Ration Balancer - does brand matter?

[crazy gray horse]

So I'm ready to put my TB on a ration balancer. I have TC and Purina available as well as Pennfield, Agway, BS and I'm sure a few more that I can't think of at the moment.

Does brand matter? And what should I look for in a ration balancer?

Thanks....

[LMH]

Yes it does-each has different mineral profiles and ingredients.

[JB]

It does indeed.

TC is better than Purina for quality control and fixed formula. I don't know anything about the other 3 you mentioned. Progressive is on par with TC (ingredient-wise, certainly there are horses who do better on one than the other, and this goes for Purina as well).

If you don't have very specific needs of fulfilling a particular mineral requirement, it doesn't matter too much in that area. But as LMH said, they are different in nutritional profiles, though for most of the minerals they're in the same ballpark - I don't think you'll fine one sky-high in Copper and other rock-bottom.

[crazy gray horse]

The horse doesn't have any specific needs - he's a 9 yo TB in light/mod work. He's an easy keeper on forage - if he were to get the recommended amount of any grain he'd become obese. But I realize he does have vitamin/mineral needs and a ration balancer may be key.

I'm learning alot from the many grain/nutritional threads on CoTH, but I have a long way to go to.

[pricestory]

Pennfield is one of the companies that uses the Ky Equine Reasearch data to blend their feeds. I think there buy one, get one free deal is still going on.

[bparise]

Hello,

I work for Pennfield Equine Feed. Our feeds are formulated by Kentucky Equine Research and are 100% fixed formula and 100% fixed ingredient. Because of our consistent quality and caliber of our feeds were were choosen to feed the last 2 Olympic Games and the last 2 World Eq Games. We will also be feeding the 2010 Kentucky World Equestrian Games.

Pennfield's ration balancer is called "All Phase". It is meant to fed at a rate of 1lb per day for 1000lb horse. One bag should then last you 50 days for an average size horse.

Our buy 1 get 1 Free promotion is still going on. However, it is for our beet pulp based feeds. If you email me your name and adress I will send you out a buy 1 get 1 free coupon good on any equine feed.

My email address is bparise@pennfield.com. Don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions.

Beth Ann