The Mollassed Chaff Rant

I think some of the chaff producers have done a good job of convincing us that we are doing the best by the horses by feeding fibre-based hard feed instead of mixes (or the sugar beet/bran/barley/nuts I was brought up on) and we all missed the bit bout the molasses ;).

FWIW having had a bucket or two of molasses chucked on my head (don't ever leave the employ of a farming cooperative :rolleyes:) it tastes foul anyway!
 
Toast said:
How much do you pay for a bag of crappy chaff Elsiecat? If she'll eat it, plain chaff is just a couple of pounds for a big sack. Otherwise i use Graze On which is just flash dried grass. That costs me about £7 for 20kg and last absolutely ages.

Oberon, don't get me started on molassed chaffs. Im the same with heavily molassed mixes. Sixteen plus and Pegasus mix make me cringe! I have to bite my tongue when i see liveries carrying bags of these followed by a bag of Leigh Chop or Mollichop!
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Usually about 6 pounds! I'll have a search out for some 'good' chaff next time I'm on my food travels. It's something I've never questioned as I don't see it as part of a 'diet', just something I know she'll eat without protesting to get her balancer in!

In my defense I don't know what 16+ is :p
 
Oberon said:
That's what prompted the rant ;).

It's rather popular round here - as is 16+ (which I admit to feeding in the past too :o).
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Shame on you! *shakes fist* Pasture mix is another.. my sister works at a feed merchants and you can always tell the heavily molassed mixes as when you pick the bag up, it stays upright and doesn't fold over your arm!
 
Toast said:
Shame on you! *shakes fist*
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I didn't know any better
whaat.gif
.

:eek: My chequered past includes:

Leigh's Mollichaff and bran
'Meadowsweet' and full sugar beet
16+
Happy Hoof
Old Faithful

all because "he's an Arab and he can eat what he likes..." :rolleyes:

Well now he has rampant Cushings and I spend my life fretting over the sugar and starch content of his diet......oh the irony :o

Toast said:
my sister works at a feed merchants and you can always tell the heavily molassed mixes as when you pick the bag up, it stays upright and doesn't fold over your arm!
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Have you walked into the feed part of the Robinson's store and instantly smelt the cloud of molasses? :eek:
 
Oberon said:
Have you walked into the feed part of the Robinson's store and instantly smelt the cloud of molasses? :eek:
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OMG I cannot smell that smell without feeling sick. That thick, goopy feeling too, just the consitancy is enough to put me off... Cant stand the stuff, if anyone at mine wants to use it they might need to keep it in a different feed room. Bleugh!!!

Pasture mix is the work of the Devil...! :D
 
We do :) But the problem we have is that we can't source oat straw and the Big Mare can't cope with barley straw (we tried :( ) We have a garden shredder, which is much easier than an old chaff cutter and works every bit as well :)
 
Thanks Oberon for the info earlier. As you have done the research :) In summary in your opinion what are the top (nationally available) low/no sugar /non-alfalfa /healthy chaffs? Saves me the job :)

I have an 18yr old WB. I try to feed a low-sugar/ hi-fibre diet currently Hi-fi lite (1 scoop per feed and D&H Hi-fibre cubes 1/3 scoop per feed twice a day plus joint and combined tummy & calmer supps)

I had him on Fastfibre but then he decided he wouldn't touch it - He actually pitifully neighed at me when I tried to make him eat it! :(

Worst feed though was D&H competition mix (aka LSD Mix!) a few years ago when he was doing a lot more and it was like riding a horse on hallucinogenic drugs! :D

He was on the leaner side at previous yards - this one he is on the heavier side. He hasn't got cushings (although I have asked about testing at his next vaccination to be sure) or had lami and I want to keep at least the latter away.
 
On a side note has anyone actually eaten any mollichaff themselves? Only asking as I was feeding a friend's horses for her yesterday and she feeds full sugared mollichaff and competition mix. As I opened the bin with the chaff in, the smell was wonderful - like treacle and I really had to stop myself trying some.........I think I might test a bit tomorrow to see if it tastes as good as it smells...

Mine are boring - Fast fibre and unmolassed plain straw chaff - doesn't smell remotely nice!
 
Haha I have tried it HH, as I have sampled most horse food, it is pretty much like treacle although molasses has a sort of 'earthy' taste, then you have bits of straw in your mouth and have to check no one was watching before you remove them...

I couldn't go so far as plain straw chaff for my girl, it looks like that 'russell rabbit' hutch bedding you can get, in fact its probably the same. The Agnus castus is the one thing where she has gone 'What the hell is this?' And tries to steal the welshies measly handful instead, at least she loves hay so will eat it in this... Eventually.
 
I can vouch that alfalfa pellets taste like cardboard and they suck all the saliva out of you and leave you with a ball in your mouth you can't get rid of.....

Sugar beet tastes like puddle water.
 
Mollichaff tastes a bit salty to me. Maybe it's the limestone flour? Or maybe it's the amazing low-sugar molasses :D:rolleyes: Just how do they do that, I wonder.

And another thing! How come unmolassed sugar beet is so much more expensive? And can anyone answer me this? Do sugar beet shreds have less molasses in than the pelleted form?

That's all folks! :D
 
amandap said:
Oh puddle water... yum! You really do go all out for your horses Oberon. :D

The only things I've tried are brewers yeast (so sour and bitter) and linseed.Lovely on porridge.
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Micronised linseed is great for thickening up your slow cooker stews if they are too runny ;)
 
Just stop buying chaff.

Simples.

Switched to soaked pelletised feeds ages ago when I realised I was just adding sugar-coated chopped bedding.
 
I'm obsessed with reading the contents labels on feed bags to avoid molasses overload! Most of mine have Dengie Molasses Free Hi Fi plus Dodson and Horrell Equine Sensitive which is also molasses free. Another has Healthy Tummy ( molasses free too). Oh, and I feed them all soaked real grass nuts instead of sugar beet. (A while back used to get D&H unmolassed sugar beet shreds but don't think they do them any more :( ) Don't get me started on all the heavily molassed mollichops - fell about laughing when I saw the "calmer version"!
 
Can someone list 'safe'/'approved by HHO BT feeds & chaffs' please?

I'm happy with my TB's diet but always interested to learn more. I'd never heard of Leigh chaff before.

Thank you
 
I soak grass nuts in slightly more water than they need, this gives a sloppy feed, that as my OH says,' looks like cow *****'.

I use this gloopy mixture instead of sugarbeet to put moisture into the reddi-grass and suregrow that the yearlings have.

They love it but they do get it everywhere !
 
Toast said:
Sixteen plus and Pegasus mix make me cringe!
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Actually Sixteen Plus worries me a lot more than molassed chaff. For a start, if fed the way the manufacturer recommends it adds a significant amount of starch and sugar to the diet. Secondly, it is aimed at veteran horses who are statistically much more likely to have developed Cushings disease and therefore much more likely to be laminitis prone. Thirdly, a lot of owners seem to think just because a horse becomes a 'veteran' it automatically needs to be fed 'veteran mix'. (Just like those who think a horse who competes HAS to have competition mix.)

I have known several cases where owners have switched to high starch veteran mixes and the horses have swiftly succumbed to laminitis.
 
TGM said:
Actually Sixteen Plus worries me a lot more than molassed chaff. For a start, if fed the way the manufacturer recommends it adds a significant amount of starch and sugar to the diet. Secondly, it is aimed at veteran horses who are statistically much more likely to have developed Cushings disease and therefore much more likely to be laminitis prone. Thirdly, a lot of owners seem to think just because a horse becomes a 'veteran' it automatically needs to be fed 'veteran mix'. (Just like those who think a horse who competes HAS to have competition mix.)

I have known several cases where owners have switched to high starch veteran mixes and the horses have swiftly succumbed to laminitis.
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Yep, I've known someone go out and buy sixteen plus just because their porkie little pony was an oldie :rolleyes:
 
:( Why is un-molassed chaff so expensive??? I am currently hi-fi molasses free, and to the poor do-er alfa-a oil.
They thing is, I would really like to reduce my feed bill, but I am unsure on how to do this without just feeding them sticky awful mix.

p.s I was talking to someone who used to work for a feed company, and they said the mix for cows and horses was the same, just put into different bags!
 
I paid nearly £13 for a bag of reddi-grass, nearly fainted ! I suppose it lasts a very long time as I only throw a double handful in at a time.
 
If you are looking to reduce costs do you really need to feed chaff at all? If your horse doesn't rush his feed, it may not be necessary. I think we have been conditioned to assume that every bucket feed NEEDS a handful or two of short chop fibre.

If you are looking for something to mix supplements in etc., then then soaked products such as beet, grass nuts and alfalfa pellets are all possible options.

Personally I don't currently feed chaff to any of my three.
 
I can get a bag of unmolassed hay chaff for £6. It comes in a white hessian sack.

The Simple System Timothy Chop is £12 and comes in a nice, waterproof bag (for my leaky tackroom :D).

Both bags last forever (I only feed it to my dentally challenged old boy)

As far as safe, BF diets go, separates are usually more successful than complete mixes (although all horses are different)......

Basic No 1 foundation feed is forage - grass/hay/haylage. That, sunlight and internal synthesis is where the majority of nutrition comes from.

So a bucket feed just needs to pay homage to the foundation.

More fibre in the form of unmolassed beet or Fast Fibre is usually a safe base.
Spiller's High Fibre Cubes or Dodson and Horrell ERS pellets have been found safe to use also.

Chaff isn't really needed if you are feeding a fibre feed anyway but unmolassed timothy hay/oat straw is safe (Simple System, Halley's chop, Pure feed, HoneyChop Straw Chaff etc).

Because the horses tend to stay on the same forage from the same land (no longer free roaming equines) then we need to balance what is funky about that land. Usually we've found UK grazing has high calcium, high manganese, high iron, low zinc, low copper and magnesium that can't jump over the calcium level. Phosphorous, selenium, iodine and sodium can vary from area to area.
Most commercial feeds calculate via balancing software - but that software doesn't appreciate the quirks in the forage. So you get a 'balanced' feed that is only balanced to itself.
There are a few supplements out now that understand these quirks and provide a balance to what is funky.

Linseed is a joint aid, coat conditioner, gut aid and hoof moisture balancer. It contains the omega oils present in grass at the best ratio for a horse.

For energy - oats are safe to use for hooves.

For conditioning - copra meal or soya hulls.

Pro biotic - yea-sacc or brewer's yeast.

It's a basic and simple diet. The feed companies make it all so complicated!!!
 
dominobrown said:
:( Why is un-molassed chaff so expensive??? I am currently hi-fi molasses free, and to the poor do-er alfa-a oil.
They thing is, I would really like to reduce my feed bill, but I am unsure on how to do this without just feeding them sticky awful mix.

p.s I was talking to someone who used to work for a feed company, and they said the mix for cows and horses was the same, just put into different bags!
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It is horrendously expensive compared to other feeds considering it's mainly chopped straw. The one consolation is that I only buy about three sacks of it a year.
 
TGM said:
If you are looking to reduce costs do you really need to feed chaff at all? If your horse doesn't rush his feed, it may not be necessary. I think we have been conditioned to assume that every bucket feed NEEDS a handful or two of short chop fibre.

If you are looking for something to mix supplements in etc., then then soaked products such as beet, grass nuts and alfalfa pellets are all possible options.

Personally I don't currently feed chaff to any of my three.
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A very valid point and years ago, us oldies, also used bran as a base feed.

My feral carthorse, Little Ted, just grabs and swallows anything without chaff in it. The much longer chopped reddigrass makes him chew properly and have better table manners ! I would not dare give him the sticky, clumpy short chopped chaff, I might as well lay the tube and warm water out before feeding him.
 
I still use bran. I am confuddled by the need for chaff and also *hard hearted owner alert* my good doers get nothing :eek:. Wait for it... not even a balancer :eek: Actually that is a small lie, they get a handful of bran and 3 or 4 high fibre cubes once a day and that is it on the extras front.
 
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