Optimize the stable’s feed economy

Here we are calculating what a feed ration for a high performing horse cost per day, per month and per year. We look at two different diets; 1. a diet with a little more expensive forage with higher nutritive content supplemented with a commercial mineral feed and 2. a diet with a little less expensive forage with lower nutritive content supplemented with a commercial concentrate.

Here is our horse for this example:

Horse, 500 kg, normal keeper, does very hard exercise

Total energy requirement per day (maintenance + exercise)       → 106 MJ metabolizable energy
Total protein requirement per day (6 g digestible cp/MJ)             → 634 g digestible crude protein (d cp)

Feed ration 1: forage and a commercial mineral feed
Forage: 11.5 MJ ME/kg DM, 95 g d cp                          Price excl VAT 0.033 euro/MJ → 0.38 euro/kg DM
Mineral feed                                                                   Price excl VAT                          → 2.74 euro/kg

Forage ration 9.5 kg DM/day                 9.5 × 11.5 = 109 MJ ME/day                 9.5 × 95 = 903 g d cp/day
Mineral feed ration 126 g/day

→ gives 1.9 kg DM forage/100 kg body weight and day

Cost forage:                                                3.61 euro/day excl VAT                       4.51 euro/day incl VAT
Cost mineral feed:                                     0.35 euro/day excl VAT                       0.43 euro/day incl VAT

Total cost incl VAT             Per day 4.94 euro               Per month 153 euro                Per year 1802 euro

Feed ration 2: forage and a commercial concentrate
Forage: 9 MJ ME/kg DM, 50 g d cp                                     Price excl VAT 0.029 euro/MJ → 0.26 euro/kg DM
Concentrate: 10.4 MJ ME/kg DM, 69.6 g d cp                   Price excl VAT 0.12 euro/MJ   → 1.29 euro/kg DM

Forage ration 7.5 kg DM/day                    7.5 × 9 = 67.5 MJ/day                      7.5 × 50 = 375 g d cp/day
Concentrate ration 4.0 kg DM/day           4.0 × 10.4 = 41.6 MJ/day                4.0 × 69.6 = 278 g d cp/day
Total                                                            → 109 MJ/day                                  → 653 g d cp/day

→ gives 1.5 kg DM forage/100 kg body weight and day

Cost forage:                                       1.93 euro/day excl VAT                              2.41 euro/day incl VAT
Cost concentrate:                              5.14 euro/day excl VAT                             6.43 euro/day incl VAT

Total cost incl VAT           Per day 8.84 euro                 Per month 274 euro                Per year 3228 euro

Feed ration 1 with only forage and no concentrate is not only an advantage for the feed economy, it also has advantages for the horses’ health, welfare and performance. Read more about the benefits of forage-only diets here, here and here!

Also remember to make sure the horse will get enough salt.

When you are weighing up the feed ration you might need to calculate from kg DM to kg forage. Here you find more information on kg feed and kg DM and examples of calculations!

Sara Muhonen, AgrD