Carbohydrate levels in Equine Nutrition

Carbohydrates are an important part of every horse’s diet. They are found in almost all the food your horse eats, including forages, and grains. There are a number of different types of              carbohydrates in horse feed and they vary considerably in how well horses digest and utilize each one. The one that has the most attention is non-structural carbohydrates (NSC).

Non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) are those that occur either as simple sugars in the horse’s feed or that can be broken down by enzymes produced by the horse. Included in this category are     glucose and fructose, lactose, sucrose and starch. They range from being almost non-existent in grass hay diet to comprising a high percentage of the total diet in a high grain-low fiber ration. Horses do require starch and sugar in their diets in order to recover from exercise. However,      overloading the digestive system with NSC can result in metabolic issues, which may lead to problems such as colic, laminitis (founder), obesity or developmental orthopedic disease.

A major concern today is insulin resistant horses, these horses must be at a low sugar and starch total diet including forage. This will allow to maintain a healthy and appropriate body weight. In addition to the level of carbohydrates, the dietary levels and balance of mineral and essential fatty acid balance both affect insulin resistance and are affected by it. Magnesium, zinc, chromium, and biotin are some of the nutrients that positively affect insulin resistance.

 

Measuring sugar content of feeds and forages include:

NSC%= starch% + water soluble carbohydrates (WSC)

Products with Lower Starch Levels:

Hubbard Life COOL COMMAND Starch 9.7% WSC 5.3%  NSC 15%

Hueber TRIPLE STAR

Hueber Triple Star is also available with no corn!

 

 

Buying from Big Box Stores vs. Local

Buying quality feed, is very important to the overall health and condition of your animal. Large box retail stores are blooming in our area and offering lower quality animal feed products than smaller local stores. Box stores buy in volume which may cause a lack in freshness. Feed formulations are determined by price of    ingredients instead of the quality.

A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own    interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

Good service is key for success for any business. Local businesses offer personalized service and knowledge the customer deserves by hiring people with a better understanding of the products they are selling and take more time to get to know customers with pride in their work. Whether you are just starting out or you’re following the footsteps of generations past, they can instantly assist you with all your feed and nutritional needs. They also work with specialists that can help you come up with feed that is best for your animal at a affordable price. 

 

New Dealer

 

Molds & Mycotoxins

This has been a unique & difficult growing season to say the least, not only are producers faced with high priced & limited amounts of feed, but there are now reports of some molds within the crop as well. Signs of mold include dustiness, caking of feed, poor feed flow out of bin, refusal by animals, moldy, and lower  reproduction. This summer has been perfect breeding grounds for mold with   water stress, high temperature, & insect damage. The by-product of mold called Mycotoxins are toxins produced by organisms as fungi, including mushrooms, yeasts & molds that can occur in grain, hay, silage, pasture & by-products. Mold growth can also rob grains of their fat, protein & vitamin content, and lead to nutritional deficiencies in livestock. DO NOT feed moldy grain nor hay. Make sure your feed is dried & stored properly until fed to horses. Mycotoxins are nothing new in the swine, poultry & ruminant markets, but little is know about the affects in horses. These toxins can cause a wide range of clinical signs in horses, including respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological & reproduction problems.

 

Low On Hay???

The dry weather is making hay a little harder (much harder) to find. Hueber Feeds and its dealers has some options to help the horse owner get through these times. Stretch your current hay, feed little to no hay, or do a mixture of both!

· Hubbard Life Senior Horse Feed

· Hubbard Life Ruff-n-Redi Pellets

· Alfalfa/oat cubes

· Hay Cubes

· Alfalfa pellet

· Hueber Hay Extender

Hueber Hay Extender

Guaranteed Analysis

CRUDE PROTEIN, min…………...11.0 %

CRUDE FAT, min……………………..3.0%

CRUDE FIBER, min………………..35.0%

CALCIUM, min………………………...0.5%

CALCIUM, max………………………..1.0%

PHOSPHOROUS, min………………..0.2%

COPPER, min……………………….22ppm

SELENIUM, min………………….0.37ppm

ZINC, min…………………………….86ppm

VITAMIN A, min…………....3,750 IU/LB

VITAMIN D, min……………....451 IU/LB

VITAMIN E, min…………..…….45 IU/LB

Expand your hay and pasture supply

Forage is the most important element in a horses diet and should make up the bulk for a horses diet. With rain being slim to none in our neck of the woods our pastures and hay fields have been dry and bare. Now is the best time to plan for the worst. Expanding our hay supply and making sure our horses get the nutrition they need.

Turning out your horses on pasture may cause more damage to drought stricken pasture land. Hooves can compact dry soil further and break drying grass stems. If they are very bored their attempts at grazing may uproot already fragile roots. If possible, keep horses in a 'sacrifice area' where you don't expect grass to grow. Allow pasture to grow several inches high, before grazing horses. Some areas of your pasture may need to be worked up and reseeded once the drought has ended.

It is best to extend the good hay you have with other fiber sources. A slow transition to other forages is essential for horses rather than to switch when you run out. Hueber Feed and its dealers carry Hay Cubes, Beet Pulp, and Complete Feeds with high fiber.

 For top performance Stable-lyx tubs are also great to ensure daily intake of free choice protein, vitamins, and trace mineral supplement for horses on pasture or range.

Hubbard Life Bags new actions going forward

Hubbard Feeds will discontinue the use of composite bags in all specie product lines   except dog and cat. Composite bags will be replaced with clay coat bags (similar to the old Front Runner bags). The use of clay coat bags will allow us to maintain the current quality graphics and colors, and provide as good if not better breaking characteristics as composite. Most importantly, clay coat bags provide superior handling characteristics as they are significantly less slippery than composite bags. As well as being biodegradable.

Hubbard anticipates clay coat bags to be at the plants by the end of August. Until then plants will continue to use composite bags for Hubbard Life products in order to work through existing inventory in plants.