Changing feeds....no more TC Lite

[texsuze]

Feed store guy told me today that Cargill is not renewing their contract to produce Triple Crown feeds. According to his info, Bluebonnet Feeds will be producing Triple Crown, still under the TC name. If this is correct, I'll need to change feeds altogether, since no one around here but my current feed store carries TC or Bluebonnet. And my feed store guy said I am the customer who buys the most but he can't financially support carrying TC products anymore Once his current supply is gone, I'm SOL.

I need a complete feed; I don't want to mix n' match and create meals for each feeding. My guy has been on TC Lite for a few years with no problem. Neither of us is a fan of ration balancers (BTDT).

My guy is coming 25, retired pasture sound for 5 years now, and I keep him on the 'lean' side to reduce impact on joints. No signs of Cushings or IR (loudly knocking wood) yet. I have a consistent source of good bermuda hay, which he's been fed his entire life, which I plan to stick with. He expects something in his feed tub 2x/day

Any suggestions for a good quality complete feed, where I'm not dumping in 12 lbs. of feed at each meal. We are very limited in this area, mostly Purina, Nutrena, Dumor (TSC), and ADM. Thanks for your help.

[Josette]

Looking at what you have available the Nutrena brand has good reviews for special care feed.

http://www.nutrenaworld.com/products/ho ... /index.jsp

[texsuze]

Thanks Josette, I'll check feed label on Nutrena and compare with TC Lite.

[greenhorse]

What didn't you like about the ration balancers?

[Quelah]

I thought TC lite *was* a ration balancer?

[texsuze]

TC Lite could probably be considered a ration balancer, but seemed to be more a "feed" than, say, Nutrena Empower (which gelding and I didn't like).

After brain-wracking and spending time on the Nutrena and ADM helplines, I've decided to go with SeniorGlo from ADM. We can't get the Nutrena Special Care feed here--would have to be ordered each time, very unreliable in this neck of the woods. Many of the Nutrena feed tags also have the "plant products" generalization, so I stay away from feeds that don't at least list a specific ingredient.

I have some TC Lite left, so I'll be undertaking a careful transition to the SeniorGlo. Then it will be a matter of monitoring my oldster over the summer to see how things go. Coming out of winter, he hasn't seemed to be able to get quite back up to the body condition he had going in last year. If I need to make yet another feed change later, there are other options in the ADM line of horse feeds, and my feed store guy looks to be keeping these feeds in stock routinely. I hate having to change feeds, but our area seems to be getting more limited in availability, which is a major consideration.