No Easy Answer To Rising Feed Costs

 By Dr. David Freeman, OSU Equine Program

With ever rising costs of feed, more and more calls are being received to look for alternatives that will reduce the largest daily incurred ownership cost, that being feed. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. A frequently occurring question concerns replacing grain with hay. How much hay is needed to replace a pound of grain? The question leads to an explanation on energy values of feedstuffs.

How much feed you need to keep a horse at a certain weight is dependent upon the energy content of the feed. Energy must be fed and digested by the horse to be of value, so energy requirements are expressed as Megacalories (Mcal) of digestible energy. (Megacalories are 1000 Calories, which is the measurement we relate to in human nutrition.) Feed costs are most identifiable by cost per weight of feed. For example, a 50 pound bag of grain mix that sales for $10.00 costs $0.20 per pound of feed. A 40 pound bale of hay that sales for $4.00 costs $0.10 per pound. So, if you could simply reduce the amount of grain and increase the amount of hay, you should be able to feed for less cost. However, a pound of grain mix will have more digestible energy per pound than a pound of hay.

The digestible energy content of both feedstuffs would have to be known to compare how much hay would need to be substituted for the grain mix. Digestible energy content is not listed on feed tags. To be accurate, digestible energy has to be determined by a feeding trial designed to monitor energy intake from eating and energy loss in feces. Digestible energy needs of similar horses will routinely vary about 10 to 20% because of differences in the horse’s body, ability to digest nutrients, and activity or production level. Predictive formulas can be developed to estimate digestibility of feeds based on results from feeding trials. For example, compare estimates for alfalfa hay, Bermuda grass hay and oats based on a calculated digestible energy value derived from feed samples tested at a national feed testing laboratory.

Energy content of Bermuda grass hay is expected to range from 0.8 to 0.9 Mcal DE/pound, with an average 0.85 Mcal DE/pound. Energy content of legume hays like alfalfa is expected to range from 0.9 to 1.2 Mcal DE/ pound with average values around 1.1 Mcal DE/pound.

Oats are expected to range from 1.2 to 1.5 Mcal DE/pound with average values around 1.4 Mcal DE/pound. (Commercially prepared feeds will be similar to oats in energy content, some more energy dense than oats because of addition of fat or other higher energy feedstuffs). Estimates can be used to make the following assumptions, although rough at best because of the variation in range of energy content of different lots of the same feedstuff.

Energy values vary about 16% from low to high estimates from samples within a particular hay or grain. The average energy value for Bermuda grass hay is about 20% less of the expected average for alfalfa hay. The average energy value for alfalfa as compared to oats is about 20% less. The average energy value for Bermuda grass as compared to oats is about 40% less. So, if you want to replace oats with hay, you can start the comparison with the expectation that for each decrease of 1 pound of oats, the horse would need to consume 1 ¼ to 1 1/2 pounds of alfalfa or about 1 3/4 to 2 pounds of Bermuda grass hay. These comparisons don’t account for differences in other nutrients such as protein or minerals, so calculations for protein, mineral and vitamin intakes will also have to be done to insure a balanced diet.

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