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Opie2017

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I have a 6 year old Mare and yearling colt, I was given grain for my colt but now I am trying to purchase grain. I guess I live too far north. I tried to purchase it from tractor supply and Amazon. Either my local store don't carry or ship and Amazon has it but they want $30 and up to ship. Any suggestions?
 
What brand and formula were you given to your colt? Perhaps we can help you pick a suitable substitute.
 
I was giving him omolene 200, the mare and colt are not related (just for the record). He loves apples and he is a VERY picky eater. So any suggestions would be greatly be appreciated
 
While not an exact substitute, many like Purina Strategy, it should be available at TSC.
 
If you still have access to the ingredient tag, take it with you to the feed store and compare with what they have.
 
yes, we are going to do that cause I looked for Omelene 200 and purina mini horse and pony. I found none of the locals carry it, how sad is that
 
Purina Strategy is not available at our store, unless I am missing something our TSC don't have it
 
Part of the reason your TSC may not carry it is due to purchase/sell. If it doesn't get purchased, they can't justify bringing it in. Big $$ loss for them if they can't sell it in a timely manner. Our TSC has some feeds they don't bring in. Others they do, but they don't sell regularly, so the bags are older and sometimes I've found some feeds to be not that good and/or out of date/OLD (after getting several bad bags of Mini horse & pony feed that our 30 head of ponies refused to eat, I quit trying. I buy more local now, if I can). Our local TSC doesn't carry some chicken feeds because another feed store less than 2 miles away carries them. BUT they do have different ones that the other feed store does not... Yes, the store managers check each others' stores out, LOL. Good business sense.

You can see if there is another TSC in your state that will do an "in-store" transfer. That means that another store has it, and they can ship it to your store. When shipping it, the shipping charges are covered by the TSC's involved. THEN, if you are able to drum up any one else that can purchase that same feed, they (your TSC) will look at bringing it in on a regular basis. I have not done "in-store" transfers for feed, but I have for 8' steel posts. Used to be able to get them at any TSC, but not anymore. I can have them shipped from Greensboro to Sanford and not make the drive myself to Greensboro. It's my understanding that they can do an "in-store" transfer from any store in NC and in some cases, from out of state. EDIT TO ADD - I had to do the "foot work" to find the 8' posts that I used to purchase all the time. The new employees at the Sanford TSC (rebuilt 2 yrs after the tornado wiped the original out in 2011) are younger and didn't know that the posts that don't show on their available inventory ARE still carried by some TSC's. I worked hard to get those in-store transfers - sometimes it is easier to drive to another town (and more fun, but have to plan the day as it is a LONG one in a major city on both ends of heavy traffic - AM & PM).

As to comparing feeds, you don't even need the feed tag. Purina feeds are online and Omelene 200 has it's own PDF that anyone can print out or copy. You then can carry that with you. If you have a phone that takes pics, don't even need to print it out!

If you are in a really rural area, you might consider giving your business to a local feed mill. They will have some horse feeds that are standard and they can possibly mix feed for you (depends on the mill). Have you checked to see who else may carry Purina feeds? Over the last 20 years, we've had several feed stores go out of business, but others have picked up the slack and carried what the ones closing may have been carrying. We even had 1 town about 50 miles away from me now (was 25 before we moved) close a MAJOR distributor of Purina feeds about 9 yrs ago. No one picked up that Purina dealership again, but other stores started carrying more Purina feeds... When I'm talking "local", I'm talking about many different small towns that may carry feeds. I wasn't unusual for us to go to different towns to get different products. Some of those towns were just a few miles apart on the same highways, some were much further (50-100+). When we lived in MT from 95-97, we bought feed locally at the feed mill in Shelby (9 miles from our house), "locally" from Cut Bank (32 miles from our house on the same highway as Shelby) and from 3 different "big box stores" in Great Falls (96 miles from our house). I don't know which stores in MT are still in existence, but do know that some that I have purchased from here in NC are no longer in business.
 
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I like to keep it simple and so my grain of choice is oats. If you have a picky eater you might find that oats is the thing for him. I have got a pony that is EXTREMELY fussy. He will generally eat oats or 60-30-10 but pellets -- It is rare to find a pellet he likes.
 
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Yes, I was also going to mention that a 50# bag of molasses sweet feed (which Omelene 200 is), will go bad (or it would here in NC) before it all gets used for just 2 minis...

We, too, are switching to oats. WOW, what a difference in feed costs, pony's eating habits and in how much I have to get in one load. We will soon be switched over to all oats. It's wonderful... and natural and untreated. Well... guess that depends on who you purchase from.
 
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I used to always feed just plain oats and good quality hay and that was when my horses and ponies looked the best. Their coats were slick and dappled. I can't feed oats now, I have a pony allergic to them plus

everyone (vets, feed store) around here now say to stay away from oats because of the high NSC's. What does everyone think about that? I am curious because horses I had seem to do so much better on oats than some of these fancy feeds with all kinds of additives, but now I would be afraid to feed oats if I ever had a horse (big or little) that I thought could benefit from it.

Right now I just feed the best hay I can get and a vitamin. Some bagged forage too, and they seem fine, but I wish I had those "oat dapples" lol.
 
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What happens with an oat allergy? Never have seen this. I feed oat groats, which I get from a mill that does exotic bird mixes. I've never had any trouble with it, nor seen any undigested come through. The groats are expensive, but I only use 1/2 c a day, so it isn't an issue. I do think oats and alfalfa are complimentary nutritionally. Not sure why they are getting a bad rap nowdays. I wonder how I can find out if groats, oats without the hull, have a different level of nsc? I don't think I feed enough to matter, though. It is more for mixing in his joint supplement and an evening social ritual.

Have you ever heard of feather meal? A guy who raises organic cattle got zapped by the inspector because his mineral tub listed feather meal in the ingredients. Feather meal is chicken feathers. Do not know if it is the "mad cow" thing which makes growers leery of animal by products in bovines, or if it is because commercial chickens are fed so much chemical food that even their feathers are suspect.
 
Oat groats are probably higher in NSCs than regular whole oats, as the hull is removed and it's mostly fiber, so your are removing the fiber which for lack of a better way to put it, buffers the high NSCs in oats. Oats are around 45% starch. Starch converts 100% to glucose during digestion, so that can be too much carbs for a sensitive horse or a metabolic horse.

Oats and alfalfa do usually compliment each other, as Alfalfa is high in calcium, oats are high in phosphorus, so the two together in the right ratio somewhat balance the Ca:p ratio in the diet. I don't use straight alfalfa as a forage source, but in moderation it's a good addition to the diet.
 
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What happens with an oat allergy? Never have seen this. I feed oat groats, which I get from a mill that does exotic bird mixes. I've never had any trouble with it, nor seen any undigested come through. The groats are expensive, but I only use 1/2 c a day, so it isn't an issue. I do think oats and alfalfa are complimentary nutritionally. Not sure why they are getting a bad rap nowdays. I wonder how I can find out if groats, oats without the hull, have a different level of nsc? I don't think I feed enough to matter, though. It is more for mixing in his joint supplement and an evening social ritual.

Have you ever heard of feather meal? A guy who raises organic cattle got zapped by the inspector because his mineral tub listed feather meal in the ingredients. Feather meal is chicken feathers. Do not know if it is the "mad cow" thing which makes growers leery of animal by products in bovines, or if it is because commercial chickens are fed so much chemical food that even their feathers are suspect.
He gets hives. He went through a period of getting hives and we could not pinpoint the cause so we had him allergy tested and one of the things he tested very positive for was oats. He was on a feed with oats in it at the time so we stopped the grain and I have never attempted grain with him again. I also think he may be sensitive to preservatives or some other additive so I try to keep his feed as basic as possible.I had heard of feather meal, but I did not know much about it. I think maybe there was a recall of something with feather meal in it around here a while back.
 
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I'm pretty sure Omolene 200 is a 14% protein sweet feed for performance horses, so another performance horse feed with similar analysis will probably be fine to substitute.
 
I picked up some Producer's Pride 12% sweet feed, any advice is welcome. Bad idea or good idea? Here is my 6 year old Mare and yearling colt ( not related) 19449467_10213384308061729_1967786702_o.jpg 19073248_10213252928257316_1629902330_o.jpg Of course he still has the wool coat and he needs a bit more weight to gain
 
ThunderBay-7-L.jpg My colt's sire REECES THUNDER BAY and dam HIVIEW BUCCARUDYS BURNING FLAME 13532860_1196176427081317_3658857242718842313_n.jpg both under 34 inches
 
Which one of the Producer's Pride feeds is it? TSC website shows 3 products, and they don't give much information on the website.

Is this the one you picked: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/producers-pride-12-horse-pellet-50-lb

12% protein might be a little low for a growing yearling, you can either exchange it for a 14% protein or get some alfalfa (pellets, cubes or hay) to boost the protein.

Personally, I prefer not to feed a sweet feed, but that is my preference, many feed sweet feeds to their horses with no issue. If TSC is you main store to buy from, I probably would have picked one of the Dumor products, if a suitable Purina or Nutrena product wasn't available at your store.
 

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