PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
The Essential roughage cubes utilise high quality roughage in order to produce a product suitable for all types of horses.
These high fibre cubes are ideal for stretching available hay in times of hay scarcity or when the quality of available roughage is not desirable, ensuring your horse gets the best quality it deserves.
The Essential Roughage cubes contain no additional vitamins and minerals which make them ideal for using alongside other fully fortified feeds.
The Essential Roughage Cubes are also suitable for dentally challenged equines (and can easily be soaked) as well as those not able to consume long stemmed roughage.
When using Essential Roughage to replace a significant portion of a horse’s hay intake, they should preferably be given in small, regular meals to ensure a steady intake of fibre and to encourage chewing and promote healthy digestion.
Additional advantages of using Essential Roughage:
Reduced feed wastage – very little waste occurs with pellets as compared to the 20% or more wastage with long-stemmed hays.
Consistent and maximum nutrient quality – pellets are manufactured under rigid quality control standards and must meet product nutrient guarantees.
Avoiding dust and mould spores – minimises exposure to harmful dust and mould spores compared to long-stemmed hays which can be useful for horses with respiratory issues.
FEEDING GUIDELINES
Feeding horses correctly requires a good eye and careful monitoring of your horse’s individual needs, condition and behaviour. We therefore suggest you contact us directly for personalised feeding advice.
Contact Hannah Botha +27 73 423 5491 / Leigh Adams +27 83 998 6824 / Debbie Dick +27 76 755 5164
Essential Roughage is designed as a partial hay replacer to stretch hay in times of scarcity or to improve the quality of the total roughage portion when general hay quality is low.
Note: Essential Roughage must never be used to replace long stemmed hay completely! It is always advisable that a minimum of 1% of body mass of long-stemmed hay be available, even if it’s of lower nutritional value. Effective long fibres are essential for optimum digestive health and the importance of the long fibre outweighs the importance of the quality.
Essential Roughage can be fed to enhance your hay/ grazing, and thus the average 500kg horse (depending on the quality of your hay and grazing) will need between
0.2-0.5% of body weight per day for maintenance/light work (1-2.5kg per day)
0.5-0.8% of body weight per day for medium level work (2.5-4kg)
This is a roughage supplement and should generally be fed with a concentrate. Should it be fed alone then a balancer is recommended.
It is very important to ensure that your horse is fed the correct portion of food by weight, not by volume! All feeds have different densities and thus do not weigh the same. Therefore, it is very important to establish exactly what weight (kg) your scoop holds of the specific product you are feeding.
Always introduce any new feed or product over a period of 7-14days and ensure fresh water is always available