What do you regard as chaff?

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celia

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Reading the thread about types of chaff has got me wondering - what do people class as chaff?

I've always regarded it as chopped hay + straw, often with additives these days, but basically low in energy and something added to the hard feed as bulk. However, I see some people talking about Alfa A as a chaff and personally I wouldn't put it in this category. To me this is a type of hard feed - providing quite high levels of protein and energy.

I would be interested to hear other peoples opinions! :)
 
i class chaff as stalky fibre stuff :o ok - so that's not the most technical term but yeah - i class alfa a etc as a type of chaff - but also agree it has more feed value etc...

ok - so does my post make any sense?! *wonders off for another tea:o*
 
I would consider chaff to be any kind of chopped long fibre, with or without a dressing. As soon as nuts etc are added then I would consider it a complete feed not a chaff.
 
posie_honey - I get what you mean! Seems a sensible way to class them. Not sure where my idea comes from! It's just always been the way I've seen them. I think maybe I'm odd!

glosgirl - that's really interesting, thanks. So, a feed like Happy Hoof - which is essentially chopped hay+straw but has a few pellets added - would be a complete feed to you rather than a chaff? I suppose if you're feeding it in large amounts to provide the correct levels of vits+minerals it could be - but even if it's just a handful to add bulk to feed, or as a token feed for a good doer?
 
yeah, I would consider happy hoof a food as if fed to the recommended amounts it would contain recommended amounts of vits and minerals. Something I would consider to be a chaff wouldn't do that and would be added as a long fibre to a feed to increase roughage and chewing time or as a base for a vit supplement to be added to.
 
To me, chaff is defined as a short chop fibre feed - whether that is hay, straw, grass or alfalfa based. So sugar beet is not a chaff, Fast Fibre is not a chaff, high fibre cubes are not a chaff, whilst Readigrass, Mollichaff, HiFi Lite, Alfa A etc are.
 
I commented on the other post and I wondered.
As I said there I feed Alfalfa Pellets - the same basic ingredient as Alfa A but a different format.

And if you don't count Alfa A,do you include Hi Fi which is more than half Alfalfa to straw.
 
Thank you for the replies - very interesting.

I think I obviously have an odd view of what a chaff is! So thank you for educating me! :) I think my reasoning was that anything providing 14% protein and 12MJ energy like Alfa Oil is providing a similar level of 'fuel' to some competition mixes! But then cubes + mixes provide a hugely varied range of energy but are all still the same 'type' of food so I have no idea why I have it in my head that a chaff is of reasonably low feed value! Oops. :o
 
I think you can count Alfa A Oil as both a chaff AND a 'fuel' as you put it! Although it does have a high feed value, because it is a short chop fibre that makes the horse chew, it still fulfils the traditional role of chaff, which is to slow down the horse's consumption of concentrate feed.
 
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