Horse Supplements

Your feed has what in it?

27
May

So you do a bunch of research into Protein levels, you’re concerned about starch levels and you have a pretty good idea of what is in your hay – does that sound like you? Alternatively you were at a show and this very nice sales person told you all the reasons why their bagged feed addresses everything you need and all the other feeds are rubbish. There are any number of reasons why you are feeding a particular product but I am willing to bet that 99 times out of a 100 when you actually try to figure out what is in the feed from the label, you will be struggling.

This is not necessarily the manufacturer’s fault, although they could do a lot more to explain the values you see, but more to do with antiquated regulatory requirements as to how feed values are expressed.

So if the feed label says there is 0.25% Methionine or 80ppm of Copper what does that mean?

Now, out of the goodness of our hearts, we are going to show you how to impress your friends and even your feed dealer and at the same time have a clue as to how many amino acids, minerals etc. you are actually giving your horse.

So let’s start with percentage, which is the way the amino acids are normally listed:

  • 0.25% Methionine as above  0.25 x 4536  = mg/lb in this case 1134mg of Methionine per lb fed.
  • 80ppm Copper as above 80 x .4536 == mg/lb in this case 36.2mg/lb

Now if you are living in any other part of the world where everything is metric and you are dealing with mg/kg it is a tad easier:

  • 0.25 Methionine you just have to move the decimal point and add 2 zeros giving you 2500mg/kg
  • 80ppm – this is a really tough one,  wait for it 80mg/kg.

Hope this makes sense and if it doesn’t you can always call us, comment or abuse us.

Nick Hartog

In 1994, Nick Hartog became an owner and President of Grand Meadows Equine Supplements bringing his talents and extensive background in domestic and international equine sales and manufacturing. He has a reputation for plain speaking of the truth. In 1997, when the US horse supplement market was something akin to the Wild West with a complete lack of standards, Nick personally tested 32 different horse joint supplements to see if they matched the label. Unsurprisingly, to him at least, only 2 products matched the label claim. Read more...