No grain?
Feed producers have caught on (to some extent) that there's a constituency of horse owners who don't want to feed grain. We've recently seen a whole bunch of 'grain free' feeds. Great!
A basic truism, you might agree, is that if someone is using a whole string of big words, or over-technical language to explain something that should be easy, they're trying to hoodwink you.
The difficultly with feedbags that have pelletised, micronised or extruded feeds is that you can't see what it actually is.
If you open a bag of oats, and there are no oats in there - only oat hulls, you're going to be able to tell. If it's mashed into a pellet, you can't see what it originally was.
One new ingredient that's bean cropping up in 'grain free' feeds is faba beans. Which is broad beans.
Faba bean seeds are rich in protein (25-33% DM) and starch (40-48% DM) and are, therefore, a valuable source of protein and energy for livestock. They have a moderate content of fibre (crude fibre 7-11% DM). Their composition is similar to peas, though they are richer in protein (+ 5 percentage units), crude fibre (+ 2) and poorer in starch (- 6). Compared to maize grain, they tend to have a lower energy content for ruminants, pigs and poultry, due to their higher fibre content. The presence of antinutritional factors is a bigger problem in monogastric species than in ruminants. The amino acid profile has a high lysine content (5.4-6.8%) and is relatively deficient in sulphur-containing amino acids (0.6-1.0% methionine). Faba beans contain about 1% lipids in the DM, with a high proportion of linoleic and linolenic acids, which makes them susceptible to rancidity if ground and stored for more than about a week. Faba beans are a relatively poor source of calcium and are low in iron and manganese. Faba beans contain lower levels of biotin, choline, niacin, pantothenic acid and riboflavin, but a higher level of thiamin, than soybean meal or rapeseed meal.
OK, the broad bean itself is pretty good. High lysine is good. Low iron is good. You can balance calcium with something else. Downsides? It clearly has to be stabilised to stop it from going off. High starch is going to be an issue for metabolically compromised horses and ponies.
But if you read the label, the first ingredient, which they have to put first because that's the most volume, is 'legume hulls', ie the pods, not the bean. Faba bean hulls have a much lower protein content at about 5-11% DM.
Another one is Lupins
You can read a broad overview of lupins here:
Lupins are high in protein and low in starch, making them a safe option for horses in work that are prone to metabolic dysfunction. They are also grown here in Australia. We're a fan of supporting domestic businesses rather than importing where possible.
Trouble is, lupins have to be highly processed to extract the nutrients, which tends to damage the amino acid profile, which is why you're feeding it in the first place.
Another query, like the 'faba bean' question, is the bag full of lupins, or is it full of lupin hulls, because the seed itself has been sold to bakeries? I don't know. The feedbag doesn't make this clear.
You can read more about feeding pellets here
Also managing choke, which can happen when feeds are concentrated, here
Keep it simple
The reason we recommend buying the actual ingredient rather than a processed version of the ingredient (another example is 'alfalfa pellets' or 'cubes', which is just processed lucerne), is that you can see what the quality is with your own eyes.
You can find the nutrient profiles of the actual thing on the interwebs, which means you can balance the whole diet accurately. As soon as they start adding 'proprietary vitamin and mineral blends', it gets harder to decipher what's actually in the bag. Minerals complete for absorption. Too much or too little of any mineral can result in equally problematic symptoms.
Only what your horse needs. Nothing that it doesn't.
Sound Advice supplements contain no fillers and flavours - only active ingredients.
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