What's in my feed database

228 Feeds, and Counting

So far, I have gathered the ingredients for 228 commercial horse feeds and in the order identified on the feed label. In addition, I have stored data about the feed product such as the intended class (Growing, Broodmare, Maintenance, Performance), form (pelleted, extruded, textured) and product line. This data comes from ingredient lists posted on manufacturers' website, perusing feed bags at local feed stores and from feed products that I have purchased. So, what information can be gleaned from my database?

Most frequently used ingredients as measured by frequency of appearance in feed ingredient lists?

#1 Calcium carbonate 95%

#2 Wheat middlings 77%

#3 Yeast culture 75%

#4 Molasses 67%

#5 Soybean meal 65%

Calcium carbonate (limestone) is a processing aid (anti-caking agent) as well as a carrier for other ingredients. Wheat middlings are a by-product of wheat flour production; basically what is left after the starch (flour) is removed. Yeast culture is live yeast, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Kluyveromyces marxianus. Molasses is a by-product of sugar production and soybean meal is a by-product of oil extraction from soybean process.

Interestingly, for grains the by-product components of wheat are more frequently used than the whole grain whereas for corn, oats and barley the whole grain is more frequently used. Note that grains that are rolled, flakes, expanded or otherwise cracked to expose the starch are under the whole grain category.

Similarly, soybean oil extraction by-products are more often used than whole bean while whole flaxseed is used more frequently than its by-products.

Alfalfa appears to be the forage of choice followed by beet pulp. The husks and hulls of cereal grains and oil seeds are also used and fiber/forage sources. Soybean hulls appear in the ingredient list of 63.6% of the feeds in my database, which is more frequent than alfalfa.

What ingredients are most frequently the first ingredient?

The position of the ingredient in the ingredients list is supposed to indicate the relative weight of each ingredient in the feed formulation, in descending order. Meaning, the first ingredient is the ingredient with the greatest weight in the formulation and the last ingredient has the lightest weight.

The five ingredients, most frequently found as the first ingredient are: wheat middlings, whole oats (including rolled, cracked, crimped, flaked, and steamed), alfalfa, soybean hulls and beet pulp. Wheat middlings appear as the first ingredient in 56 feeds, which is 25% of the feeds. Whole oats appears as first ingredient in 24%, alfalfa in 11%, soybean hulls in 10% and beet pulp in 7%.

So, cereal grains and cereal grain by-products are most frequently the first ingredient. What about the second, third, fourth and fifth ingredients?

Most frequently used ingredients in the first five positions

Looking at individual ingredients quickly became voluminous to discern patterns or insights. I found it more informative to group ingredients by their whole plant origin. For example, wheat middlings, wheat bran and other wheat ingredients are grouped into the category of, "Wheat/wheat by-products." Below is a bar graph of the frequency of ingredient groups in the first five positions:

From the graph above, certain patterns appear. Cereal grains, whether whole grain or processing by-product, are the predominant first ingredients. But that relative usage declines in the 2nd through 5th positions. Soybean and soybean by-products become more heavily used in the 2nd through 5th positions. Also, alfalfa and beet pulp, while not dominant ingredients in any of the first five positions, are frequently found in all of the first five ingredient positions.

So what does this information tell me?

It pays to read the ingredient label, especially if you or your horse have an aversion toward certain ingredients or ingredient sources such as soy or wheat gluten. Soybeans and wheat based ingredients are frequently used in commercial horse feeds. It may take some looking to find feeds that don't have those ingredients.