Lexvet Supplements
  • Home
  • About
  • Rider Advocates
  • Testimonials
  • Products
    • LexveT Mineral Mix
      • Mineral Mix 5kg
      • Mineral Mix 12kg
      • Mineral Mix 22kg
    • LexveT B1 Cool Mix
      • B1 Cool Mix 5kg
      • B1 Cool Mix 12kg
      • B1 Cool Mix 22kg
  • Fact Sheets
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Menu
  • 0Shopping Cart

DROUGHT FEEDING

The information contained within each of these PDFs is intended to be general in nature and assist horse owners by providing them with a little more background on various subjects. This information should NEVER be considered to be a replacement for advice received by your equine vet or nutritionist.

Drought Feeding

Drought is a regular feature in Australia with the length and severity varying widely from year to year. Anybody who runs stock, whether horses, sheep or cattle etc. needs to always factor in drought in their management of the animals and the land.

Financial, physical and emotional resources need to be factored in any decisions that are to be made. It is NOT okay to just hope the drought will break when your resources are declining – nor is it legally or morally acceptable to watch animals starve or dehydrate.

It is important for horse owners to educate themselves on their horse’s nutritional needs and how they vary with stage of life and the use to which they are being put. The needs of a gelding will be different to that of a lactating mare with a foal at foot for example.

Providing adequate feed and water during the drought and in the recovery phase afterward is essential. Water needs to be drinkable and in sufficient volume to sustain life. Water deprivation is an acute emergency that needs addressing immediately.

Horses have a biological need for adequate amounts of roughage, protein, energy, minerals and vitamins whether they are going through a drought or not. Most horse owners have networks within their own district as to availability and price of available feed stuffs. Buy and store hay when there is a plentiful supply, and assess your horse numbers and whether you have the financial resources to feed them for the duration of the drought. There are many resources available to investigate the suitability and availability of different hays, grains and protein sources.

One often overlooked aspect of drought feeding is the need to supply of minerals and vitamins. Efficient and effective utilisation of feed eaten by a horse relies upon the health of bacteria in the gut to convert plant material into energy and protein that can be used by the horse’s body. Essential to this is the availability of minerals and vitamins that the bacteria can use as cofactors. Supplying only a few individual minerals will not be sufficient to provide for optimal utilisation of feed. A multimineral and vitamin supplement should be used to maximise the feeds conversion to energy and protein. Plant material grown during a drought or in the lead up to a drought will not be as good a quality as forage grown through a normal season.

From an economic viewpoint it makes sense to maximise what hay and pasture is available by adding a multimineral and vitamin supplement to the diet.

Equilibrium has been used by many horse owners in drought situations and they comment on how well their horses look and feel despite the poor quality of the roughage they are eating. It can be fed as part of a ration or put out as a loose lick in containers.

Australia

Phone: 1300 720 377

Phone (International):
+61 7 3200 4844

Fax: +61 7 3200 4847

Mail:  PO Box 4605
Loganholme DC
QLD 4129 Australia

New Zealand

Horse Owner Enquiries
(Product and Nutrition Advice): 0800 442 450

Placing Orders for
Equilibrium Product: 09 829 0456

Fax: 09 828 1599

Mail: Private Bag 47908
Ponsonby
Auckland

United Kingdom

Phone: +44 1995 672241

Mail: The Weind,
Great Eccleston, Preston.
PR3 0ZU
United Kingdom

Ireland

Phone: 0353 90643 9739

Fax: 01635 41678

Mail: Creggan, Glasson,
Athlone, Co. Westmeath,
Ireland

© Copyright - Lexvet Supplements - Enfold WordPress Theme by Kriesi
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more

Cookie and Privacy Settings

How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our site functions. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visist to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy