Reduce Feeding Costs

Feeding horses can get really expensive. Are you worried about the cost of your horse’s supplements and hard feeds?  Are you looking to reduce feeding costs?  How will you do this without it impacting on your horse’s condition, topline or coat and hooves?

Maybe you’ve had to make cutbacks in your horse’s diet due to a reduced workload or to simply save dollars.  If you’ve had to opt for a simpler fibre-based diet, what should you feed alongside it?  A vitamin/mineral supplement?  An additional gut supplement?  Extra protein plus something for hooves and coat? All or some of these things?

If you’re currently feeding any of the above supplements, why not consolidate EVERYTHING into just one product?  But which product should you choose for the most effectiveness, ease of use, dollar saving, peace of mind and the best results?

To help you choose, we explain the most common types of feed products and what they do for your horse.

Complete feeds, Hard Feeds, Fibregenix balancer supplements – What’s the difference?

Reduce Feeding Costs with a Complete feed – What is it?

A feed that contains everything your horse needs in his diet including the forage.

Benefits:

It can be fed as the sole ration—no need for hay or pasture –  just provide water and the complete feed.

High fibre and is ideal for senior horses that can’t chew or fully utilise hay or pasture

Downsides:

Tends to have very large serving sizes, often around 1.5% of the horse’s bodyweight so a bag won’t last very long.

People often provide additional forage/grazing, so your horse can be getting too much for his daily needs.

Adding extra forage or supplementation defies the purpose of a complete feed making it cost-ineffective.

Reduce Feeding Costs with a Hard feed – What is it?

A processed feed that’s generally cereal-based and is fortified with a vitamin and mineral premix. It may or may not also contain some lower quality or least cost digestive aids. It needs to be fed alongside an appropriate amount of forage, (usually recommended as no less than 1% of bodyweight)

Benefits:

It provides energy and calories, plus essential nutrients in one feed.  Just add forage and you’re good to go.

Downsides:

Because the concentration of vitamins and minerals per kilogram is quite low, your horse must be fed the recommended daily feed rate. This is to ensure he gets adequate levels of nutrients to balance his diet. It also inevitably means feeding multiple kilos.

The high levels of starch/sugar/energy eaten to satisfy the daily  essential nutrient requirements, can often mean horses put on weight. They may become hyperactive/excitable. Worst case scenario, it can cause digestive issues eg stomach ulcers or ‘acid guts’ from over-consumption of starch in any one meal.

Not ideal for grain sensitive or metabolically challenged horses or ponies.

High starch meals will need to be broken down into several smaller meals per day which isn’t time effective for anyone who can only feed twice a day.

A bag won’t last very long if fed at the recommended daily feed rate, so it can be expensive. Eg a feeding rate of 3kg per day for an average 500kg horse means a bag will last just over 6 days.

Reduce Feeding Costs with a Fibregenix Feed Balancer – What is it?

Think of it as an all in one multi-supplement. In essence, a heavily fortified feed product containing some fibre, protein and fatty acids, superior digestive aids and essential nutrients. It’s designed to be fed alongside forage and complements common forages’ nutrient profiles. A Fibregenix feed balancer may seem more expensive than other feed products, but being concentrated, only a small amount is fed. So a bag of balancer will actually last longer than a bag of hard feed  This makes it versatile and far more cost-effective long term.

Benefits:

• Gives your horse a healthier digestive system thanks to specific digestive supplements.  These can help process fibre more efficiently, maximising nutrient yield and helping to reduce the risk of digestive upsets
• Keeps your horse in great condition
• Maintains that precious topline you’ve worked so hard to build
• Promotes the shiniest and glossiest coat
• Promotes healthy hooves
• Provides all the essential nutrients needed on a daily basis in the most absorbable form.  We’ve made no compromise in the selection of the ingredients for Fibregenix feed balancers. Only the best has been selected irrespective of the premium price some of them carry.
• Low feeding rate, palatable and can be fed by hand at the paddock gate or those on spell that doesn’t need an additional bucket feed.
• Save dollars too as NO OTHER SUPPLEMENTS needed and can reduce or eliminate the need for additional hard feed.
• Whole cereal and molasses free so Non-heating
• Very low in starch and sugar
• Low feeding rate and cost-effective – just 100g per 100kg of bodyweight meaning a bag will last an average 500kg horse 30 days.
• A range of balancers are available, so there’s a solution for every horse and pony whatever the dietary dilemma.

Downsides:

Not calorie providers. However, the specialised digestive aids in a Fibregenix balancer supplement have been proven to double fibre digestibility and enable an improved nutrient absorption.   This improves calorie intake and is the reason why Prime Original and Platinum Pro can be fed alongside fibre to provide the sole source of energy and calories. Especially in the case of good-doers and even those in light to moderate work.

To summarise:

The simplest solutions are often the best. Fibregenix is the balancer product range that will revolutionise your horse’s diet and keep him healthy for his lifetime.

Reviewed and amended April 2021