What Is Considered High Nsc In Horse Feed?

30%.
A feed with 20% NSC or less is considered a low-NSC feed, while a feed with a NSC 30% or greater is considered to have high levels of NSC. If you are looking to reduce excitability in your horse, you will want to select a horse feed with low NSC levels.

How much NSC should a horse have?

10-12%
It is considered that horses require a NSC content of 10-12% in the total diet. With horses in work, with higher energy demands, the NSC level can be much higher.

What is NSC level in horse feed?

NSC stands for “non-structural carbohydrates”, which is mostly referring to the levels of sugar and starch in a commercial grain horse feed. The topic of NSC comes up frequently when discussing low-carb, low-starch diets for horses. Performance horses rely on sugar, starch and fat for energy.

What horse feed has the lowest NSC?

Feed ingredients such as beet pulp and alfalfa meal are lower in NSC, while grain ingredients such as corn, oats, and barley are higher in NSC.

What is considered high fat in horse feed?

Feedstuffs high in fat include vegetable oils (100%), rice bran (15-18%), flax seeds (30-40%), and heat-treated soybeans (15-22%). In addition, commercially available fat-added concentrates typically contain 5–14% crude fat.

Is Timothy hay high in NSC?

↑NSC – Stressed cool-season grasses, such as fescue, orchard grass, and Timothy, tend to be higher in NSC. Maintains normal metabolic function and healthy insulin levels.

Does steaming hay lower NSC?

The above numbers demonstrate that steaming will reduce the NSC to 12.06% on a 100% dry matter basis. But even better, the NSC level is actually brought down to 10.86% on an as-sampled basis — safe to feed for most insulin resistant horses.

What NSC is Purina senior?

19% NSC
Purina Equine Senior is a complete feed in an easy-to-chew formulation targeted at older horses. It contains 14% crude protein, 5.5% fat, and 19% NSC.

What is the NSC of alfalfa hay?

Using the Equi-Analytical database, the following general values for NSC are given*: oat hay, 22.1%; barley hay, 19.2%; alfalfa hay, 11.0%; bermudagrass hay, 13.2%; and grass hay, 12.0%.

Is beet pulp low NSC?

Dried beet pulp shreds are fibrous flakes that can be used as a hay alternative in your horse’s feeding plan. Shredded beet pulp is a highly digestible, calorie-rich feed that provides 8 – 12% protein and has low NSC content.

What is the best feed for a laminitic horse?

Hay and Silage
Mature cut hay from a native or unimproved grass is ideal for laminitic horses. It will have lower sugar content than early cut grass.

What is the 20% rule with horses?

The researchers found that an average adult light riding horse could comfortably carry about 20 percent of their ideal bodyweight. This result agrees with the value recommended by the Certified Horsemanship Association and the U.S. Cavalry Manuals of Horse Management published in 1920.

What is the healthiest horse food?

Provide plenty of roughage
If hay isn’t enough, grain can be added, but the bulk of a horse’s calories should always come from roughage. Horses are meant to eat roughage, and their digestive system is designed to use the nutrition in grassy stalks.

Can you feed a horse too much fat?

Nonetheless, it is recommended to limit the total fat intake to 10% of the total diet or less. To determine if the total fat content of your horse’s diet does not exceed the recommended limit, you must account for the fat provided by all ingredients in the ration.

How fat is too fat for a horse?

According to THE U.S.CAVALRY MANUAL OF HORSE MANAGEMENT (1941) a horse should not carry more than 20 percent of its own weight.

Can you give a horse too much fat?

“There are no real negatives to feeding a high-fat diet except the possibility of feeding too many calories,” said Olivia Martin of Performance Feeding. “Feeding a horse to be overweight can trigger other problems such as metabolic disorders and unneeded stress on joints and other structures.

What hay is not good for horses?

Bahiagrass: This grass hails from the southern coastal plains. It’s typically found in pastures, so the stuff they make into hay is not that great for horses. Overly mature Bahiagrass hay can cause ergot poisoning, so buyer beware.

Is timothy or orchard hay better?

Compared to Timothy Grass, Orchard Grass grows better in moderate drought conditions and provides a solid three hay cuttings per year. With three cuttings instead of two cuttings, Orchard Grass produces consistent soft texture hay that horses readily consume with minimal or no waste.

Is timothy or orchard hay better for horses?

Orchardgrass and timothy hay are both excellent, but orchard grass gets the nod as the best of the two. It has a higher protein and calorie content and balanced calcium and phosphorus levels.

Does hay lose nutrients if rained on?

What happens to quality for rained-on hay? The majority of the damage from untimely rains is the loss of soluble nutrients from the hay (the sugars). Even before rain damage, we lose some sugar during plant respiration that occurs from the time forage is cut until it reaches about 50% moisture content.

Does soaking hay remove nutrients?

In addition to removing sugars, soaking also reduces some minerals. Crude protein, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium concentrations all decrease with soaking. However, certain horses might benefit from the loss of specific nutrients.