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Regular
Posts: 68
| I feed tribute growth and I am nervous about welcoming OCD lesions. My hay is grass/alfalfa mix and in the winter they have very nice grass round bales. How many pounds, if any, do you feed weanlings? I don't want to overfeed it but I want the nutrition to be there when it's needed for growth spurts. Thanks |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
  
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | I feed ultium Growth. I only give about 1 to 2 lbs total a day per baby depending on their age. Mine only get free choice grass hay that has very little alfalfa in it. I give them THE Muscle Mass for vitamins/minerals. I feel very safe doing it this way. I hate the way some grain up their babies, just causes issues later. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 891
| I feed Nutrena perform & add the mormans vit / mineral supplement to it. I weigh the weanlings & go by the feeding chart that nutrena provides & just monitor their weight. I'm giving about 2 lbs twice daily with free hay always available to them. We feed burmuda hay. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1008
| I've got my weanling on a diet balancer so she's got what she needs for vitamins, minerals, etc. |
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Location: Not Where I Want to Be | mine subsist on noni juice, THE muscle mass and 3 tablespoons of renew gold.
They look awesome so I know it works. |
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Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | They have attributed the biggest risk of OCD comes from lack of minerals. We use the purina growth and then have a mineral tub lick available at all times and a bucket of lose minerals available and they have free choice grass alfalfa hay mix. We dont force feed the minerals, they eat from each at will and so far, we havent had any OCD in the colts we raised. We did buy a colt years ago with OCD lesions in his stifle. He had been raised on grass hay and oats.No other help but a salt lick. Terrible inverted diet and sure enough, bad OCD.Biggest thing, steady even growth and good minerals. |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | ThreeCorners - 2016-12-21 5:36 AM They have attributed the biggest risk of OCD comes from lack of minerals. We use the purina growth and then have a mineral tub lick available at all times and a bucket of lose minerals available and they have free choice grass alfalfa hay mix. We dont force feed the minerals, they eat from each at will and so far, we havent had any OCD in the colts we raised. We did buy a colt years ago with OCD lesions in his stifle. He had been raised on grass hay and oats.No other help but a salt lick. Terrible inverted diet and sure enough, bad OCD.Biggest thing, steady even growth and good minerals.
I think it comes from extreme cases on each spectrum. The show horses I know that have had it were fed rich alfalfa and a lot of grain-regardless of the brand, they were given 4-5 lbs etc. I prefer to stay middle of the road. Give them what they need. Not too much and not too little. They will only be as tall as they genetically can get. And over fat anything is unhealthy. We have hard winters here in WY so we want them to carry enough weight they winter well. We use free choice hay for this and then as soon as spring grass hits, they are turned out to pasture with no grain. So far so good with never having OCD issues. That is one of my biggest worries if I were to buy a prospect these days. |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | personally I wouldn't be feeding a feed that isn't safe... like Nutrena. If I were still feeding grain, I'd be making sure the feed came from a safe company to avoid any toxicity potential. I fed my weanlings a 14% protein feed that the mill made specifically. This was also when we were sales prepping the TB babies so feed was adjusted as needed according to growth.
Edited by TwistedK 2016-12-21 7:40 AM
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 Best of the Badlands
Location: You never know where I will show up...... | I just feed a mix of plain grain (corn & oats) and grass hay. I add to it, a vitamin/mineral from Dynamite equine. Free choice salt and loose minerals. Balanced minerals are the biggest thing I feel like maybe gets neglected, for feeding mares in foal and growing horses. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | I would make sure I had enough protein. Ideally they need about 14% in the total diet. Also, my experience is grass hay does not do much for them. digestibility is really important. I've seen alfalfa cubes do wonders. Also, Calcium to Phosphorous ratios needs more attention to as well. I like to balance alfalfa with oats.
Edited by Tdove 2016-12-22 8:55 PM
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Expert
Posts: 3300
| I feed lmf development which is balanced for either grass or alfalfa..
I feel that a lot of people will feed just grass and they will not have enough protein or a balanced diet.. and the amount doesn't mater if its not balanced.
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Best of the Badlands
Location: You never know where I will show up...... | Depends on the maturity at the time of harvest and the variety of the grass.
I "get" that grass hay in a lot of areas of the country is poor. But up here our early cut grass will easily test from 12-20% protein, which is as good as most alfalfa is. So protein content in grass hay here is not a problem for me. Since we put up all of our own feed, I know exactly what I am feeding, what stage it was harvested, and the quality of the grass hay.
And yes, we have our hay tested, since we have cattle in the feedlot too, it's important to know what exactly what we are feeding.
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | Rockinas, sorry for any confusion, my comment was in general and to the poster and not you directly. I am quite aware of northern grass and forage stages etc. I feed northern hay myself and the grass is really good but even it didn't get the results I needed without a lot of grain. I try to market my weanlings and I like them to grow really well also, while still on a forage based diet. That is why I personally choose the cube route, as I don't have any pasture. I also really feel the nutrients in alfalfa to be really beneficial, as I think the natural vitamins and minerals to be preferred. I do give mine mineral, but they don't go after it much because of the high nutrition in the feed. More than one way to skin a cat for sure. For 95% of folks with weanlings, the grass hay available just isn't very helpful and alfalfa is usually available. Top quality pasture is the best and no doubt why your program works for you.
Edited by Tdove 2016-12-23 12:34 PM
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | wyoming barrel racer - 2016-12-21 7:22 AM
ThreeCorners - 2016-12-21 5:36 AM They have attributed the biggest risk of OCD comes from lack of minerals. We use the purina growth and then have a mineral tub lick available at all times and a bucket of lose minerals available and they have free choice grass alfalfa hay mix. We dont force feed the minerals, they eat from each at will and so far, we havent had any OCD in the colts we raised. We did buy a colt years ago with OCD lesions in his stifle. He had been raised on grass hay and oats.No other help but a salt lick. Terrible inverted diet and sure enough, bad OCD.Biggest thing, steady even growth and good minerals.
I think it comes from extreme cases on each spectrum. The show horses I know that have had it were fed rich alfalfa and a lot of grain-regardless of the brand, they were given 4-5 lbs etc. I prefer to stay middle of the road. Give them what they need. Not too much and not too little. They will only be as tall as they genetically can get. And over fat anything is unhealthy. We have hard winters here in WY so we want them to carry enough weight they winter well. We use free choice hay for this and then as soon as spring grass hits, they are turned out to pasture with no grain. So far so good with never having OCD issues. That is one of my biggest worries if I were to buy a prospect these days.
OCDs are a combination of genetics, nutrition, and exercise. The highest risk foals for OCD are those who are fed up with a ton of feed and restricted on their exercise. Of course, there's no ONE thing that causes them.
They've been described to me in regards of a bell curve "some will get them no matter what you do, some won't get them no matter what you do, and then there's the ones in the middle where theres factors that can affect it one way or the other." |
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Expert
Posts: 2122
Location: The Great Northwest | What I have read I think OCD is a lot to do with genetics. The best thing for the normal yearling is pasture and Alfalfa. |
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Graining weanlings