Question

I have a Thoroughbred placement program that involves taking in racehorses from the track. They spend some downtime on the farm and then retraining is started. I’m looking for a feed that will correctly put weight on them while maintaining the rest of my herd. The other horses are used in a lesson program and require minimal grain. I’m currently feeding a performance grain from a national company, and I am frustrated with the expense and waste (whole grains in manure). I wonder if a bulk feed without molasses is the way to go.

Answer

If you are looking for a low-molasses feed and are tired of seeing undigested oats coming through in the manure, you may want to consider a pelleted feed.

Pelleted feeds typically contain less than 4% molasses, while sweet feeds typically have 8% or more molasses. They are also generally higher in digestible fiber than sweet feeds, and grains are ground so they don’t depend on mastication (chewing) by the horse to break down their size. Pelleted feeds do require chewing in order to be swallowed.

The pelleted feeds of today are much improved over the ones made in the days when they were first introduced into the marketplace.

Pelleted feeds come in a variety of formulations to fit most feeding programs.