Part six in the series, this week focuses on feed awareness, storage & vermin control
Do you know how much your feed scoop holds? NAF explains..
Whether for feed or supplements, it’s important you know how much your scoop holds so you feed the correct amount. Scoops are measures of volume (ml) not weight (g or kg), so the actual amount in the scoop will vary with each feed depending on the density.
- Read labels carefully for scoop information.
- Only use the manufacturer’s provided scoop, or advised size.
- Unless instructed, ensure feed is level in the scoop.
- A ‘rounded’ or ‘heaped’ scoop provides significantly more than a level one. Be scoop wise!
Does my horse need a supplement, and is it safe?
It’s important to feed a balanced diet, and a supplement can be a great way to add essential micronutrients. However, make sure it’s safe and appropriate to feed. Use this checklist. My horse is:-
- On grazing and/or forage only diet.
- Getting less than recommended levels of concentrate feed.
- Not getting vitamins and minerals from another balancer or supplement.
Yes? It sounds like your horse or pony would benefit from a broad-spectrum supplement for health and vitality. Follow manufacturer’s guidelines to ensure you don’t over-supply.
What do you know about soaked feeds? Spillers shares their tips..
There are various soaked feeds now available including several varieties of sugar beet (molassed, unmolassed, sugar beet blended with alfalfa) and ‘complete feeds’ containing a blend of fibre sources and oil alongside added vitamins and minerals for a balanced diet. Many (but not all) soaked feeds are high in fibre and contain controlled or low levels of starch, making them sympathetic towards digestive health and a great option for excitable horses and ponies. Soaked feeds are also ideal for horses and ponies with poor teeth.
- In a dark feed room sugar beet pellets could easily be confused with pony nuts, make sure you clearly label up feed bins and indicate which feeds need to be soaked before feeding- this is especially important if someone else is feeding your horse!
- Always weigh your horse/pony’s ration before it is soaked – the increase in volume after soaking makes it easy to overestimate how much you are actually feeding.
- Avoid soaking/dampening your feeds in advance. Once mixed with water, feeds can quickly ferment in hot weather. Quick soaking mashes and sugar beet products are ideal in hot weather but should be fed immediately after soaking.
- Always check the feeding guide for appropriate soaking times – for sugar beet these may vary between 10 minutes and 24 hours depending on the variety chosen.
- Many soaked feeds can be fed as a full or partial replacement for compound feed. Why not consider adding a chopped fibre to help increase chewing?
Do you know what factors impact sugar levels in forages? Dengie explains..
Grass species, temperature, rainfall, maturity of the grass, time of day the grass is cut and drying times are all factors that can impact on the levels of sugar found in forages. This is why it is so hard to make consistent forage as it is impossible to control the weather. One of the highest levels of water soluble carbohydrate reported in recent times came in the long hot summer of 2018. The exceptional amount of sunshine hours resulted in a hay with 35% WSC which was a little too much for the native ponies it had been bought for! For those with EMS or insulin dysregulation (ID) a target of around 10-12% WSC is recommended but it can be hard to achieve. Soaking hay, diluting with straw or using a proportion of low calorie hay replacer are some of the ways it is possible to reduce the amount of sugar the horse is consuming.
When thinking about feed safety do you consider your own role?
Remember, once a feed or feed supplement has been purchased, it is then your responsibility.
• Check the packaging for storage guidance. Most will simply require clean, cool storage – though do check supplements as some need storing at room temperature.
• Keep a clean, secure feed room, and always replace the lid on pots or store bags securely.
• Keep medication locked away, entirely separately to feed. Consider this too with FEI restricted feeds, such as Devils Claw, if you have competition horses on your yard.
• Always clean buckets and stirrers after every feed, and consider different coloured buckets and stirrers for horses on medication.
• Check the batch number, and keep a records for competing horses.
• Check the sell by date, and only use in-date products that have been stored correctly.
Do you know why feed merchants can’t provide refill stations for feed supplements?
They sound like a great idea, but unfortunately they just aren’t practical. Our first priority to you, and more importantly to your horse, is to provide high quality, safe, feed supplements. We can only guarantee those products when they are solely manufactured and packed under our careful eye. UFAS and GMP+ audited factories closely control production, often utilizing high tech equipment like negative air pressure ventilation to ensure pristine products. BETA NOPS companies take those controls even further to minimize the risk of contamination and ensure products are suitable for competition horses. A refill shop for supplements would mean the products being open to the air before you get them home to your tack room, and that’s a risk we can’t take with feed safety.
However, we know customers do want to reduce their plastic use, so try these tips:-
• Buy larger tubs, which use proportionately less plastic.
• Reuse large pots as wash buckets or grooming kit holders when empty.
• Look for the arrows logo on plastic for roadside recycling.
Want some top tips for feeding veterans? Allen & Page share theirs..
1. Not all veterans lose weight, some that have been good doers all their lives may continue to need a low calorie maintenance diet rather than a conditioning feed to maintain a healthy weight.
2. A veteran horse with poor teeth is more at risk of suffering choke and colic, simply because he is not able to chew properly. A feed that soaks with water to form a soft, palatable mash is easy to eat regardless of the number of teeth the horse may have!
3. Veteran horses can be reluctant to drink enough water, particularly in the winter, but feeding a soaked feed can significantly increase water intake, which helps to keep the digestive system hydrated and able to function efficiently.
4. Fibre is the most important component of every horse’s diet and veterans who can no longer chew hay or grass must be offered alternative forage replacement feeds to ensure their fibre intake is met.
Are calories and energy the same thing?
Although the term ‘energy’ is often associated with performance or behaviour and ‘calories’ with weight, they are exactly the same thing. Unfortunately, this means that it is impossible to find a feed that is high in energy but low in calories and vice versa. Put simply, calories are a measurement of energy. In human nutrition energy is measured in kilocalories, hence the commonly adopted term ‘calories’. In the UK, energy in equine diets is measured in megajoules (MJ) of digestible energy (DE). 1 MJ of digestible energy equals 239 kilocalories – approximately 1 bag of Peanut M&Ms.
