Cost Effective Winter Feeding
In this issue TopSpec Senior Nutritionist, Katy Mickle BsC Hons provides advice on feeding throughout the winter months
As winter approaches many people will have the problem of a shortage of hay after a long wet summer. Forage will have been cut later than ideal and will analyse lower in energy and protein compared to previous years. Whilst this is great news for owners of good doers it will mean increasing the quantity or the quality of the hard feed given for the rest of us to keep our horses in correct condition over the winter.
Good-doers in light to medium work whom live on ‘fresh-air’ should be fed a vitamin and mineral supplement or low calorie feed balancer like TopSpec Lite feed balancer. If necessary, hay can be fed soaked for approximately 12 hours in ample fresh cool water to reduce its calorific content. Care should be taken with autumn grazing – although most laminitis is seen in the spring and summer month’s, good doers who have put on too much condition over the summer are very susceptible to a bout of laminitis in the autumn if the grass grows rapidly. Grazing for susceptible animals should be restricted accordingly – either by limiting turnout time or by making the turnout area smaller.
If your horse is not a good-doer make sure his feeds don’t become too big to be efficiently digested. Horses that get sharper in the winter may also benefit from smaller more digestible feeds, keeping sugar and starch levels as low as possible. A typical 16hh 500kg horse should not have more than 2kg dry weight in a feed so don’t be tempted to add lots of chaff and sugar beet to feeds to bulk the feeds up. Instead base your feeds on a conditioning feed balancer like TopSpec Comprehensive feed balancer (e.g. for show horses and performance horses), TopSpec Cool Balancer (for horses in light to medium work) or TopSpec Senior feed balancer (for elderly horses requiring the benefits of a feed balancer and a joint supplement).
A smaller hard feed which will be more nutrient dense will be more effective in keeping condition on your horse. Don’t be put off by the cost of feed balancers – a
20kg bag lasts a typical 16hh 500kg horse for 40 days and a 250kg pony for 80 days. Not all feed balancers are the same – it is worth comparing the specifications before you choose so that you get the results you want.
Keeping horses rugged and warm will help to reduce the energy used by the horse and therefore reduce the amount of feed he needs. Regular visits by a qualified equine dentist will ensure that your horse can chew his fibre effectively. In a year when most forage will be cut late, and be stemmy and coarse this will be more important than usual. And don’t forget that an effective worming program will mean that you are not wasting feed. It is vital that correct wormers are used at the right times of year for a worming program to be effective.
Forage should wherever possible be fed ad lib, and doing so will reduce feeding costs as by improving the amount of nutrients sourced economically and as microbial digestion of fibre acts as a central heating system for the horse to keep him warm. As a result of decreased forage quality this winter feeding a feed balancer will help to maximise your horse’s utilisation of the fibre available.
This will be more cost effective and more palatable than adding lots of
supplements, probiotics and oil to feeds.
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Feeding a balancer will also save money on specialist supplements so for example TopSpec Comprehensive feed balancer contains the following supplements at the therapeutic levels; Hoof Supplement, Vitamin E and Selenium Muscle Supplement, B vitamins, Blood Tonic and Probiotics (improve digestibility).
Straights can be utilised along side feed balancers and where, for example good quality oats are available, this may be a cost effective way of feeding.
TopSpec produce a range of blends designed to be fed with a feed balancer or a supplement and are a superb alternative to straights because they are balanced for calcium, salt and magnesium; the major
deficiencies of straights. If you are
looking for a ‘Non-Heating’ regime look for very low sugar/starch cubes formulated without cereal grains i.e. TopSpec FibrePlus Cubes, CoolCondition Cubes or Performance Cubes. You may also take advantage of other fibre sources like unmollased alfalfa or unmollased sugar beet.
The best advice I can give you is to ring a nutritionist for advice tailored to your own horse or pony.
Free, helpful feeding advice available on 01845 565030 or visit
www.topspec.com
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