Nutrient Matching Expensive Feeds with Cheaper Ones: High Oil Feeds
You have just met with a well-known feed brand advisor, and they are adamant your horse needs a particular product from their range. You only want the best for your horse so you go to your local feed store and look for the bag, only to find it is €40.63 and it won’t even last an entire month. It is out of your price range, so, what to do? You want to make sure your horse gets the best, but it’s out of the budget.
Let’s break it down.
What’s in the bag
When faced with this dilemma it’s good to take a look at the feed label to see what’s oh so special about it. Is it vitamins and minerals, protein levels or low starch? Below is a feed label of product A that we can’t afford.
From this quick glance we can see it is high in protein (remembering that most horses, even in light work, need no more than 10% protein per day). The oils are high so that would make our horses coat nice and shiny.
We are looking at a high oil, high protein feed that is advised for a working 500kg horse to feed 500g - 1000g/ day. So, for this example, let’s say 1000g / day has been advised by the feed person.
Pricing this means 1 x €40.63 bag (18kg) feeding per 1kg per day =€2.25/ day. For 30 days that’s €67.50 (about 1.6 bags).
Take a look around
Our goals are to find feeds that match as close as possible to the protein, oils and digestible energy levels that are nicer on our pockets. After some searching, I find a product that could potentially match the levels for product A.
Below is the feed label for product B:
The feed is €12.10 for a 20kg bag.
Feeding advice for 500kg horse from the bag is 2kg/ day
Comparison table
Taking a look at this table, many of the elements from product A are being met by product B. The only area that we need to boost is the oils. Linseed oil is a good oil for horses, great for coat and skin.
So, lets add a 5L bottle into our calculations to see if we can still improve on our €67.50/ month feed bill.
A 4.5l bottle of linseed oil is €18.50 and we want to add 120g of oil to our horses diet each day. The advice on the side of the bottle says to give a 500kg horse 60ml per day however, horses have been fed over 195mls of linseed oil per day and saw coat colour improvements. Along with this, horses fed 278g per day saw improved haematology and fatty acid profiles.
120g = €0.49/ day
Total cost per month
Product A : €67.50
Product B + Linseed : €51 – a saving of 24% or €16.50
If you are happy to accept that product B has less oil and only feed this, then the total monthly cost of product b: €36.30 – a saving of 46% or €31.20.
Remember to shop around, do some homework, ask for bulk order discounts and team up with yard mates to see if you can get better deals!
If you like my work and wish to support it, you can buy me a coffee. My horses will thank you :D
References
Patoux, S. and Istasse, L. (2016). Incorporation of sunflower oil or linseed oil in equine compound feedstuff: 1 Effects on haematology and on fatty acids profiles in the red blood cells membranes. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition, [online] 100(5), pp.828–835. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jpn.12448.
Richards, T., Burron, S., David, W.L., Pearson, W., Trevizan, L., Minikhiem, D., Grant, C.E., Patterson, K. and Shoveller, A.K. (2023). Effects of dietary camelina, flaxseed, and canola oil supplementation on inflammatory and oxidative markers, transepidermal water loss, and coat quality in healthy adult dogs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, [online] 10. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2023.1085890.