Archive for the ‘uncategorized’ Category
Yeti Christmas Slider
Tuesday, December 9th, 2014Tips For Tackling Flies
Thursday, May 15th, 2014Fly season is just around the corner, but you can keep your horses comfortable throughout the tail-swishing season with a few basic strategies. While flies are a nuisance, more importantly they represent a health threat to animals because of the spread of diseases associated with their infestation.
While almost impossible to completely eradicate them, it is worth the time and effort to keep your horses’ environment as fly-free as possible.
First Line of Defense: Stable Management
In the barn there are several things you can do to discourage flies from setting up camp.
- Remove manure. Flies are drawn to horse droppings. This is where they prefer to mate and lay eggs; resulting in larvae feast on the feces. To keep this from happening, clean your horse stalls and pens daily, removing the manure to an off-site location once a week if possible.
- Minimize moisture. Several fly species prefer wet areas for breeding as well as drinking. Keep stalls dry; eliminate standing puddles around your horses’ living areas; get rid of inadvertent water receptacles—old tires, no-longer-used buckets and feeders, etc.
- Cover feed. Place anything that will attract flies in garbage containers with bug-proof lids; keeping grains, concentrates, and treats securely stored.
- Offer shade and good airflow. A breezy, shaded area will help your pastured horses avoid flies. In the stable a barn fan is a great fly-chaser.
The Well-Rounded Attack
Combine one or more of the following methods with good stable management and you’ll keep the bugs around the barn to a minimum.
- Barn Spray System. These mechanized systems automatically mist a fast-acting natural insecticide (pyrethrum) throughout your barn several times a day, killing and/or repelling flies. Once installed, these systems are highly effective and hassle-free. Pyrethrum is environment-friendly and biodegrades within 30 minutes of spraying.
- Topicals. Sprays, roll-ons, wipe-ons, and spot-ons provide a contact repellent or vapor barrier to make your horse less attractive to flies. Topicals will help keep your horse comfortable but are not sufficient alone as a prevention program.
- Barriers. Masks, sheets, and boots are anti-fly wear and offer good sun protection, especially for horses with exposed pink skin.
- Traps. Bait or other attractants lure flies where they perish. To utilize these products effectively you need to know which type of flies you have and select the traps accordingly.
Source: Equisearch, Jennifer Forsberg Meyer
Horse Feeding Pitfalls: Lack of Salt
Thursday, May 15th, 2014In our continuing series regarding horse feeding pitfalls, we now turn to the need for salt in the equine diet.
Sodium and chloride–the components of table salt–are electrolytes essential to many bodily functions. Both are lost in sweat and must be replaced from the diet. These are also the only essential nutrients that are not naturally present in grasses and grains.
Horses have a natural appetite for salt and consume what they need if given the opportunity. Placing a salt block in your herd’s pasture is the easiest way of providing access to this vital nutrient, but to ensure that all horses get the salt they need, you may decide to put out multiple blocks or even place a small block in each horse’s stall.
If you choose the latter option, be warned, says Crandell: “Some horses kept in stalls a lot will get bored and start overeating salt, and this will make them drink a lot more and then pee a lot more.” For these horses, she suggests offering just a daily portion–one or two ounces of loose salt, or more if it’s hot or the horse has been sweating heavily. “If the diet is balanced, plain white table salt is fine,” she adds. “It doesn’t have to be mineralized.”
If you do offer loose salt, it’s best to keep it in a bucket rather than pouring it over feed. A horse’s need for salt may fluctuate daily. If you give too little, you can create imbalances; too much, and the feed may become unpalatable.
Source: Equisearch, Laurie Bonner
Horse Feeding Pitfalls: Overloading Nutrients
Thursday, May 15th, 2014“One common mistake is adding supplements to the horse’s diet without first checking to see if the ration is already overloaded with any specific nutrients,” says Crandell. To avoid creating harmful imbalances, calculate the nutrients a horse is getting from his basic feed ration before adding a vitamin or mineral supplement.
Products formulated to support specific body processes, such as joint repair or hoof growth, are less likely to cause nutritional overloads, but be sure to read their labels so you know what you’re getting. Some supplements that contain glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, hyaluronan or biotin are also enhanced with vitamins and minerals.
“I’ve seen vitamin A toxicity in horses who were given multiple supplements that all contained similar ingredients,” Ralston says. Selenium, an important mineral, is also toxic in high quantities and may be an ingredient in different supplements as well as commercial feeds. “If you’re already using a good vitamin supplement, you probably don’t need vitamins in your joint supplement, too,” says Crandell.
Of course, nutritional supplements are often beneficial and sometimes essential. Horses whose hay is grown in selenium-poor soils need supplemental selenium.
Likewise, horses who receive hay but have little access to pasture may benefit from supplements containing vitamins A and E, because levels of these nutrients begin to deteriorate once grass is cut.
Also, elderly horses, growing youngsters, broodmares and others with special nutritional needs are likely to benefit from vitamin supplements, as are horses in strenuous sports. Vitamin E, in particular, is often given to elite athletes to help them recover from exertion.
Source: Equisearch
Horse Feeding Pitfalls: Wrong Feed
Thursday, May 15th, 2014Horse feeds are formulated to provide the exact amount of calories and nutrition those animals need, and giving the wrong feed to the wrong horse can result in imbalances that can be harmful. “The biggest consequence is that adult rations don’t have the mineral levels young horses need,” says Sarah Ralston, VMD, PhD, Dipl. ACVN, associate professor at Rutgers University. “The result can be abnormal growth and developmental orthopedic disease.”
Also, once you’ve determined the amount of concentrates your horse needs for extra calories, be sure to choose a feed that provides the optimum nutrition in that serving size. “The most common mistake I see is feeding below rate,” says Crandell–that is, feeding a horse less than the recommended serving size. “When formulating feed, you can’t make it work for every horse,” she explains. “You can’t balance the vitamins and minerals for a horse getting one pound of feed without poisoning the horse getting 10 pounds.” Conversely, if the recommended serving size is five pounds, the horse who is getting only one pound is getting only a fifth of the added vitamins and minerals.
“If the minimum serving is too much, it’s not the right feed for your horse,” Crandell says.
If you uncertain what the best feed is for your horse, consult this Nutritional Solutions Guide by Purina. You may also find this Feeding Calculator helpful as you determine daily rations.
Sources: Equisearch, Purina Mills Horse Health
Horse Feeding Pitfalls: Feed Amounts
Thursday, May 15th, 2014Usually, the consequences of less-than-optimal feeding regimens are relatively minor, costing us extra money perhaps but doing no real harm. But the worst feeding mistakes can have serious consequences: Some deficiencies or excesses pose an actual health threat; others may subtly rob a horse of vitality. Nutrition and calorie intake is an important factor in equine health. If you are feeding by volume rather than weight you may be over or under feeding.
If you hold a coffee can filled with corn in one hand and one containing oats in the other hand, you will notice a significant difference in weight–corn is heavier, and it’s also higher in calories than other feeds. Of course, we’re all used to scooping out a uniform portion of feed at mealtime, but when it comes to calculating nutrition, it is the weight that matters, not the volume–something to keep in mind whenever you change feeds.
Even pelleted and sweet feeds can vary in density and volume. “Two different manufacturers can make feeds that seem similar on the tag in fat, fiber and protein but the density could be very different,” Crandell says. “I have weighed a number of different feeds in a large coffee can and found that some were close to one pound different in weight but equal in volume.”
So, when you’re planning to change or adjust your feeds, be sure to read the bag for the nutritional content per pound, and then use a kitchen scale to determine how much a pound really is.
Source: Equisearch
Horse Feeding Pitfalls: Forage
Thursday, May 15th, 2014Ideally, the average horse’s ration is primarily hay and pasture grass, with modest amounts of concentrates, such as grain, pelleted or sweet feed. But frequently, little emphasis is placed on the quality of forage offered, says Kathleen Crandell, PhD, an equine nutritionist with Kentucky Equine Research in Lexington. “Too many people think that hay is just busywork for the horse and do not realize that it is a major calorie source that can vary greatly with quality. If you’ve tried everything to get a horse’s weight up but are still feeding stemmy, old timothy hay, switching to a leafy grass hay that’s not overly mature is a very safe way to get more calories.”
Besides providing more nutrients, better-quality hay is also more economical. For one thing, poor-quality hay contains less digestible fiber so horses have to eat much more to derive the same amount of nutritional value, yet because it is less palatable, horses tend to leave more of it uneaten. In contrast, good-quality hay rarely goes to waste: Horses are likely to devour every last leaf and stem.
Hay made from different grass species varies somewhat in appearance, but in general the good stuff has several distinguishing characteristics:
- Leafiness: The leaves contain about 90 percent of a plant’s protein, so ideally, you want bales with fewer stems and large seed heads.
- Color: The hue of good hay can vary but is generally some shade of light to medium green for grass hays and darker green for alfalfa. Some yellowing is natural if the hay was sun-bleached, but too much yellow likely indicates that the grass was overmature when cut and contains less digestible fiber.
- Aroma: Good hay smells fresh and slightly sweet. Pungent, acrid or musty odors are signs of mold or other quality deficits.
- Texture: If you squeeze a handful, good hay feels soft and pliable while poorer hays have coarser stems that will stab your skin.
- Weight: Good-quality bales are lightweight and springy; if you drop one on its end it ought to bounce.
- Purity: Good hays contain few weeds and no foreign material, such as sticks, wire or dead insects or animals.
Source: Equisearch, Laurie Bonner
Pet Food Loyalty Program
Wednesday, August 28th, 2013J & N Feed and Seed is pleased to offer our customers the following loyalty reward programs on our house brand of pet foods.
BUY 8, GET 1 FREE ON PMI Nutrition RED FLANNEL DOG FOOD
As a part of our customer loyalty program, we are offering buy 8, get 1 free on PMI Nutrition Red Flannel dog foods!
Not valid with any other discounts or sales.
Offered by J & N Feed and Seed. See store for details and to sign up for this free program.
BUY 8, GET 1 FREE ON PMI Nutrition EXCLUSIVE DOG & CAT FOODS
Exclusive dog and cat foods are now buy 8, get 1 free! It’s our way of saying “thank you” to our loyal customers!
Not valid with any other discounts or sales.
Offered by J & N Feed and Seed. See store for details and to sign up for this free program.
BUY 8, GET 1 FREE ON PMI Nutrition INFINIA DOG FOOD
We are grateful that you turn to us for your animal food needs. As a “thank you”, Infinia dog food is now buy 8, get 1 free!
Not valid with any other discounts or sales.
Offered by J & N Feed and Seed. See store for details and to sign up for this free program.
Header Deer Blinds
Wednesday, August 7th, 2013Navigation
- Fencing/Gates
- Fertilizer
- Grills
- Hunting Blinds
- Privacy Policy
- Specials
- About
- Pet
- Feeds
- Farm & Ranch Supplies
- Garden Center
- Wildlife Supplies
- Contact Us
- Learning Center
- Links
- Location