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> I've been following the messages about 50/50 grass and alfalfa hay, but here in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas east of Sacramento,California, we can't get good grass hay. What about 50/50 oat/alfalfa? How does it compare nutritionally and can you feed corn, oats and barley with it and have a balanced diet for endurance horses? Should you feed supplements with that mix? Thanks
Hiya,
Oat hay is generally a little lower in energy and protein, and has a
little different macro and micromineral distribution than bermuda or
orchardgrass. Both are really lousy sources of lysine, one of the
essential amino acids. If you had a 900 lb horse working at moderate
levels and fed 9 lbs each of alfalfa and oat hay, this is what you'd
get: a ration that although sufficient, even a bit excessive, in
overall crude protein, but is just a bit deficient in lysine. If your
horse is putting on alot of muscle tissue in conditioning, you want to
avoid that. You'd also almost certainly be lacking in energy by at
least 4 or 5 Mcal per day (your horse would probably be losing weight).
Your calcium-phosphorus ratio would be 3.35 to 1, meaning that for every
3.35 grams of calcium, you're feeding 1 gram of phosphorus. Aside from
the ratios, you would be feeding about 2.5 times the required amount of
calcium and about the right amount of phosphorus. The amount of
magnesium would be about twice the required amount, unless it was
California-grown alfalfa, which is considerably higher in magnesium. In
that case, the magnesium content COULD be as high as 7 or 8 times the
required amount.
Tom Ivers asked me to post something about calcium, phosphorus and
magnesium and hopefully I'll get it done tonight, so I'll leave that
discussion until then, if that's okay with you. Suffice it to say for
right now that I don't happen to care for feeding Ca, P and Mg in high
amounts---calcium because it contributes to problems in calcium
mobilization during sustained exercise, and phosphorus and magnesium
because they contribute to enterolith formation.
Besides all of the above, you'd be kinda sorta lacking in a few of the
trace minerals and vitamin E. Your main problem would probably be the
lack of calories. If you supplemented with 2 pounds each of corn and
barley, you would have sufficient energy for at least moderate endurance
work (and many horses could race their brains out on it), would still be
lacking a few grams of lysine, still be lacking in vitamin E and still
kinda sorta just barely okay on a few of the trace elements, all of
which may or may not make any difference. Performance horses use more
vitamin E, so that would probably be a good thing to supplement. Adding
an ounce or two of any good vitamin/mineral mix will take care of all of
the deficiencies except for lysine. You could take care of the lysine
deficiency by increasing the alfalfa to 11 pounds (60/40), or by feeding
about an ounce or so of Foal-Lac pellets. (Around here I hand it out as
treats). Everyone has heard me rant and rave and yodel on about feeding
alot of alfalfa, so it's no big revelation that I prefer Foal-Lac
pellets as a source of lysine to alfalfa. For that matter, I'd really
rather see someone feed about 4 ounces of Foal Lac pellets and cut the
alfalfa down to about 4-5 pounds. But I know Foal-Lac doesn't come
cheap, so I promise to still be nice if you want to feed alfalfa.
Bottom line, 50/50 alfalfa/oat hay with a few pounds of corn/barley and
an ounce of a good vit/min mix is a pretty good diet. Wouldn't be an
entirely bad idea to supplement for the extra few grams of lysine, as
it's one of the essential amino acids. Certainly this is a whole lot
better than the dairy-quality alfalfa, oat and wheat bran rations being
fed in so many show barns as The Perfect Ration (ha!). Personally, I
tend to start losing sleep if I suspect one of my horses isn't getting
an absolutely optimum diet, but then, I'm a little psychopathic about
it, and equine nutrition isn't an exact science anyway.
Hope this helps answer your question.
Susan
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