belgian filles- feed

Question
QUESTION: Hi
I have two Belgian fillies- 8mo old. They are around 14.2 hands and about 650-700 lbs. I have heard much about not feeding them too much grain- because you don't want them to grow too fast and have bone and muscle problems. I was wondering how much is too much. I feed 14% golden glo- a sweet feed and they each have access to around 40-50 lbs of grass hay a day.
I would love to hear your opinion.
Thanks  bunch
Lisa

ANSWER: Dear Lisa,

You are right Belgians and the other draft breeds need to grow slowly.  How many pounds of the 14% are you giving them and what are the ingredients in this mix.  You can find out the ingredients on the bag label.  Also is that 40-50lbs each of hay or between the 2?

The additional info will help me to know if what you are currently doing is ok.

Look forward to hearing from you soon.

Clair Thunes, PhD.
Independent Equine Nutritionist,
Equilibrate Equine Consulting,
clair@equilbrateequine.com
www.equilibrateequine.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to you.

The grain...I feed about 2  lbs of grain a day- 1 lb morn; 1 lb at night.

Ingred-- Crude protein >14%; Crude fat >2.5%; Crude fiber< 10%.    Whole oats, rolled corn, plant protein products, cane molasses, vit A,D3, salt, calcium carbonite, sodium selenite, ferrous carbonate, manganous oxide, magnesium oxide, copper sulfate, cobalt carbnite, dicalcium phosphate

They each get 15-20 lbs grass hay at night in their stalls and then I feed 60-80lbs of grass hay in the morning for 5 horses to share.

At the end of Feb they will be 9 months old. They each are at 14.2 hands and one weighs 750 lb and the other 765 lbs. I just weighed them on Feb 1st.

Thanks alot.
Lisa

Answer
Hi Lisa,

That is certainly plenty of hay, typically we want to make sure horses get at least 1% of their body weight as roughage a day and they need a total intake of feed of at least 1.5% preferably 2% and if this is all roughage then that is even better.  So your girls are getting over 2% of their body weight each night as hay and lets say they eat 10lbs each during the day (although may be less if the bigger horses are in charge) then they are eating about 4% of their body weight a day.  Most horses max out at 3-3.5%.  Growing is a pretty energy intensive process and the reasons why a lot of people feed their young horses grain is that some folks feel that young horses just can't physically eat enough to meet their energy needs and therefore need to eat more energy dense feeds i.e. more calories per pound.  Your guys are clearly not having a problem with this!  The grain you are feeding is a such a small part of their overall diet that I doubt it is a problem.  However, at <10% fiber it is a very low fiber feed and looking at the ingredients I can see why it is all grains and sugar it is the horse equivalent of candy.

My concern is that your young horses may not be receiving all the minerals or essential amino acids that they need as this grain will not balance the hay and neither does it contain any lysine or methionine which are amino acids required in the diet and that can be low in hays.  

I'm not sure where you are located?  Do you have access to LMF, Progressive or ADM feeds?  If you can let me know what feed manufacturers feeds you have access to I will suggest a more appropriate product for your girls.

Best,

Clair