I feel like it's been a while since this has been discussed here. This is actually the first place I learned about medicated cattle feed and horse feed mill issues and what to look out for. Since then, I've been pretty conscientious of what I feed and where I get my feed.. its always on my brain. So very recently,  I bought some cleaned whole oats from a smaller Texas based mill. The oats themselves were nice and clean, good sized and not really any issues, other than I noticed some corn throughout the bag.  I got online and messaged the company asking about their mill and if there was any chance the oats could have been run thru where they make any medicated feed. I got a fast response, asking for lot # and a little side note saying their horse feed is bagged separately from any other livestock feeds. But they'd look into why I had corn in my oats. A week goes by.. today I hear back and they said the truck contained corn in it before the oats so thats probably why I am seeing that. I pressed a little more on the medicated feed issue ... they said they are a non medicated mill. I fired back that on their website I see 2 cattle feeds that are indeed medicated.. 1 being a creep feed and the other a medicated ration. Clearly stating they use Bovatec (ionophores) I received another message saying yes, we do make those in our mill and sorry for the confusion... I will attach the message rather than try to explain it myself. This really made my blood boil. I tossed those oats to my chickens before I even got these messages back anyway. My crew is pretty much going grain free these days ... mostly cubeit alfalfa cubes, renew gold and a few supplements as needed.  I feel there are very few mills or companies that are 100% trustworthy in this aspect. Being classified as a non medicated mill by FDA but they do indeed use bovatec.  Your mills are only as safe and efficient as their employees... human error is inevitable... I was recently told Tribute uses a separate building for horse feed because a dealer moved in near me and I asked the questions. Bluebonnet is one that doesn't even make medicated feed, Renew Gold and Buckeye .. those are the 3 main ones that I know and would trust.

Another bag of what was supposed to be steam rolled triple cleaned oats by nutrena... got home and opened the bag ... 

You are correct on Renew Gold. No medicated feed made. No medications allowed on the property. Only Equine products made on the property. 

Win

I learn something new every day. I thought feed mills made feed for whatever company contracted with them. Where are alfalfa cubes made?

I've been trying to save money by not feeding the big name feeds.  Doing some research, I did find that Jupe Mills (Wendlands) does not use any antibiotics in their feed.  I feed their 12/8 pellets and have been happy with the feed.

There is a Jupe mill in Temple near the feed store. I wasn't aware they are non medicated. That's good to know. I know wendlands is pretty popular around here. A few people I know feed their 10% horse n mule. Wouldn't be my choice but they are pretty happy with it. I was always under the impression they made medicated feed.. or I should say I just assumed they did because most do around these parts. I know a feed store in Bartlett carries their racehorse oats and if they are indeed a medication free mill, that might be an option for me. It just blows my mind that mills can claim they are a non medicated mill when they are in fact a medicated mill!!! I can't wrap my head around that.. and how the FDA can classify them as one. 

They do... technically.  Take Triple Crown... purina mills for them using triple crown formulas at purina mills.. closest to me and typically supplies our local stores is the Ft Worth plant.  I also know that Bluebonnet mills for Triple Crown as well, their mill is in Oklahoma.  If you familiarize yourself with the different feed tags you'll know who milled it. I'd pick bluebonnet milling TC over purina any day.  All the tractor supply triple crown products are by purina. Atwoods in Waco has triple crown by bluebonnet. Buckeye i believe is milled by MARS ... 100% equine only feed mill so zero chance of any contamination.  Nutrena and pro elite (which use to be progressive nutrition) are cargill, tribute is kalmbach. I'm sure I'm leaving some out but those are the ones I'm familiar with. They say they are "safe" because they use different bagging systems or have strict protocols in place but I just don't think that's good enough. Accidents happen, carelessness happens ... look at my oats!' Now we also know the mills use corn to flush the feed lines in between batches of feeds. I get very nervous when I find corn when it's not an actual ingredient on the tag. As far as where alfalfa cubes are made ... I'm only using cubeit cubes right now and sometimes I use a alfalfa/timothy cube that's from Canada, not danco .. its called Summit forage company. Neither company makes anything else other than forage products which aren't medicated. So there shouldn't be any worries there. I'm telling ya.. you really gotta watch these feed companies... they can basically lie right to you about their mills and practices.. gotta be vigilant and do your research.. I just already knew west made medicated feed because I looked and they easily told me they were a non medicated mill... its crazy! 

I'm sorry to point this out, but they do in fact make medicated feed. I'm not sure about this particular antibiotic and if it's dangerous for horses or not maybe someone will know more. But it does say it's classified as an ionophore. Dangit!!! I'm not trying to convince you not to use this feed bit just know they do make medicated feed. Maybe a different mill .. not sure how many they have. Nutrena told me none of their Texas or Oklahoma mills made any medicated feed.. do I believe that?? Not really.  I know plenty who feed it and love it and never had an issue. But it just makes me mad how they can lie or withhold information and then point the finger at the FDA and how they classify things. 

This feed doesn't contain ionophores, it contains tetracycline, an antibotic. Trace amounts wouldn't hurt your horse like ionophores can. Yes, it is still a medicated feed but not the same class as Rumensin or Bovatec. 

(speaking of the Diamond W feed) ^^^

It still could be an ionophore free Mill. 

Just for the record, most chicken feeds have the same ionophores as the cattle feed. And some are milled in the same places too. So check for that as well, a lot of people just check the cattle feed only. And if you have chickens, best be keeping their feed out of reach of horses. I don't and won't feed oats, but you probably made a good call tossing the compromised oats. I'm not a huge fan of nutrena or purina now, which is ok since they've gotten stupid expensive. 

Last time I checked Triple Crown made on the west coast is not made in an ionophore free facility.  The mill they use in Ca. had an ionophore poisoning incident many by years ago that they claimed was caused by a shipping/trucking issue.  They claim their handling practices & processes have changed but it is not an ionophore free facility.

Your story is exactly the reason I'm afraid to feed whole oats if I don't know what mill they came from.

ADM is not made in ionophore free mills.  

Thanks for pointing that out.  They are ionophore free.

Ok so Bluebonnet makes medicated chick starter.. I know because I've bought it. I'm not sure of the difference in chicken meds or cattle meds... I use to know this! I can't for the life of me remember now. The meds used in chick starter do something so they don't get coccidiosis. Not sure if that's detrimental to horses or not. My horse accidentally got into some medicated chick feed from bluebonnet at my house. I caught him eating it out of a feeder .. not sure how much.. but I don't think it was very long. He was ok but I wasn't! He got thru the gate that went into the coop and helped himself.  Never again! I've never questioned bluebonnet because they are ionophore free, but as far as chicken feed goes they do make it. And a bunch of other species too. But nothing with ionophores. 

Most poultry feeds has Rumensin/monensin in it. Some pig feeds as well. Monensin/Rumensin is generally what contaminates the horse feeds. I've seen a horse get into chicken feed with monensin and be totally fine, she ate probably half a bag. Never had an issue, but that doesn't mean they'll all be as lucky. Generally when feed is contaminated you only hear about maybe 1-2 horses getting ill or dying, when hundreds probably ate the same lot and were all fine. But you also have people who don't go public, we had one local die from contaminated safe choice around 2 years ago and it was kept really hush hush  

Since the chicken feed is medicated to prevent coccidiosis, then it would be an antibiotic, not an ionosphore, I believe. When our show calves would get coccidiosis we would buy an antibiotic from the feed store to treat it. But I would check to make sure. 

They can claim all they want. Accidents will happen, flushing lines isn't a 100% guarantee that there will be zero trace left when horse feed is ran thru. Tribute says they have separate buildings and tight protocols in place for their feeds..they had an incident I think in 2015 where a barn had 4 or 5 horses die and a few that became very ill and couldn't perform anymore. The feed was blamed.  Kalm n EZ. The horse owners had the feed tested and it came back positive for monesin. Kalmbach denied it at first but then admitted medicated feed had been run thru before the horse feed according to their mill records. The plantiffs dropped the charges before it went to court. Paid off maybe ??? And this is what I read recently when I was doing some digging... because we have a new tribute dealer up the road and I had asked about medicated feeds in the mill. I was told they have separate buildings and lines. So this story popped up when I searched.  They may have done separate buildings after that incident, I don't know. 

I have an interesting story about a very popular horse feed that used very frequently even by big names.. a gal I know horse got sick... colicky, kicking, biting at the stomach .. been eating this feed for several years and no changes... just a very random episode... rushed horse to the vet ... finally decided it was "bad feed" this was kept very much on the down low.. I do know this big company paid the vet bill and removed all the feed from that lot from the feed store where they buy from.  They won't answer any questions about it... the people who this happened to won't say what was wrong with it either just bad feed ... the vet clinic this happened at is a big supporter of this chain as well and are kept well stocked. Seemed pretty shady to me.. horse made a recovery not gonna say a 100% recovery. 

So I just asked this question in my feed store. I was told that the feed is bagged at a Nutrena plant. I was also told that Nutrena has totally different facilities for bagging horsefeed and cow. I hope this is true. The guy said the FDA actually requires this.

I feed a local mills (mule city) combo that is alfalfa based and they have a sign as soon as you walk in that says they are an ionophore free mill.  People have made comments in the past about it and they have always come back with the results because they test their feed. I find that my horses look great on it and i dont worry how long the feeds been on a pallet or how long its been sitting there.