Nutrient Matching Expensive Feeds with Cheaper Ones: Course Mixes
Course mixes are feeds containing an array of ingredients from grains, beans, molasses and pellets. These are balanced feeds and usually don’t need other vitamins or minerals added, unlike say straight feeds (such as maize or oats). These course mixes come in a variety of blends, from high oils to high fibre and low starch and available in a range of prices. This is what we want to look at today.
Can we match nutrients in an expensive bag of course mix to a cheaper one?
First off let’s look at course mix bag A, below is its nutrient list and it costs €21.95 for a 20kg bag.
Item Amount
Digestive Energy 12.5MJ/kg
Protein 12.5%
Oil 6%
Fibre 8%
Ash 6.5%
Starch 32%
Now we look to another feed, course mix bag B, below is its nutrient list and it costs €15.95 for a 20kg bag.
Item Amount
Digestive Energy 13.5MJ/kg
Protein 14%
Oil 6.7%
Fibre 10.6%
Ash 6.8%
Starch 22%
Even from a first glance we can see that there are slight differences, with course mix B having slightly higher percentages per item, except for starch. This is a good thing, as we don’t want our starch content to be too high. As a rule of thumb, no more than 1g of starch per kg of bodyweight is fed per day (example 500kg horse = 500g starch). This shows that course mix B is matching course mix A and exceeding it.
How much of a cost difference is there per month?
Let’s assume our horse is 500kg and on a 2.5% of bodyweight (2.5 % of 500kg is 12.5kg).
80:20 ratio diet (80% roughage and 20% bucket feed) which is:
10kg of roughage and 2.5kg of feed
Bag A = €21.95/20 x 2.5 = €2.74 / day (x 30 = €88.20 per month)
Bag B = €15.95/20 x 2.5 = €1.99 / day (x 30 = €59.70 per month)
By swapping from course mix A to course mix B you can save 27% on your monthly bill representing €22.50 and the nutrient content will not be compromised.
As always, it pays to shop around!
If you like my work and wish to support it, you can buy me a coffee. My horses will thank you :D