Think of your everyday purchases that we all rely on – a pint of milk, a loaf of bread, petrol for your car and the fact you now have to pay more for them probably springs to mind. Rising prices combined with the downturn in the economy are forcing many of us to tighten our purse strings and make cut-backs. The question we want to ask is does this need to affect your choices when it comes to buying your horse feed?
You might know what it costs to keep your horse at livery/day, but have you ever stopped to work out what it actually costs to feed your horse/day? If you haven’t, we thought we’d do the sums for you and we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
We looked at what it costs to feed Leisure Mix or High Fibre Nuts to an average size pony or horse, in good condition, kept on average pasture and in light work, compared to a typical economy mix or cube, following the manufacturer’s feeding guidelines, and the results are as follows:
|
|
D&H Leisure Mix |
A typical economy mix |
D&H High Fibre Nuts |
A typical economy cube |
||||
|
Typical RRP |
£8.60 |
£7.45 |
£7.50 |
£6.15 |
||||
|
Manufacturer’s recommended intake |
1kg (350kg pony) |
1.5kg (500kg horse) |
1.8kg (350kg pony) |
2.5kg (500kg horse) |
1kg (350kg pony) |
1.5kg (500kg horse) |
1.8kg (350kg pony) |
2.5kg (500kg horse) |
|
Avg.cost per day |
43p |
65p |
67p |
93p |
38p |
56p |
55p |
77p |
So Dodson & Horrell is clearly cheaper than the economy alternative. But that’s because you’re feeding less we hear you say! Well, in practice if your horse or pony only requires 1kg/day of Leisure Mix or High Fibre Nuts, you’re unlikely to feed 1.8kg of the economy product. If you reduce that intake down to 1kg, you will need to top up vitamin and mineral levels to avoid deficiencies in the diet and that of course comes at an additional cost:
|
1kg economy mix |
37p |
1kg economy cubes |
30p |
|
20g D&H Daily Vits & Mins |
13p * |
20g D&H Daily Vits & Mins |
13p * |
|
Total daily cost |
50p |
Total daily cost |
43p |
(*Daily Vits & Mins, 1.5kg, £9.50 (RRP))
So this option is still dearer – 7p for a mix and 5p for a cube – plus you have the inconvenience of having to add a supplement. So although the retail price for a bag of Dodson & Horrell may be more than an economy alternative, your money goes a lot further than at first meets the eye because all of our products are fully supplemented with vitamins and minerals. And that’s before you even take the following into consideration.
Every product in the Dodson & Horrell range contains QLC, our patented blend of natural antioxidants. We know that a glass of red wine or a bunch of grapes provide us with a dietary source of beneficial antioxidants and QLC works in the same way for your horse, helping to support his overall health and well-being.
Furthermore, all of our feeds contain fibre+, our specially designed package of highly digestible ingredients. These encourage the beneficial bacteria in your horse’s gut to flourish, which not only optimises digestion of your hard feed, but more importantly it increases the rate of forage digestion by 11%. This means that your horse or pony will gain far more of the nutritional benefits of his hay or haylage before it passes undigested in his droppings, thus adding value where quality may be lacking.
We also invest significant time and resources into research – both the science behind nutrition and manufacturing techniques – to further our understanding of certain conditions and to keep us at the cutting edge of processing techniques. The findings of our research projects play an influential role in our formulations, allowing us to produce the best possible diets for your horses and ponies.
We manufacture to a strict code of food safety in our licensed premises using quality assured ingredients under strictly controlled production conditions and all our compound feeds conform to the requirements of EU and UK legislation governing the manufacture of animal feeding stuffs. We monitor for the presence of specified naturally occurring prohibited substances as required under the rules of racing and the FEI, thus offering peace of mind to our professional customers.
So going back to where we started and the question of whether the downturn in the economy need really affect horse feed purchases, the answer is quite simply no. As with so many things in life, it pays to spend that little bit more upfront as it costs you less in the long run. So choose Dodson & Horrell and reap the nutritional and financial rewards.
Dodson & Horrell – quality nutrition, outstanding value