Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
   
Location: North Dakota | TurnLane - 2015-07-14 3:34 PM
hlynn - 2015-07-14 3:24 PM TurnLane - 2015-07-14 4:03 PM hlynn - 2015-07-14 1:21 PM Tdove - 2015-07-14 9:50 AM I didn't say molasses is the main contributor to NSC content. I stated reasons why I don't like sweet feed over straight cereal grains, molasses being one of the major reasons. The other being the cereal grains in sweet feeds are lesser quality. Also, it isn't NSC content of your grain that matters, its NSC content of the total ration. You could feed 3 bs of 50% NSC with 17lbs of alfalfa or you could feed 10 lbs of 20% NSC with 10 lbs of grass hay. Both total rations would yield approximately 3.2 lbs of sugar or have a total NSC of 16% in your total ration. I would highly argue that the former ration is the better one. Low starch is the in thing right now, but many barrel racers would see better performance if they added a little whole starch to their horse's diet. Hence why I said corn is what pushes the entire feed to have a combined nsc content over 30-40% A little starch isn't a bad thing, no. Keeping it around 20% is safe for most horses I would think. You have to be mindful of the ones who are sensitive to starch with ulcers, PSSM and other issues. But mine have done fine around that range for the most part. They're also turned out 24/7. I don't think feeding a good bit of starch and stalling would turn out well. It would kill a horses digestive tract. But when you get into these cheap sweet feeds that have 25+% with some having more than 30 even 40% overall nsc content, THAT is excessive and ridiculous. That's feeding straight candy and empty calories. Especially when it's usually a low fat low fiber. Empty junk calories.
We LOVE the OMNI cube btw.
Ā That's great. Snaps for them. I'm not spending $15,000 on a single prospect every spring or $50,000 on a finished horse to haul up and down the road. I'm a weekend warrior with average horses and mine are outside 24/7. They stay fat healthy and happy on 6lbs a day of what I choose to feed them. And as much hay as they will eat. Fat is extremely important in a performance horses diet. That's where the horse gets most of it's daily fuel from. How do we leg a horse up? A lot of long trotting and loping. FAT is the fuel for all of that work. Carbs only come into play for anaerobic excercise and that's only happening once a week. That's it. 99% of what a horse does is powered by fat, not carbs. So no, a normal performance horse doesn't need an excessive amount of carbs. All those carbs do is get turned into sugar and can cause trouble in the horses gut. Horses were designed to be grazers. They utilize fiber best. Not starch. Cereal grains may be 'all natural' but that doesn't mean they were solely meant to be fed to horses. You have to have a balance. It's basic biology. 
I don't think oats get enough credit. In the past, I didn't like them because my first horse went crazy when she got them. But after some more recent research, they really aren't bad. I don't feed JUST oats, but whole oats are a decent source of fuel, better than many processed feeds. When I was growing up on the backside of a racetrack, horses ate oats with some various supplements. Many of the horses I've met who's grain rations are made largely of oats look fabulous and aren't crazy. My beef is with corn it has *no* benefits over other grains and actually promotes inflammation. I don't have much of an opinion of barley either way.
Edited by cavyrunsbarrels 2015-07-14 8:32 PM
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