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  Discussion on Free choice grain for maximum weight gain during a limited period
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Posted on Thursday, Sep 6, 2001 - 6:59 am:

Hello Peter,
There is no safe grain recipe Peter under the conditions you describe. The problem is that no matter how careful you are, when you feed them in a group, there may be dominant horses in the group that get the lions share and result in bloat, colic, or founder.

To minimize the problems you are right: oats would be a better choice than corn. Oats have a higher fiber content. Also by providing as much of the energy content by oil instead of carbohydrate you reduce the danger. See Care for Horses: Nutrition: Fats and Oils in the Diet of Horses for more on this.

I have seen horses fed this way (it was not ad lib but available twice daily) where there was free access for a herd. They were introduced to it slowly but it still resulted in occasional problems and frequently there was a horse or two that had to be tied seperate. The key for them was to spread the grain thin and way out in very long feeders, 30 feet or more, so that no matter who got chased away they could find a place to feed.

Maybe a better, and perhaps cheaper, solution for you would be to provide feeding stations with a medium quality alfalfa hay (introduced slowly) available free choice.
DrO

PS: I will move this to the Care for Horses: Nutrition: Grains and Concentrates in the Horses Diet in a few days.

Posted on Thursday, Sep 6, 2001 - 6:42 am:

I would think that anytime a horse would gain alot of weight in a short period of time, you would not only be risking founder but also colic. Not to mention the fighting that will be going on over the grain. A better alternative if the pasture is not perfect would be free choice hay put in enough different places around the pasture as to help eliminate fighting. Weight gain would be slower but probably optimum for the situation.

Posted on Thursday, Sep 6, 2001 - 12:18 am:

Assuming that a group of 20-30 horses were to be fed in a 40 acre grass pasture and that they are adult quarter horses, moderately under-weight (slightly ribby), and that "group feeding" is the only viable option, and that the objective is maximum weight gain in a short period, could anyone recommend a grain recipe that would minimize the risk of founder if we provided free access?

Am I right in assuming that reducing grains high in carbohydrates (such as corn) is the key?
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