Being a fan of using ration balancers as a base of every ration for my horses, I face a dilemma during the winter months, or any time the horse needs more calories than a ration balancer can provide.
Most companies offer this system to use with their products:
Ration balancer
if horse needs more calories...
Ration balancer plus top dress of high fat product
if horse still needs more calories...
Switch to a regular type feed that requires anywhere from 4-6# fed as a daily minimum.
or
utilize a minimally fortified feed as a top dress (hint, look for a selenium level of 0.30ppm or lower), Beet Pulp, Oats, etc.
Although those options are all valid answers, none of them provide the freedom I like in choosing an additional feed for extra calories. I sat around for a while scheming of a system to create an easy way to calculate "exchanges" ie. if I were to feed a typically fortified feed how would I balance the two out so that I don't overdose my horse on vitamins/minerals.
Progressive Nutrition has the answer. They utilize Units. Units pertain to the levels of vitamins and minerals in the feedstuff. A pound of ration balancer = one unit. Their typical grain (for example, one that runs .60ppm selenium) equates to 4# of grain = 1 unit. Read about it here.
For example, Gelin, requires 2.0 units of his ration balancer. Using the unit system if I want to provide additional calories from Blue Seal's Sentinel LS, I would assign the LS the 4#= 1 unit and formulate something along the lines of...
4# LS= 1 unit
1# Nutrena Balance = 1.5 units
for a total of 2 units.
or
6#LS = 1.5units
.5#NB = .5 unit
or
2#LS = .5 units
1.5#NB = 1.5 units
up until
8#LS = 2 units.
Using the unit system I can easily utilize any feed I choose as an addition to the ration balancer. The volume of feed per unit would depend on how fortified the additional feed is- I use the ration balancer itself as a guide- how many pounds of the other feed would it take to equal 1# of the ration balancer, in regard to vitamins and minerals.
Thank you Progressive Nutrition! If only they distributed to New England, I would be a huge fan of their feeds, as I love the unit system and how they emphasize the RFV of your forage when making decisions about which grains to feed.
