Interactive lesson

Feeding basics, step by step

Interactive lesson: what feed is made of, how each species digests, how much feed and water it needs, how to read a feed label and how to tell whether the ration is working.

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The whole lesson as text

1. What feed is made of

Every feed is water plus dry matter, and all the nutrients are in the dry matter.

Water and dry matter — Young grass is roughly 80 % water. 10 kg of grass holds roughly 2 kg of dry matter, 10 kg of hay almost 9 kg.
Energy — Energy is the fuel for work, warmth, growth, fat and milk. Maize (corn), wheat, barley and potatoes have the most.
Protein — Protein builds muscle, eggs, milk and feathers. It is in soya and sunflower meal, peas, field beans, lucerne and insects.
Fibre and minerals — Fibre from hay, straw and tree hay keeps the rumen and gut healthy. Minerals from licks, limestone and oyster shell build bone and eggshell.

Why: Young grass is roughly 80 % water, hay 12–15 % and grain 12–14 %. So 10 kg of grass is not the same as 10 kg of hay: the grass holds roughly 2 kg of dry matter, the hay almost 9 kg.

Grain is rich in energy and poor in protein.
Fibre is food for ruminants, rabbits and horses, but mostly ballast for poultry and pigs.

2. Three ways of digesting

Before you choose a feed, look at how the animal digests.

Ruminants — Goats, sheep and cows live on hay and grazing. Rumen bacteria break down the fibre, and grain is only a supplement.
The rumen feeds bacteria — A ruminant feeds the bacteria, and the bacteria feed it. The rumen must always have fibre in it, and grain into an empty rumen is dangerous.
Pigs and poultry — They digest like a person and use fibre poorly, so they need grain and protein. In a hen it takes a day from feed to egg, so you see a shortfall in the eggs within a few days.
Rabbit and horse — Bacteria in the caecum digest their fibre, so they eat constantly, a little at a time. A rabbit without hay can go into gut stasis within 12–24 hours.

Why: Each species has a different digestive system, so the same feed suits one species very well, another poorly, and can kill a third. Maize that puts fat on a pig will, in too large an amount, sour a goat's rumen.

A pig eats almost anything, and that is exactly why it carries the greatest risk of diseases spread through feed (African swine fever).
A horse that gets too much grain or young grass at once gets colic or laminitis.