Like everything else lately, the costs of hay and feed have skyrocketed across the United States. In areas that have suffered a drought, prices are even higher.
Horses should eat a minimum of 1 percent of their body weight per day in hay or hay replacement products. If sourcing quality hay has become difficult, there are a variety of options available to stretch hay supplies. These include hay pellets, chopped hay, commercial hay stretchers, hay cubes, haylage and complete feeds. Each of these can be used alone or in combination, reports The Horse.
Complete feeds and commercial hay stretchers can be alternatives to feeding poor-quality or costly hay; these are pelleted, made of blends of fiber that replace long-stemmed hay. These products are nutritionally balanced and higher in calories than hay or hay pellets. Pelleted hay and hay replacements should be fed by weight, the same as traditional hay.
Other hay replacement products that use soybean hulls, wheat middlings, wheat bran, or beet pulp can be used to replace up to 50 percent of hay in an equine diet.
Any change from hay to another hay product should be done over seven to 10 days, adding in the replacement product before running out of traditional hay. This will help to avoid digestive upset.
To help prevent rapid ingestion, divide the daily ration of pelleted hay, complete feeds, or hay stretchers into multiple meals and feed them at ground level so the products can be spread out.
Read more at The Horse.
The post Drought, High Prices: How To Stretch Winter Hay Supplies appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
