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Charnwood Milling

By Kelvin Gibbs and John Murray

Have you ever noticed in all walks of life these days there is some form of jargon?

Seemingly meant to be incomprehensible to anyone outside that particular group. Computers have made it worse of course with a whole new language. So we have asked ourselves the question: Does the feed industry use its own jargon and can this confuse rather than help the horse owner trying to do the best for their horse or pony?

At Charnwood we try to be as transparent as possible and provide comprehensive information about our products but are the terms we are forced to use, some under legal regulations I would add, helpful or confusing? Terms can also be contradictory. So how can the name of a product or the label on a feedbag help you to make your decision? If a food is said to be high in energy, how high is high? Higher than what?

So what are some of the considerations that we at Charnwood take into account when designing rations or offering nutritional advice? Let’s go back to the beginning if you will bear with us. All animals consume food to satisfy a range of nutrient requirements, these requirements are different not only for different animals, but also for the same animals doing different things. So a brood mare with a foal has a different set of nutrient requirements compared to say a mature horse doing no work, or a point to pointer in full training.

The other crucial thing to remember is that all animals are limited in the quantity of food they can eat. This quantity is normally related to a 24 hour period and is often expressed as dry matter intake related to body weight as a percentage. Therefore a 500kg horse might be expected to eat around 2% of its bodyweight as total dry matter in a twenty four hour period i.e. 10kgs. Remember though that no food is 100% dry matter. Hay as an example is around 90% dry matter, while at the other extreme fresh spring grass is less than 20% dry matter. So quantities can vary enormously to supply the required amount of dry matter.

Then there are the different types of food that we give to our horses. These can be generally divided in to various types. There are forages of various sorts, straights, supplements, concentrates, complementary and complete feeds, which might be a pellet/cube/nut or a mix. Sometimes combinations of both basic types of feed are used.

What does all this tell us? We believe it means that there is no one correct way to feed a horse but whichever method is chosen the aim must always be to provide a balanced diet.

So again, what do we do at Charnwood? When designing a food we work on the principal that the product will normally be used in conjunction with forage of some sort, typically this would be hay, and we further assume that food to forage will be in proportion. This varies but we build an allowance into the product for a variation of 60/40 hard food to forage to 40/60 hard food to forage. This gives the owner the flexibility to vary nutrient intake e.g. increasing or decreasing energy by changing the ratio but still retain a fully balanced diet.

A different feed may then need to be chosen if the variation in quantity is still not adequate. It is when this ratio goes beyond the proportions shown or probably more likely when other ingredients are introduced in place of the feed, that potential problems can occur and a different solution needs to be considered. Thanks to our extensive range of products we are able to offer a variraty of solutions in this area.

Horse Concentrate is a very convenient means of retaining dietary balance within the hard food component of the diet while allowing you to add your own favoured ingredients. Typically the usage is 25%, with 75% made up of other ingredients such as oats. As the name implies the nutrients, particularly the vitamins, trace elements and minerals, are concentrated, so this concentrate based portion of the diet when used in the proportions described above with forage will provide a balanced diet. The raw materials often chosen in this situation are cooked cereals, infra red processed by us to provide high levels of digestible energy.

Easi-beet is an infra red processed form of unmolassed sugar beet which because of the process absorbs water very rapidly and is ready for use in minutes rather than hours.

Another alternative approach is to use our product ‘Kick On’. This is again a very palatable source of proteins and micronutrients and because it is yeast based it is very good for ensuring correct hind gut function. It has variable usage according to how much manufactured food is replaced, and the usual accompaniment in addition to cooked cereals would be the use of a protein source such as Full Fat Linseed or Full Fat Soya. Linseed is particularly popular with horse owners and is known for its benefits in terms of the Omega 3 and 6, essential fatty acids contained in the oil. This has again been infra red processed to ensure the elimination of any anti-nutritional factors and is ready for use without any need for boiling.

As I started by saying we make every effort to provide you with the comprehensive jargon free information you need, I hope you have understood everything so far. If not we are also happy to assist with individual enquiries to help resolve queries or problems. Our reputation depends on our quality and service, we think we are pretty good in both respects, we normally leave that to our customers to find out and prove to themselves.

Some people think that the horse/animal feed business must be easier than the human feed business but just think about it for a minute. We are regulated in similar ways and have various codes of practice which have to be met. Labelling must comply with legal regulations, trading standards and other similar people who drop in on a regular basis to take samples and inspect us. And then there is the main difference between the two industries, if you manufacture human food you only have to keep one person happy but with horse feed you have to keep the horse happy and also the human buying it!

The range of horse feeds available in the UK today is vast and varied. We currently manufacture over 30 horse rations under our own brand name and also many times that number for other companies and businesses who want something different or with their own name on the bag. However, we always know that someone out there will ring us and have a “problem” with a horse and its feeding.

That’s one reason why we believe in showing levels of basic protein, oil, fibre and ash in our feeds on our price lists and also have an up to date specification list of all our feeds available if someone wants to study it in detail or just for general feed advice. If that does not satisfy then we will always listen and try to answer any individual horse feed questions, and if we cannot offer a solution we will always try to at least point you at someone who can.

The one thing that Charnwood does not have is “Salesmen”. We just make our feeds the best way we can naturally and let the customer and their horses decide if it is good food at a reasonable price. Our increasing band of authorised stockists across East Anglia are also only chosen to be a stockist because we believe they can offer the service you, and we, want.

For any information or advice, please contact:

Charnwood Milling Company Ltd at
Charnwood Mill, Saxtead Road, Framlingham, Suffolk IP13 9PT
Tel: 01728 622300 or Fax: 01728 724359.
Website: www.charnwood-milling.co.uk
Email: feeds@charnwood-milling.co.uk