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Discussion on Alfalfa pellets
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Member:
paardex
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Posted on Thursday, Dec 20, 2007 - 3:34 am:
At the moment I am feeding alfalfapellets and I do not have any experience with them. The horses seem to like them though. My goal is to put the protein percentage higher and add calcium because they eat oats to.
Would the contents in the pellets be the same as in alfalfa hay[listed in the article]?
Thanks Jos
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Dec 20, 2007 - 6:22 am:
Not necessarily jos, many folks supplement their pellets to include other nutrients. Even if not supplemented, there is a wide range of nutrition available from the alfalfa depending on the quality used to make the pellets. Because of these factors, if there is no guaranteed analysis, I suggest you find a brand that does.
DrO
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Member:
paardex
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Posted on Thursday, Dec 20, 2007 - 12:01 pm:
Thanks Dr.O,the same as with batches of hay I suppose. They consist of local grown alfalfa and only that but each new bought bag can come from another farmer, so no way of telling how much energy is in it. There is no other brand the only other possibillities are a product consisting of short pieces of alfalfa dried and mixed with mollasses to make it dustfree as the producer claims this is analyzed and contents are guaranteed, only the horses refuse to eat it despite the horrible price.
The other option is alfalfa hay [best choice I suppose] but this year the weather was so bad there is almost no alfalfa hay for sale it was all dried into the pellets I described above.
A bad hay year doesn't only give the farmers a headache! As the horses are in a very good shiny fit condition I think I will feed the pellets and supplement with a complete food with guaranteed vitamins and minerals and protein.
Thanks as always,
Jos
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Friday, Dec 21, 2007 - 6:36 am:
Without other information available I would use the low end figures for alfalfa jos and figure it vitamin deficient. Are the pellets a green color? Try crushing a handful and smelling them, what does it smell like? I really don't know how dependable impressions gained from this process would be but I really hate operating completely in the dark and you might turn up something interesting. Would it possible to compare this to good quality pellets of known analysis?
Being alfalfa it is unlikely to need protein supplementation unless it was really badly abused. Mineral content is only minimally effected by quality but supplemental minerals should always be available and vitamin supplementation is prudent. These issues are covered in detail in Overview of Nutrition and the articles on these topics.
DrO
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Member:
paardex
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Posted on Friday, Dec 21, 2007 - 8:26 am:
The pellets are a very green almost darkgreen color and are not easily crushed but after crushing they smell a bit like grass/herbs. As I said this is my first encounter with alfalfa[in Holland it is rarely used] and I bought it to get the proteinlevels up.
I carefully read the articles and put the horses on 24/7 turn out on 15 acres of grass[3 horses] still green and not very long about 25% clover. They have a mineralsalt lick[which they use] available eat a concentrate with 18% protein and according to the label if given 500 gramms a day sufficient for the vitamin and mineralsuplementation if forage is available at all times and according to condition good quality black oats up to 2,5 kgs a day[about 5lbs I think]. They also have unlimited acces to stemmy hay[because that was the best quality I could get this year]and I am now giving about 2 lbs alfalfapellets a day per horse[mares in foal 7 and 8 months]
I would have preferred a good complete food for broodmares but if I order it I will be the only one who feeds it over here[to expensive] and it is kept in a fairly humid cold barn so I fear the last bags will be not so good quality. I like complete food to be fresh.
I can to be on the safe side supplement with a complete vitaminproduct for humans as described in your article but grass regrowth start over here normally in february so I should have good quality grass before march.
Hope I made a sensible decision given circumstances and thanks again for all the information and advice given.
Jos
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Saturday, Dec 22, 2007 - 9:19 am:
Seems good to me Jos but it is the horses condition that will tell.
DrO
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Member:
paardex
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Posted on Saturday, Dec 22, 2007 - 10:41 am:
 Until now they tell only good tales! But I'd like to keep it that way.
Thanks Dr.O
Jos
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