In my life outside of horses I work in the animal feed industry. I have found over time that many of the skills and supplies I use in my work life I can use at home feeding my own animals as well.
Weight tape: This photo actually shows a beef weight tape but they make these for horses as well. Knowing your horses' weight is an essential starting point for formulating and balancing rations. The weight tape also allows you to track weight gain/loss caused by changes you make to the ration. Finally, the weight tape can help you determine medication dosages based on weight. (PS-If you don't have a weight tape but do have a regular soft measuring tape you can use this formula to estimate your horse's weight: heart girth x heart girth x body length/330=weight in pounds.)
Forage sample bags: I wrote a post on the importance of testing your hay here. If you don't test your forage you will not have a full picture of what you are feeding your horses. The appearance of the hay will NOT tell you important facts about nutritional content such as protein level and sugar/starch content.
Feed tags: I use feed tags when evaluating competitor's products in the field at work. I also read and review both the ingredients and the nutrition specs on the tags for all the horse feeds I buy.
Scales!: I love my scales! The scale on the left is a digital kitchen scale, it was about $10-$14 from the kitchen section at target. The scale on the right is a hanging bag scale which was about $20 at tractor supply. I use scales to guide customers on how much to feed in my day to day at work. At home I weigh each new feed to determine how much it weighs per quart.
It is particularly important to know weights when feeding a fortified grain product. The vitamin/mineral content of these feeds is based on a specific minimum feeding rate. If you are only feed 2# of a product designed to be fed at 5# your animals won't be getting the full serving of vitamins/minerals/amino acids that may be in the product.
Different feed formulations have different densities, for instance, I feed a sweet feed and a pelleted fat supplement, the pelleted supplement is more dense and weighs more per quart. The hanging scale is useful for weighing hay nets, simply hang the empty net and subtract that weight from the full weight. I was really surprised how little hay by weight I was actually feeding when I started using the hanging scale, I am not good at guessing weights!
Many sizes of measuring cups/scoops: These come in handy when measuring out feed products that have tag instructions for volume instead of weight.
Sight, touch, and smell:
I get my hands on feed I formulate for customers and keep close tabs on the feed I buy as well. I always feel each batch to check for consistency and stickiness (molasses level). Feed should smell fresh and sweet, never dusty, sour or moldy. Also check for bugs, mold, and excess dust when opening a bag. Know your basic feed ingredients to make sure the formula is correct and consistent.
No comments:
Post a Comment