass hay for horses’, 12% moisture, compressed wrapped bales, completely clean fresh hay, with all the safe horse-friendly grass species individually listed.
I emailed before ordering, making further enquiries on quality, grass species and them confirming in writing their description accuracy, and there was definitely no weeds.

What i received was absolutely NOT as described. 20% wormwood weed, 30% alfalfa, 30% tall alpine legume clover, 15% fescue grasses, and around 5% a mix of a variety of various other weeds, including toxic ones.
Yes, i sorted through many many bales, (i ordered 2 tonnes!) for weeks by hand, to form piles i could weigh and get an accurate average % of plant species type per bale. I photographed everything for proof to get a refund, which i did get.
(i was bitted well as a youngster and when i get the bit between my teeth…?)

However, the companies response was not apologetic for supplying a feed so completely nutritionally opposite to what they stated they would supply, or apologise for nearly killing my horses livers with the toxic weeds - they simply said “We supply this all over the EU made as grass nuts and it’s really popular!”

“ ? No…..please dont grind this crap up into pellets and sell to unsuspecting owners…? “ - i told them this, and lots more. This is the only company i actually got furious with, because their reach is so vast through west and east europe, and they really didnt give any care to what was contained in the bales. They actually couldnt identify any plants i was sending them pictures of! They have no idea what weeds are toxic to horses. They have no idea what a horse should and shouldnt eat regarding grasses or plant species.

There are some vast forage warehousing companies buying hay stock from various countries and making generic ‘forage nuts’ that they offer their international clients to have packaged in their own label packaging.
The price on a container full was astoundingly cheap, and i worked out i could make very healthy profits by importing this food source IF it was good quality for horses as advertised. Unfortunately it turned out to be the worst ‘hay’ ive ever handled and inspected, and dumped the idea.

It gave me an insight into wondering how many lami cases are from such mass distributed grass nuts, while owners are thinking their paddocks are toxic and pulling their horses off of the wrong food source?

I know we all like to think the regulations are followed and there are inspections of all crops, but this experience taught me the regulations arent enforced at all, and no-one gives a flying fig, while the profit margins are so high.
Those poorer EU country ‘hay’ farmers being bought from within the EU get around €50 - €80 per tonne - the retail price per tonne is @£1000.

I now boycott all plant forage feeds that are finely chopped or ground-up, that make it impossible to identify the plants.

 

[SEL]

This is also on an ems fb sight. A lot of horses aren’t eating the nuts. The batch number is on the fb page and apparently they are smaller than the usual pellets. It doesn’t mention that they have caused lami but thunderbrooks are refunding anyone who have purchased bags with that reference number.

I'll let the PSSM poster know. I was wondering if something in them caused the liver problem and that's what's caused the lami - worrying

@PurBee made me think about what could be harvested and "disappear" into a pellet. I have a field with mare's tail and it would be all too easy to harvest that and process it.

 

[cauda equina]

This is also on an ems fb sight. A lot of horses aren’t eating the nuts. The batch number is on the fb page and apparently they are smaller than the usual pellets. It doesn’t mention that they have caused lami but thunderbrooks are refunding anyone who have purchased bags with that reference number.

Do you have the batch number please?

 

[Melandmary]

It is SAC22BIO. The thread is running on the ems friendly chit chat group. Most horses seem to be refusing to eat it rather than causing lami….no mention of that on there.

 

[cauda equina]

It is SAC22BIO. The thread is running on the ems friendly chit chat group. Most horses seem to be refusing to eat it rather than causing lami….no mention of that on there.

Thank you

 

[AntiPuck]

Yeah same issue my horse won't touch the latest bag I bought, very irritating

 

[ycbm]

My horse last year went photosensitive in a big way and was left with inflammatory markers of an acute episode from feeding Agrobs Wiesencobs, so this doesn't surprise me.

He recovered when I stopped feeding it, then relapsed when I tried again because I couldn't believe such a reputable feed was causing issues.

I believe it may well have been because they are heavily loaded with legumes instead of grasses, and he can't eat alfalfa, another legume. He didn't get the behaviour issues he gets with alfalfa but he became a nodding oil rig head-shaker without a UV mask on his eyes.

I don't trust anything any more, I'm feeding wheatfeed now that i can see the contents of. Thankfully he loves it and does well on it.
.

 

[PurBee]

The wormwood weed in the hay batch i spoke about, was so off-putting to my horses they didnt eat it. That is even after removing all inedible unsuitable pllants and giving them the grass - they didnt eat it because weeds like wormwood are so strong smelling to them, and tiny bits were left behind, they just shuffled the grass about, as it had taken on the smell of the wormwood.

With the TB pellets - i’d soak a scoop of this dodgy batch in boiling hot water and smell the steam/hot water as theyre soaking - if there’s weeds in there you’ll smell aromas and pungency, whereas just grass hay smells like ‘fresh cut grass/baled hay’.
I sniff plants all the time out of curiosity so have a nose for these differences. Weeds always give a bitter smell, with herb-like aromas. Grass and hay is the familiar fresh-cut grassy smell.