Lisette New - Gatton QLD

I have 7 horses to feed:  two young Warmblood geldings, two young Paint horse geldings, one Warmblood broodmare, one Quarter horse broodmare and an aged Shetland pony gelding.

I have lived in the Lockyer Valley for 6 years and my property has received minimal to ‘just enough’ rainfall in that time.  2007 saw the worst condition of my property with scarce grazing availability.  Buying enough hay and ‘hard feed’ to keep them hunger-free was an enormously expensive task, and frequently had to be rationed due to hay shortages.  It was very stressful keeping a routine quantity available and I worried about colic due to changes in hay quality from dusty mouldy hay, to prime lucerne which only produces scours in horses on dry paddocks.

Each horse was provided with an extruded feed appropriate to its age and development.  Foals were prepared on excellent pre-mix and as they progressed from weaning to yearlings the feeds were upgraded to provide for their appropriate growing requirements.  I had studied Feeding and Nutrition in Applied Equine Science and was certain that my horses were receiving adequate and appropriate nutrition through commercially available pre-mixed grain feeds..

I was spending between $600-$800 per fortnight during the peak of the 2007 drought. I had heard of the Fodder Solutions System and just assumed that it would be out of my reach financially.  It wasn’t until I saw a display unit at the 2008 Toowoomba Royal Show that I realised how affordable and cost-effective this system is.

My Fodder Solutions System has been in place for 3 months now and my horses are all completely on sprouts, taking about 10 days to accept the sprouts but now they can’t get their sprouts quickly enough each morning and evening!  I mix barley, sunflowers and lupins and feed ½ biscuit to each horse per feed, with the pony receiving a few handfuls from the other biscuits with this being quite sufficient for all of them.  The quality of the sprouts is the same week-in, week-out, I no longer have to worry about dusty feeds or weevils.

I would like to draw a comparison with this system to feeding hard feeds.  The Fodder System requires 1.2kg of seed per tray, which produces a matt of sprouts weighing between 8-10kg.  This biscuit is enough for one horse per day, and I feed half morning and night.  1.2kg of barley, sunflower seed and lupins costs approx 88 cents per horse per day, add electricity and water to run the Unit which rounds to about a dollar per horse per day.

The previous system involved feeding roughage and between 3-5kg hard feed per horse per day, at a cost averaging $30 per 25kg bag - $5 per horse per day.

All that I additionally require now is roughage – adequate pasture grass or grassy / barley hay for the stabled horses, so I no longer need to buy expensive lucerne hay.

Minimal maintenance!  Seeding up takes less than 10 minutes per day.  The unit does all the hard work as everything is automated.

I have had 2 horses stabled and prepared for the winter showing season but the other five have remained in paddocks.  To my amazement, every horse’s coat is positively gleaming, even dappling, which is normally only seen in their coats when prepared on the most expensive Show Preps!   The young horses’ body conditions were maintained and improving even though winter was quite harsh, the older horses have consistently maintained excellent body condition through-out winter.  But the most amazing difference has been the change in temperaments.  One 2 year-old has been an extremely challenging horse due to an accident and injury he sustained as a 9 month-old colt, which left him traumatised.  I decided to embark on a Show Season with this youngster to give him some exposure and experience, believing that an early and gentle introduction into competition would be of a psychological benefit.

He had 2 Shows ‘before sprouts’: nervous, arrogant and fidgety. ’After sprouts’ we still had 3 more Shows on our programme for him.   We were astounded at the complete turnaround of his attitude both at home, and out in public, he became so mellow and gentle, and took the Show scene with all its noise and drama with all the ease and aplomb of a seasoned professional, with Championships to his credit!  His nature is now pleasant which is testament to the cool energy available by feeding sprouts.

Results!  Cost-effective, consistently highly nutritious, palatable green feed available ALL YEAR ROUND.  If you want fantastic results – prepare your horses on barley sprouts!!!!