|
|
boon
Posts: 4
| Hey everyone, I know you can give me some insight here. There are so many ingredients on feeds, how do I determine which are the best ones? What ingredients are good, ok, and not great? Let me know what you guys like to see in your feeds that make you want to feed it? Thanks! |
|
| |
|
 Take a Picture
Posts: 12838
   
| Not trying to be snarky. Get a book and read it. This book is very helpful and is easy to read. Go through and highlight the things you feel are important so you can find them easily. This is the best reference I have found and is used for equine nutrition classes. I go back and read parts of it often.
https://www.amazon.com/Horse-Nutrition-Handbook-Melyni-Worth/dp/1603... |
|
| |
|
 Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| mng85 - 2017-05-18 3:30 PM
Hey everyone, I know you can give me some insight here. There are so many ingredients on feeds, how do I determine which are the best ones? What ingredients are good, ok, and not great? Let me know what you guys like to see in your feeds that make you want to feed it? Thanks!
That is a great book that was suggested. You will get so many different opinions on a feed question... some will say avoid corn, oats are all you need, some will say a little corn is great and oats are completely worthless lol! Some will say not to feed any grain whatsoever. It's best to determine what type of workload and what you feel your horses need and go from there... most importantly, whatever feed you decide, please PLEASE make sure it comes from a safe mill where there is no chance for ionophore contamination from medicated cattle feed. if you aren't sure what that means do a search on here, there's tons of info! |
|
| |
|
 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| I like feeds with limited ingredients. So many processed feeds have worthless fillers. A forage first program is always best. If you do feed a grain be sure it is from a company that uses a "fixed" formula. If not, they are allowed to change the ingredients according to what is available.
Edited by rodeomom3 2017-05-18 9:30 PM
|
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 1694
Location: Willows, CA | Fixed formula feeds have the ingredients printed on the bag itself. Since it is made the same every time this is practical when you order 40,000 or more empty printed. Least cost formulated feeds will have a sewn on tag on the end of the bag. Since the formulation often changes depending on what ingredients are the cheapest when they buy, they can simply print a little tag with the changes each time. But, many are not even bothering to do that any more. I don't know of anyone that is making a premium fixed formulated horse feed that is sewing a tag on the bag, so this is pretty much a dead giveaway.
The hardest part of judging ingredients on least cost formulated feeds is that they usually hide them from you with terms like these.
grain products, plant protein products, Processed grain By-products. Roughage products, forage products. These came from a real very well known national brand tag.
Since it is the first five products, and the fifth is Vit A supplement, a ingredient that has a very low inclusion rate, the first five have to make up 95% of what is in the bag. You have no idea what that blend really is. As you can see. A lot can fall under those broad ingredient definitions, and the formula can change wildly with no change to the tag at all. |
|
| |
|
  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | if you dont know what it is then its not good.. stick to simple and natural ingredients if you can.. |
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 113
Location: Wyoming | What about the term 'Meal' Such as rice bran meal, soybean meal?
is this similar to the terms such as forage products as far as use of meal and products?
|
|
| |
|
 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | hoofs_N_bridles - 2017-05-19 9:42 AM What about the term 'Meal' Such as rice bran meal, soybean meal? is this similar to the terms such as forage products as far as use of meal and products?
Meal is a by-product of oil production from oilseed crops and can be a high quality source of protein, depending on what it's made from. Rice bran is the outside of the rice seed that is removed during processing to make white rice, and has lots of good stuff in it. That's where most of the nutrition is in rice and is low in starch. Rice bran can have the oil extracted to make rice bran oil, but generally rice bran is fed with the fat intact.
One of our local rice millers has come up with a fish fry made from rice bran that is REALLY GOOD. If you're in the area (McGehee, AR), stop by Hoots BBQ and order the fried catfish. As far as I know, they're the guinea pigs for this and the only place that's using it right now. |
|
| |
|
 Peat and Repeat
Posts: 2773
Location: IN MY OWN LITTLE WORLD AT LEAST THEY KNOW ME HERE | I went back to rolled oats, equipride, cocosoya oil, alfalfa cubes and coastal grass hay oh and pasture minerals.
One gets rice bran w her oats cause she's picky n won't eat the oil.
Ughhh go figure this one I became allergic to something in the pelleted feed.
Shot my blood pressure up n had severe chest tightening....
So with that being said.....
If it'll do it to me then what goes on n me ponies without me knowing hmmmmmm
|
|
| |
|
 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Three 4 Luck - 2017-05-19 10:18 AM
hoofs_N_bridles - 2017-05-19 9:42 AM What about the term 'Meal' Such as rice bran meal, soybean meal? is this similar to the terms such as forage products as far as use of meal and products?
Meal is a by-product of oil production from oilseed crops and can be a high quality source of protein, depending on what it's made from. Rice bran is the outside of the rice seed that is removed during processing to make white rice, and has lots of good stuff in it. That's where most of the nutrition is in rice and is low in starch. Rice bran can have the oil extracted to make rice bran oil, but generally rice bran is fed with the fat intact.
One of our local rice millers has come up with a fish fry made from rice bran that is REALLY GOOD. If you're in the area (McGehee, AR), stop by Hoots BBQ and order the fried catfish. As far as I know, they're the guinea pigs for this and the only place that's using it right now.
Wouldn't you know I almost ordered the fried catfish last night!! Now I know! |
|
| |
Folks on-line