Questions on feeds

[woodnldy]

I know there are several on here that are experts on feeds and types of feed. My question is"is anyone familiar with the Dumor brand of feeds??" I have fair pasture and believe their primary diet should be pasture,but they get a small serving of sweet feed each day and they really love it and the attention then to. I dry lot them at night for their safety since some people around here think their hunting dogs shouldn't be penned.

nother story there. all information welcomed good or bad

Thanks Cheryl

 

[Robin_C]

Most commercial feed products (note I said MOST and not ALL) will provide your mini with the daily requirements for vitamins and just as important, minerals, when fed specifically to manufacturer's recommendations. An all grass and/or hay diet probably will not supply your minis with adequate minerals, depending on where you live and where your forage/hay comes from.

The key phrase here is feeding to MANUFACTURER'S RECOMMENDATIONS according to the instructions on the bag. Many feeds would require us to give our 250 lb (average) minis a pound or more of the product per day to achieve the guaranteed analysis. While this would provide adequate nutrient levels, the calories provided by this amount may be WAY too much for an easy keeping mini. Logic would say, reduce the feed, give only a handful, feed just enough to keep them in good weight. That's fine and good from a calorie standpoint, but then you are short-shifting them on nutrition. It's a catch-22.

You can feed the average, healthy mini most any feed product that is convenient to you, that you can afford and that your horses will eat (NOTE: I said average, health mini with no metabolic issues). However, special attention needs to be paid to the nutrients and calories that feed is providing. If you are feeding LESS THAN what the manufacturer recommends, you will, at the very least, need to supplement minerals on a daily basis (and that means top dressing, not just free choice). The other choice is to choose a more nutrient dense feed that provides all the daily vitamins/minerals/protein at a volume level that does not provide excess calories.

The way to determine that is to spend time reading labels. Most bags are labeled in amounts to be given to the average 1000-1100 lb mature big horse. Reduce that amount by 75% for the average 250 lb mini (with further adjustment needed based on the weight of the horse you are feeding). If the feed requires 6 lbs daily for a big horse, your 250 lb mini will need 1.5 lbs daily -- that's a LOT of feed for an idle, nonworking, pasture pet who probably only needs 1.5% or less of his body weight in feedstuff daily, 50% of which should come from forage. In other words:

a) 250 lb maintenance adult mini needs from 2.5-3.75 lbs of food daily if he is an easy keeper.

b) 50% of that figure should come from forage, so no more than 1.5 lbs of grain should be provided daily -- many will need less than that to maintain condition, but if you provide less than that, your horse may not be getting all the nutrition he needs.

This is why it is so important to WEIGH your feed rather than feeding by volume -- a cup of this, a can of that, a flake of hay. I know this sounds complicated, but it is easy to learn if you take it in small bites (pun intended

).

Robin C

 

[woodnldy]

Robin,Thanks,I read labels on people food and i need to learn how to do the horse to. Mine aren't in training and the one mare with colt is fat with just pasture. I forgot to say that what i was using was the 16% for mare and foal. they have their mineral salt block out and I have them on the daily worm meds.They are always so full at night that they barely munch on the hay that i keep available. I am just trying to learn all I can.

Cheryl

 

[Robin_C]

Cheryl,

Sounds like you are doing a great job with your minis. I meant to say at the end of the other post that if your minis are maintaining their weight on pasture, giving them a handful or so of any quality sweet feed is no problem. However, since the Dumor is not a highly concentrated feed, what your minis DO need is a mineral supplement, preferably a grass balancer in type. You can find these at just about any well-stocked feed store. There will be instructions on the container for "top-dressing" as well as giving free choice. In your case, you should be doing both -- top dressing daily on top of the sweet feed either in the a.m. or p.m. and leaving some out free choice. This will ensure that your minis eating a primarily forage diet (nothing wrong with that!!!) will be getting the daily recommended dose of minerals.

Robin C