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  The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
   
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | For those that feed whole grains instead of a "prepared" feed, what do you feed and why? (Even if the "why" is because that is how you have always done it, and it works, so there is no need to change it.) |
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 Desert Diva
Posts: 4946
Location: The birthplace of Honest Abe | I used to feed dry cob but have a hard time finding it now. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1094
Location: Idahome | I feed whole oats. Horses were not designed to digest processed feeds. Oats also do so much for the body and they are cheap to feed.
ETA: Dang, who did I offend to dislike my post?  
Edited by KylaKris 2013-12-19 11:51 AM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1096
| I feed oats and mix a little bagged feed with it. I can get two big tubs of oats from our elevator for next to nothing cost wise. Also I think it helps mine in the winter when it gets so stinkin cold. |
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Red Hot Cardinal Fan
Posts: 4122
| I feed a mix of corn, oats, small amount of pellets and soy bean oil. I would love to have barley in the mix, but my mill doesn't carry it. (Or any other within 50 miles) I feed it because I am not a fan of a fully pelleted feed, and I was tired of the over processed textured feeds that I've tried over the years. I've been using this mix for over 3 years now, and my horses have never looked better. |
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 Works Hard For The Money
Posts: 4469
Location: Memphis, TN | I feed whole oats along with alfalfa pellets and they get a separate feeding of beet pulp. I loved feeding barley but I cannot get it locally. I don't like feeding corn so no mixes. Oats works just fine for my guys. |
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 Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | We made a mix of oats, ground corn, beet pulp & ground alfalfa (not pellets, fresh baled alfalfa that we ground into the feed) for mine. I feed it soaked in warm water. The horses LOVE it & look great. |
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 Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | SaraJean - 2013-12-19 11:20 AM We made a mix of oats, ground corn, beet pulp & ground alfalfa (not pellets, fresh baled alfalfa that we ground into the feed) for mine. I feed it soaked in warm water. The horses LOVE it & look great.
Do you grind it or have the mill do it?? If you do it, with what piece of machinery?? This sounds like the way to go!
I feed dry cob (this bag-the mill didn't have molasses so we didn't put it on and I like it better so will keep it dry) but my mix is not 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. Mine is 1/2 oats about 3/8 barley and 1/8 corn. Rolled. I have a yearling that is getting about a pound maybe 2 of woodys futurity blend. If I had unlimited funds all of mine would get Woody's every. last. one. I also give each of them a cup of flax.
I always worry I do not have a good ratio and so much depends on my hay quality, which stinks. But this year my horses look pretty dang good so will keep on keepin on! |
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 The Rose of Rodeo...
Posts: 2560
Location: Where we still run to look when the siren goes by. | LMS - 2013-12-19 10:28 AM SaraJean - 2013-12-19 11:20 AM We made a mix of oats, ground corn, beet pulp & ground alfalfa (not pellets, fresh baled alfalfa that we ground into the feed) for mine. I feed it soaked in warm water. The horses LOVE it & look great. Do you grind it or have the mill do it?? If you do it, with what piece of machinery?? This sounds like the way to go!
I feed dry cob (this bag-the mill didn't have molasses so we didn't put it on and I like it better so will keep it dry) but my mix is not 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. Mine is 1/2 oats about 3/8 barley and 1/8 corn. Rolled. I have a yearling that is getting about a pound maybe 2 of woodys futurity blend. If I had unlimited funds all of mine would get Woody's every. last. one. I also give each of them a cup of flax.
I always worry I do not have a good ratio and so much depends on my hay quality, which stinks. But this year my horses look pretty dang good so will keep on keepin on!
Have you tried the Cool Fuel or whatever it is called from Woody's?
I wanted to try that but by the time it would get here I think we'll be feeding mostly alfalfa hay and think that might be too much protein.. |
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Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | No I haven't but if the description says it, it will do it. I am currently using one of their small container products, (equizyme) to enhance bloom, utilization of hay etc, I like what it does for the horses but they don't like the smell/taste (at least a couple) but wow a lot of bang for the buck! I have a very picky eater and often he is the one that is the deciding factor for everyone else-maybe I should find a mineral supplement he likes and feed it just to him??  I wish I could read the cool fuel label better, I'm thinking that is what I need for that picky one, I've used bloom n groom but that isn't quite the same! |
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 Champ
Posts: 19623
Location: Peg-Leg Julia Grimm | COB is corn, oats and barley. It's rolled. I feed it because it's good quality feed, no mold or musty smell. I don't really need or want the corn part but that's the way they mix it. If I tried to feed oats or barley by itself it would cost quite a bit more. Don't ask why. I haven't figured that out. I use dry because when I tried the wet, I found moldy lumps in it. The quality was way worse with the molasses in there. Really worried me so I switched back to dry. I will probably never switch again. |
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The Rose of Rodeo...
Posts: 2560
Location: Where we still run to look when the siren goes by. | LMS - 2013-12-19 10:45 AM No I haven't but if the description says it, it will do it. I am currently using one of their small container products, (equizyme) to enhance bloom, utilization of hay etc, I like what it does for the horses but they don't like the smell/taste (at least a couple) but wow a lot of bang for the buck! I have a very picky eater and often he is the one that is the deciding factor for everyone else-maybe I should find a mineral supplement he likes and feed it just to him?? I wish I could read the cool fuel label better, I'm thinking that is what I need for that picky one, I've used bloom n groom but that isn't quite the same!
http://www.shop.woodysfeed.com/Cool-Fuel-25-78005.htm try going to think link and you can click and enlarge the lable..
I love Woody's feed.. Summer Heat is the BEST for a horse that is being used and hauled a lot! We have a little feed store here that orders it in for me and I'm sure they're sick of me ordering this feed for that horse and that feed for this horse... Just stick with ONE lady!
I keep thinking this next feed will be The One
Edited by Rodeo Rose 2013-12-19 12:18 PM
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Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | LMS - 2013-12-19 10:28 AM SaraJean - 2013-12-19 11:20 AM We made a mix of oats, ground corn, beet pulp & ground alfalfa (not pellets, fresh baled alfalfa that we ground into the feed) for mine. I feed it soaked in warm water. The horses LOVE it & look great. Do you grind it or have the mill do it?? If you do it, with what piece of machinery?? This sounds like the way to go!
I feed dry cob (this bag-the mill didn't have molasses so we didn't put it on and I like it better so will keep it dry) but my mix is not 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. Mine is 1/2 oats about 3/8 barley and 1/8 corn. Rolled. I have a yearling that is getting about a pound maybe 2 of woodys futurity blend. If I had unlimited funds all of mine would get Woody's every. last. one. I also give each of them a cup of flax.
I always worry I do not have a good ratio and so much depends on my hay quality, which stinks. But this year my horses look pretty dang good so will keep on keepin on!
We ground it ourself. Hubby has a grinder mixer for the cattle so we just picked everything up that we needed & ground it.....Super easy and WAY more affordable than buying bagged feed. I did half oats & then the the other half is 1/3 each alfalfa, corn & beat pulp. |
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Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | SaraJean - 2013-12-19 12:57 PM LMS - 2013-12-19 10:28 AM SaraJean - 2013-12-19 11:20 AM We made a mix of oats, ground corn, beet pulp & ground alfalfa (not pellets, fresh baled alfalfa that we ground into the feed) for mine. I feed it soaked in warm water. The horses LOVE it & look great. Do you grind it or have the mill do it?? If you do it, with what piece of machinery?? This sounds like the way to go!
I feed dry cob (this bag-the mill didn't have molasses so we didn't put it on and I like it better so will keep it dry) but my mix is not 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. Mine is 1/2 oats about 3/8 barley and 1/8 corn. Rolled. I have a yearling that is getting about a pound maybe 2 of woodys futurity blend. If I had unlimited funds all of mine would get Woody's every. last. one. I also give each of them a cup of flax.
I always worry I do not have a good ratio and so much depends on my hay quality, which stinks. But this year my horses look pretty dang good so will keep on keepin on!
Thanks, when I was at home, we only had ground feed , oats, corn barley for the steers and my horses did fine, was dusty but they loved it, so you grind in alfalfa squares-interesting! Might have to look into borrowing a neighbors grinder mixer! |
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 Ms. Marine
Posts: 4641
Location: Texas | Whole oats, just because that's what I've always done. |
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 I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
Location: In the Hills of Texas | OregonBR - 2013-12-19 12:12 PM COB is corn, oats and barley. It's rolled. I feed it because it's good quality feed, no mold or musty smell. I don't really need or want the corn part but that's the way they mix it. If I tried to feed oats or barley by itself it would cost quite a bit more. Don't ask why. I haven't figured that out. I use dry because when I tried the wet, I found moldy lumps in it. The quality was way worse with the molasses in there. Really worried me so I switched back to dry. I will probably never switch again.
I fed oats and corn for years until we moved to Texas and found the corn had aflatoxin problems and the oats were way below standard. I started to feed Barley and was very happy with the results until I could no longer get quality Barley.
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Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | LMS - 2013-12-19 1:44 PM SaraJean - 2013-12-19 12:57 PM LMS - 2013-12-19 10:28 AM SaraJean - 2013-12-19 11:20 AM We made a mix of oats, ground corn, beet pulp & ground alfalfa (not pellets, fresh baled alfalfa that we ground into the feed) for mine. I feed it soaked in warm water. The horses LOVE it & look great. Do you grind it or have the mill do it?? If you do it, with what piece of machinery?? This sounds like the way to go!
I feed dry cob (this bag-the mill didn't have molasses so we didn't put it on and I like it better so will keep it dry) but my mix is not 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. Mine is 1/2 oats about 3/8 barley and 1/8 corn. Rolled. I have a yearling that is getting about a pound maybe 2 of woodys futurity blend. If I had unlimited funds all of mine would get Woody's every. last. one. I also give each of them a cup of flax.
I always worry I do not have a good ratio and so much depends on my hay quality, which stinks. But this year my horses look pretty dang good so will keep on keepin on!
Yep it was hubby's idea to grind the alfalfa bales. I was going to just buy pellets & throw them in & he talked me out of it. Said it made more sense to him to use fresh gorgeous alfalfa that we know is dust/mold free as opposed to buying pellets that you have no clue the quality of alfalfa they came from. |
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Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | I much prefere rolled barley. I have fed oats, and fed COB, and fed rolled barley. I have seen what barley does for the horses and it far out shines everything else. It is the middle grain of the 3. However, here I cant get rolled barley. So now I mix 2 bags rolled oats to one bag dry COB.
I wont feed the processed grains. I over the years have tried them periodically and I found my horses just not doing nearly as well on them and for 4x the cost. So I stick with what has proven to work much more efficiently and alot less cost. |
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Expert
Posts: 1695
Location: Willows, CA | We NEVER put corn in horses. |
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 More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | Nevertooold - 2013-12-19 3:03 PM OregonBR - 2013-12-19 12:12 PM COB is corn, oats and barley. It's rolled. I feed it because it's good quality feed, no mold or musty smell. I don't really need or want the corn part but that's the way they mix it. If I tried to feed oats or barley by itself it would cost quite a bit more. Don't ask why. I haven't figured that out. I use dry because when I tried the wet, I found moldy lumps in it. The quality was way worse with the molasses in there. Really worried me so I switched back to dry. I will probably never switch again. I fed oats and corn for years until we moved to Texas and found the corn had aflatoxin problems and the oats were way below standard. I started to feed Barley and was very happy with the results until I could no longer get quality Barley.
Years ago it was easy to barley in this part of the country. Now the farmers won't touch any small grains. I think I remember my dad saying Barley was a little "hotter" than oats. Is this true or ? |
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Expert
Posts: 4766
Location: Bandera, TX | winwillows - 2013-12-20 5:53 AM We NEVER put corn in horses.
Are you a nutritionist? I was very impressed with Stingray on your Renew Gold. I've got friends that race in AUS and Hong Kong that have fed Coconut/Rice bran with similiar fantastic results. |
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Expert
Posts: 1695
Location: Willows, CA | Nutritionist, yes. Formal education started me out as a bio-chemist. Then I invented Natural Glo stabilized rice bran in the 1980's as a better feeding program for our own cutting horses, and I changed direction to focus on Equine nutrition. If you have fed the Glo line from ADM, hoof or flex products from Absorbine, Natural Glo, MaxE Glo ect, I have already fed your horses. Nutrition in horses is moving forward right now. Controlled starch is something that we started 25 years ago that is almost mainstream now. At the time, many of the feed companies that promote low starch diets today actually advertised against it back then because they realized that people were listening and seeing the changes controlled starch made. The next thing, I believe, is whole system coordination to get digestive function back to "normal". Nature put a pretty amazing machine in the horse, but people work awfully hard to feed it in a way that challenges it. I think that once again things are changing. Stingray is a great example of this.
Edited by winwillows 2013-12-21 6:40 PM
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | We feed a dry (sometimes wet) COB to most of our horses. In the winter when they are not being used, they are all on it. In the summer we will bring out the more specialized feeds for the horses we are rodeoing on.... I am wanting to try Renew Gold....but ultimately we always have COB on hand and the horses do well on it. |
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Expert
Posts: 1695
Location: Willows, CA | I did a clinic at Texas A&M for a group of Vets 10 or so years ago, I made a low starch, no corn talk to the group that seemed to go well. The head of the Office of the Texas State Chemist followed and said "I am glad someone is finally saying that we need to get the corn out of these horses. Corn kills more horses in Texas every year than any other feed ingredient". I don't know if this is true, but we never put corn in our formulations. Feed the rest if you have to, but leave the corn out. Aflitoxin limits for feed ingredients is 20ppm. The limit for corn is 300ppm. Nice corn lobby work. |
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 Shoot Yeah
Posts: 4273
Location: Where you need a paddle... Oregon! | I really like how our horses look and perform on whole oats. I quit feeding it when one developed ulcers and I learned they can aggravate them. I feed something else now that I like, but still wish I could do the oats. |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12708
| I am seriously loving my bag-free feed program. My guys are in perfect flesh, healthy, frisky, but no hottness. Their coats are amazing, even with the winter woollys. My farrier can't say enough good things about the quality of their hooves. And I'm saving about $25 per horse per month on feed. That's 25%!
I replaced their bagged feed with high quality alfalfa. They get 5-6 pounds per day of the alfalfa, plus their normal 15-18 pounds per day of timothy/orchard mix hay. |
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Blessed 
Location: Here | CYA Ranch - 2013-12-20 8:01 AM Nevertooold - 2013-12-19 3:03 PM OregonBR - 2013-12-19 12:12 PM COB is corn, oats and barley. It's rolled. I feed it because it's good quality feed, no mold or musty smell. I don't really need or want the corn part but that's the way they mix it. If I tried to feed oats or barley by itself it would cost quite a bit more. Don't ask why. I haven't figured that out. I use dry because when I tried the wet, I found moldy lumps in it. The quality was way worse with the molasses in there. Really worried me so I switched back to dry. I will probably never switch again. I fed oats and corn for years until we moved to Texas and found the corn had aflatoxin problems and the oats were way below standard. I started to feed Barley and was very happy with the results until I could no longer get quality Barley.
no it is actually lower protein. just has more calories |
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 Big Gun
Posts: 2216
Location: Texas | I think natural is better. I have fed whole oats off an on for close to 20 years. I get off sometimes when a new feed fad comes along, like strategy and healthy edge, but always go back to oats. I had one horse I took off oats and shortly after he started bleeding found out from another lady her horse started bleeding after she took him off oats he started bleeding, put him back on and he stopped, so I put mine back on oats, had he scoped after I ran and no bleeding. |
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 Saint Stacey
| The three ingrediatns (corn, oats ad barley) all hit the horse energy wise at different times. Corn is the fastest to be converted to energy, followed by oats and then barley.
I might add crn in the winter, but for the most part I feed just oats and barley.
Barley adds more weight on the top line than what straight oats do. I really don't like feeding anything with molasses because the molasses used in animal fees is very poor quality in most cases.
I had switched to Cargill XTN and Vegas was getting really hard muscles. Hard muscles on a horse is not a good thing. Switched her back to just regular oats and barley with ACV (much to her dismay beause she really likes molassses) ad within a week her muscles were soft and pliable again. Lesson learned. |
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More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | SG. - 2013-12-21 10:12 PM CYA Ranch - 2013-12-20 8:01 AM Nevertooold - 2013-12-19 3:03 PM OregonBR - 2013-12-19 12:12 PM COB is corn, oats and barley. It's rolled. I feed it because it's good quality feed, no mold or musty smell. I don't really need or want the corn part but that's the way they mix it. If I tried to feed oats or barley by itself it would cost quite a bit more. Don't ask why. I haven't figured that out. I use dry because when I tried the wet, I found moldy lumps in it. The quality was way worse with the molasses in there. Really worried me so I switched back to dry. I will probably never switch again. I fed oats and corn for years until we moved to Texas and found the corn had aflatoxin problems and the oats were way below standard. I started to feed Barley and was very happy with the results until I could no longer get quality Barley.
Thank you SG.  |
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Unable to Live Without Chocolate or Coffee
Posts: 1849
| well.... if I had to choose between those my vote is whole oats. I'm not a fan of the COB around here, too much corn. We buy good hay so I don't normally need anything extra but If I feed grain at all, its whole oats or a locally made pellet; base is Wheat Millrun, Beet Pulp Meal, Rice Bran, Soybean Meal, Soybean Oil |
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Oats, Barley or COB? (Which do you prefer?)