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normajeanbaker

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Can anyone explain the difference to me between crimped oats and rolled oats? Is there any nutritional difference between the 2?

Thanks in advance

Jen
 
Crimped oats and rolled oats are exactly what the names imply.
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The rolled oats are sent thru a series of flat wheels that roll them down to a certain size.

The crimped oats are only crimped by a chopper/blade looking machine that basically just scores the grain as it is fed thru.

Generally the crimped oats have more of the husk on them than the rolled oats and therefore a little higher in bran content. As far as nutitional value they are basically the same.
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The whole process is done in either case to make the oats more digestable and easier for the horses stomach to extract all the nutritional value in the grain.
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As a youngster I worked at a feed mill for a while and we actually did feeding tests where whole oats were fed and crimped oats were fed. Then the amount of grain left in the feces was evaluated. The crimped oats were assimilated at a far better rate than just straight oats. Thankfully I did not have the job of gatehring or evaluating that deal. LOL
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Hope that helps,
 
I like to feed rolled oats as oppose to feeding whole oats I believe it is easier for these horses to digest the rolled oats . Thus less waste.

kenben
 
Hi Jen,

I feed whole oats or race horse oats, or triple cleaned oats, all are basically the same and are higher quality than regular crimped oats. If you weight a cup of crimped and a cup of the triple cleaned or whole oats, the latter is heavier, there is less waste in it. I have found that Race Horse Oats(Blue Seal) are the easiest to get around here.

Matt
 
I'm not sure I'd say that there is less "waste" with whole oats than with rolled or crimped. It's true that a cup of whole oats will weigh more than a cup of the same oats crimped and especially more than a cup of the same oats rolled....but if you put 50 lbs of oats into the crimper you will get 50 lbs back out--it will just have a little more volume to it in its crimped state. A flattened oat takes up more space than a whole oat!
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It doesn't mean there's any waste--it just means you have to feed more (by volume) of the crimped/rolled oats to make up whatever weight you want to feed.

We haven't had crimped oats in YEARS, though once in awhile the rolled oats we buy is more crimped than rolled; whole oats is hard to come by too, unless you want to go to the farmer's grain bins and bag it yourself. I don't have time for that, so I just buy the rolled oats. Last week the rolled oats I bought turned out to be whole oats. I was pleased & the horses loved it--I went back Monday in hopes of getting more of the same batch, but they had a new order in, and turns out that this new stuff is very rolled. The horses don't want to eat it either--they'd rather have the whole variety.
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Hi Jen,
I feed whole oats or race horse oats, or triple cleaned oats, all are basically the same and are higher quality than regular crimped oats. If you weight a cup of crimped and a cup of the triple cleaned or whole oats, the latter is heavier, there is less waste in it. I have found that Race Horse Oats(Blue Seal) are the easiest to get around here.

Matt
I am afraid that your logic is bad. In a 50 pound bag of whole oats there are just as many oats as there are in a 50 pound bag of crimped or rolled oats. Feed is sold by weight, not by volume. If you feed by volume (a cup, a coffee can, etc.) instead of by weight (ounces, pounds, etc.) you are feeding your horse more oats per feeding if you feed whole oats versus crimped or rolled oats, but you are not getting or feeding "waste" when you feed crimped or rolled oats. Actually, you ARE experiencing A LOT more waste (money) by feeding your horse whole oats versus crimped or rolled oats because more whole oats pass through your horse whole (and undigested, to no benefit to your horse) than by feeding your horse crimped or rolled oats would.
 
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As mentioned, crimped and rolled basically do the same job, and both processes will make the feed easier to digest and is more efficent as a feed than whole oats. Feeding whole oats is fine if you need bulk, but if you need nutrition spend the extra few dollars for rolled, crimped, or steamed/crimped. You'll get more bang for your buck and need less #'s of feed.
 
Why do I bother . . . .

Annabell . . . . I just re-read my post to check my logic, it is not only good, but it is accurate. What I said was that if you WEIGH a CUP of crimped oats, versus a CUP of whole oats, the whole oats will be heavier. The are a different product, or at least in different form. Cups are volume, not weight. This logic is perfect acceptable, in the same way that saying a cup of sand will weigh more than a cup of feathers is not only good logic, but accurate. Key point, Volume is not directly proportional to weight, if you are comparing different products ;)
 
Except diets are measured by weight... feeding by volume is an illadvised means of feeding. Feed is sold by weight, and should be fed by such.
 
Absolutely Nathan, I don't think anyone here would argue that point, hence bringing in weight to the topic at all ;)
 
I'm afraid I still don't see what you were trying to say with that post. Of course a cup of rolled is lighter than a cup of whole, but since most people I know feed by weight, that doesn't matter in the least. If they want to feed a pound of oats then they will weigh the oats & know how much to feed....and a pound of rolled oats is the same as a pound of whole oats...where does the "waste" you referred to fit into that????

If you want to be exact, then you should have went into the part about how not all oats weighs the same--you can have heavy oats and you can have light oats...so even if you weigh whole oats from two different suppliers you may very well find that a cup of Supplier A's oats weighs more than a cup of Supplier B's oats, while Supplier C has the heaviest oats of all... all the same product, just different qualities!

I don't think anyone here would argue that point, hence bringing in weight to the topic at all ;)
As far as I can tell, you are the one that brought weight into the topic!
 
Thanks for the replies, and this topic wasnt meant to start any sort of arguement, it was just a simple question(or so I thought anyways). I got the oats that I think will do what I want, so thanks for all the helpful replies
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~Jen~
 
Jen,

good summary and yes it was just a simple question, so do not let some of the little flames that get started sometime sour you on asking anything.

Good Luck and be well,
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The only thing I can think of that he might be refering to is there is less "dust" and dirt... for example, a cup of washed oats vs a cup of whole oats.... both are unprocessed, but one is washed, and has less non-oat material. So even though you are still paying for 50 pounds of feed, there are more calaries (available or not) in the washed bag because there are less non-oat parts in it. Even still, I'd prefer to pay for crimped or rolled, since what you are paying for is more readily available to the horse's system.
 
I've been waiting to see if any one would mention about the safety of feeding only steamed oats. I don't feed oats but did think about trying them and I did a little research on the different kinds. I can't find the source now and I don't even recall all that I read about it but I do recall something about steaming the oats kills the viruses/bacteria ? that may be found in oats, maybe the one that causes EPM ? Any one else hear of this ? Any way I only remember that I had decided that if I try them it would have been steamed oats.
 
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Not sure if it's the same thing that you're meaning--the rolled oats we get are steam rolled--and actually I'd prefer that the steam not be a part of that--I would much rather have the oats either whole or just crimped, because the steam rolling process does give the oats a different smell--sometimes worse than others. Once in awhile they get the oats too wet & then it spoils--only once or twice we've had a problem with the company we buy from now, but that was the reason (one of the reasons) I switched companies several years ago. The place we used to buy from was having a major problem with their moisture content, and batch after batch of oats was moldy.

I've never heard of steam being desirable because it kills bacteria or whatever--perhaps it would, but I've simply never considered oats to be a source of bacteria. In 40 years of feeding oats to horses I've never had an issue with anything being carried to the horses by way of their oats...mold is my only concern, and as long as the oats is dry when stored--or later when being bagged for sale--then mold isn't an issue.

The last batch of rolled oats I bought has a stronger smell to it--it's not spoiled, just has that strong "steam rolled" odor to it & several of the horses don't want to eat it. So no, I don't consider steam to be a good thing for oats.
 
I wonder how fresh your oats are then? Maybe they are straight from the mill... I've never seen steamed oats with any different oder, but I have seen them fresh out of the steamer smelling quite nasty. I wonder if they aren't as dry as the ones I'm used to?

Steam is used to partially "cook" the oats, starting the nutriant's breakdown, making them more accessable to the horse's system. Generally, steamed or extruded feeds (which use steam) are more digestable than whole or non-extruded feeds, again, yeilding a bigger per pound nutrient availablility.
 

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