What do you feed your yearlings?

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Marigold4

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I have two yearlings: one Welsh section b and one Connie x TB. Both are out on pasture 20 hours a day (they come in for a sleep and some handling during the day). There's just about enough grass now but they also get a top up of meadow haylage when they come in. Would you feed them anything else? Do yearlings actually need any of these specialist youngstock feeds in the summer or is this marketing hype? Do they need more protein than grass/haylage can provide as they are still growing? Or can they just have grass/haylage and a salt lick?
 
I don’t feed my yearlings, I just give a good field lick. I’ve had a lot of yearlings! They have all done very well on this system, and although never fat as most people seem to like babies, they and are beautiful and well grown by 4-5.
 
Patterdale said:
I don’t feed my yearlings, I just give a good field lick. I’ve had a lot of yearlings! They have all done very well on this system, and although never fat as most people seem to like babies, they and are beautiful and well grown by 4-5.
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Thanks for replying. That's good to know. When I worked at a stud in Sweden, the youngstock were in fields all summer with nothing else and were fine. It's easy to get sucked in to the feed companies' hard sell. They seem adamant that youngstock need extra protein as they are growing.
 
Definitely do not need specialist youngstock feed if on good quality forage!
I do add a powdered mineral supplement to a small quantity of soaked alfalfa cubes because I know my grazing is deficient in a couple of things (and I make my own Haylage, so same deficiencies!)
 
Marigold4 said:
Thanks for replying. That's good to know. When I worked at a stud in Sweden, the youngstock were in fields all summer with nothing else and were fine. It's easy to get sucked in to the feed companies' hard sell. They seem adamant that youngstock need extra protein as they are growing.
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Lots of big professional studs operate perfectly successfully like this, despite what the feed companies would have us believe 😉
 
Just be careful with some licks.

I had a Dallas Keith lick bucket for my three year old at the time, and she liked it so much, it actually started decaying her teeth - evident on dental inspection 🙃…

ETA: as other posters have said, access to high quality grass / forage should be sufficient, but if you feel they are looking poor and you’ve ruled out anything obvious such as worms, you could give grass nuts or similar.
 
TheMule said:
Definitely do not need specialist youngstock feed if on good quality forage!
I do add a powdered mineral supplement to a small quantity of soaked alfalfa cubes because I know my grazing is deficient in a couple of things (and I make my own Haylage, so same deficiencies!)
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Thanks for replying. My grazing is rye grass that I have oversown with other species and the haylage is a mix so hopefully they get everything they need.
 
Patterdale said:
Lots of big professional studs operate perfectly successfully like this, despite what the feed companies would have us believe 😉
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It seems wrong that the feed companies are allowed to do this. Over-feeding protein can cause all sorts of problems. How are we supposed to know if they all claim to have expert nutritionists working for them??
 
teddy_ said:
Just be careful with some licks.

I had a Dallas Keith lick bucket for my three year old at the time, and she liked it so much, it actually started decaying her teeth - evident on dental inspection 🙃…

ETA: as other posters have said, access to high quality grass / forage should be sufficient, but if you feel they are looking poor and you’ve ruled out anything obvious such as worms, you could give grass nuts or similar.
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That's useful to know! Perhaps I'll just put one in her stable and then she will only have limited access to it.
 
Marigold4 said:
Thanks for replying. My grazing is rye grass that I have oversown with other species and the haylage is a mix so hopefully they get everything they need.
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It’s the soil rather than the plants that largely dictates the mineral composition. The cattle farmers around me all supplement for copper…
Worth a chat if you have a friendly farmer because they often have a soil analysis to go off
 
I don't feed, and they also access mixed grazing, but they do get a mineral supplement. They are growing a musculo-skeletal system which I hope serves them well as performance horses for many years! Grazing is often deficient in various things they need, and for the cost of a supplement, I can't be bothered with forage analysis - especially as they move around a bit and I'd keep having to re-do it.
 
Ambers Echo said:
I don't feed, and they also access mixed grazing, but they do get a mineral supplement. They are growing a musculo-skeletal system which I hope serves them well as performance horses for many years! Grazing is often deficient in various things they need, and for the cost of a supplement, I can't be bothered with forage analysis - especially as they move around a bit and I'd keep having to re-do it.
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How do you feed the mineral supplement?
 
Only at the beginning, when they are being halter broken and handled and spending time in a stable. Just to sweeten the deal for them.

Once they have had their basic handling and are turned out to grass, they just have grass through summer, alongside ad lib hay through winter.
 
My babies were out 24/7 with adlib hay. I did give a youngstock balancer (and a youngstock mix for a while), but mostly because the bigger/younger one had a pretty tough time in the few months before he arrived which took him a long time to get over, so wanted to make sure he had everything he needed to thrive, or at least start too.

At 3 and 4 they now get hay and grass and a few cheap pony nuts in a treat ball. Both doing well.
 
My rising 3 y/o kwpn has been fed a young stock balancer throughout, to ensure he has adequate vit & min. He also gets either sugar beet or grass nuts and linseed when needing extra calories. The grass isn't great still at the moment and he doesn't eat loads of hay, despite being on adlib, so the extra fibre based feed helps with the calories.

This was developed with an independent equine nutritionist
 
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