LucieNuts - Horse Feed of the Month September 2011
01 September 2011
LucieNuts are our all-time product of the year, decade or whatever! They are the nearest thing to a perfect feed for horses, we feel! They are made from 100% pure lucerne, made for us by farmers we know and trust. The lucerne is cut when it is mature enough to be coming in to flower and has plenty of good-but-not-too-tough fibre and not too rich in nutrients. It starts to dry in the field, which enables Vitamin D2 to be made. (In case you did not know, plants make D2. D3, which is what is added to many feeds but not ours, is made by animals and extracted from animal remains.) It is then flash dried, but as it is already partly dry, not nearly as much fuel is burned to get it perfectly dry. Saving the planet, too! For LucieNuts, which are 10 – 12 mm across, it is coarsely ground, more like a fine chop, before being made into nuts.
When soaked up, this makes a lovely palatable mash and ensures your horse or pony is getting plenty of fluid as well as food. Use 3 litres of water for each 1kg ofLucieNuts to make the mash just right – not too wet, not too dry. Lots of horses also enjoy them not soaked but instead, mixed with some soaked PuraBeet, or if a totally dry feed is needed, they also go well with Green Gold or Just Grass. Yummy! But we like them soaked…
LucieNuts are naturally low in sugar so are suitable for all horses sensitive to sugars. They are non-heating but help to support muscles and slow burn energy requirements. Cobs, Arabs, Warmbloods and Natives, for instance, all thrive on this feed! Hacking or Endurance, Dressage or Hunter Trials, this feed is perfect. Use as much as is needed – an average horse may do well on just 500g at rest, or up to 5 kg when working really hard. Suitable also for allergic horses, and veterans when soaked.
Total Eclipse is an ideal balancer with LucieNuts.
Typical Values Crude fibre 29%
Oil 2.9%
Protein (total of digestible and indigestible) 18%
Ash (total minerals and trace elements) 9.2%
Digestible energy 10.8 MJ/Kg DM
Natural sugars 6.5%
Starch 2%
Calcium 1.37%
Magnesium 0.21%
Vit E 34 iu/Kg
B-carotene (Vit A) 31.2 mg/Kg