FeedBag™
Welcome to FeedBag, an online calculator that enables horse owners to build their own rations using their favorite grains, supplements and local forages
About the Calculator
Created by an equine veterinarian in response to the common client question, “What should I feed my horse?” this web-based calculator allows horse owners to customize rations for horses at all life stages and levels of work by accessing a large database of feeds, supplements and forages.
About Me
As a practicing equine and livestock veterinarian, I have always considered the importance of nutrition in animal performance. Using my background in chemistry and mathematics, I was able to build a calculator for horse owners so that they could create their own healthy rations and, in doing so, compare brands and save on feed costs.
Methodology
•
The nutritional requirements for the different types of horses were obtained from the National Research Council’s book Nutrient Requirements of Horses, sixth revised edition.
•
The nutritional content of feeds, hay and pasture were taken from published values, feed labels and forage testing reports.
•
Many feeds contain ingredients such as probiotics, herbs, amino acids and other molecules which are claimed to be advantageous to equine health. Since there are no NRC requirements established for these ingredients, they were not included in the calculator.
•
Since digestible energy (DE) is not reported on feed labels, feed companies were contacted for this data. Not all feed companies provided the DE and, in these cases, an estimate was made using the known DE from a comparable feed.
•
All nutrient contents are reported “as fed”; they are not on a dry matter basis.
•
For any feed ingredient reported as a MIN and MAX on the label, the average was used.
•
If the guaranteed analysis for a certain nutrient was not available, a “0” was inserted into the database. Thus, it is possible that in some cases, horses may be receiving more of a nutrient than the calculator reports.
•
Vitamin D was not included even though there is an NRC recommendation for it of 44 mg/kg. This was to avoid accidental over-supplementation. Risk of deficiency is low in horses since they spend a great deal of time outdoors and there is vitamin D present in many feedstuffs.
•
Vitamin A levels may appear low in the calculator since pasture and hay contain high levels of betacarotene, which is converted to vitamin A in the animal. It is hard to report an equivalent in Vitamin A since hay and pasture vary, as does conversion in the animal. Vitamin A deficiency is extremely rare in horses with access to pasture or high quality hay.
•
If a feed or supplement is not present in the database, please contact us and we will add it in to the database. FeedBag is designed to allow horse owners to compare different brands of feeds and supplements.
•
FeedBag would like to thank Britt Hicks PhD.,PAS of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service for sharing his database of forage analyses
•
The formula used for determining DE for pasture and hay for equines was as follows: Mcal/kg=4.22-(0.11*ADF)+(0.0332*CP)+(0.00112*ADF²).
•
Horse weight can be estimated using a weight tape. There is also a calculation that can be done using the heart girth and length of the animal, which may be more accurate. Adult Horse Weight Calculator–The Horse
