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Feed Focus - Barastoc KER Stud Balancer
Do you have mares and young stock and an abundance of grass? Do you have a supply of cereal grain but want to ensure that your horses’ diet is balanced? Do you have a well doing performance horse that does not need much feed? Then Barastoc KER Stud Balancer might be the feed for you.
What is Barastoc KER Stud Balancer?
Horse feeds (whether it is pellets or muesli) are usually designed to provide nutrients that are missing in whatever forage is offered, including hay and pasture. If the forage supplies adequate energy, horses will either maintain their weight or gain weight, and this may seem as though all of the other nutrient requirements are being met. Unfortunately, this may be a false assumption as often there are inadequate amounts of protein, vitamins, and minerals in the forage required for the work asked of the horse, whether it is performance, growth, or reproduction.
Most horse feeds are designed to provide three general nutrient areas including energy (calories), protein (essential amino acids), and vitamin/mineral fortification. These levels vary depending on what type of horse the feed is designed for – for example, a feed designed for young growing horses will have higher protein, vitamin, and mineral levels than a feed designed for an older horse. Most feeds formulated for breeding and growth contain added calories to support growth and are often designed to be fed at 3kg+ per day. However, many of our breeding horses would put on too much weight if fed the full amount of this type of feed, especially in many areas of the country with excessive pasture on hand. This is where Barastoc KER Stud Balancer comes in.
Barastoc KER Stud Balancer is a concentrated feed designed to be fed at a low daily intake. It has a high level of protein (20%), which makes it ideal for horses that do not need the extra calories found in a full feed but do need the protein – i.e. breeding and growing horses. The same rings true for vitamins and minerals, the small daily intake of balancer (between 500g to 1kg depending on the horse), will contain all the vitamins and minerals that are needed to balance the roughage.
How should Barastoc KER Stud Balancer be used?
The true advantage of Barastoc KER Stud Balancer is that it can meet the horse’s requirement for protein, vitamins, and minerals and control the amount of energy supplied without having to worry about excessive calories. Barastoc KER Stud Balancer can be used three ways: (1) alone as a low-calorie source of protein, vitamins, and minerals for breeding, growing or performance horses; (2) combined with straight cereal grains to balance nutrition; or (3) as a top-dress for a full feed fed at less than the recommended feeding rate.
Low-calorie feed
Many parts of Australia have recently had above average rainfall and, as a result, an abundance of pasture. This pasture will often provide more than enough calories for our breeding and growing horses to maintain their weight, especially our heavier breeds. However, pregnant mares, especially in late pregnancy, as well as young growing horses still require important nutrients including quality protein, vitamins and minerals. Because of the concentrated formula and low feeding rate, Barastoc KER Stud Balancer can meet all the protein, vitamin, and mineral needs of pregnant and lactating mares, young growing horses, and performance horses without adding excessive calories or starch to the diet.
Balance out straight cereal grains
When there are several horses on the farm with different energy requirements, it is often difficult to find one bag of feed that will be appropriate for all of them. Combining Barastoc KER Stud Balancer with varying amounts of traditional energy sources such as cereal grain, beet pulp, stabilised rice bran, and oils can provide a custom and nutritionally balanced feed for each horse.
Topping up nutrition when full feed is below recommended intake
Most feeds are formulated to be fed at a certain feeding rate; however, many horses do not receive the recommended feeding rate because it provides too many calories for the metabolism of that horse. However, then full feeds are fed below the recommended feeding rate, the horse does not receive the appropriate levels of protein, vitamins, and minerals.
Full feeds usually have feeding rates of over 3kg a day. On a farm with adequate pasture and/or quality hay, feeding 3kg a day may be too much for some horses, so they are often fed much less, resulting in a shortfall of important nutrients. Here is an example of how feeding less than the recommended feeding rate can shortchange a horse: 4kg Barastoc Breed N Grow supplies 200mg Copper, but if only 1kg is fed, it will only provide 50mg copper, which is well below the horse’s daily requirement.
Using Barastoc KER Stud Balancer as a top-dressing is simple. For every kilogram under the recommended feeding rate, top-dress with 250g Barastoc KER Stud Balancer. For example, if a feed has a recommended feeding rate of 4 kg per day, but the horse is only getting 1kg per day and maintaining weight well, then adding 750g of Barastoc KER Stud Balancer to the diet will raise the vitamin, mineral, and protein fortification to meet the horse’s requirements.
The beauty of using Barastoc KER Stud Balancer is the flexibility it provides in customising the nutritional management of individual horses without the need for multiple types of feed. Barastoc KER Stud Balancer can give peace of mind that all of the horses on a farm receive the nutrients needed to grow, perform, or reproduce.