Finding a Feed Store

The first day of being in MO, alone, I had a mission. The most important thing was to locate a feed store. Feed stores are the hub of a farming community and in my previous trips, I had not located what I was seeking. Some of my journey was quite funny so I’ll relate it to you.

The first feed store I went too with husband on a previous trip. It was a nice new building located off a major highway in an area I’m told is the “horse country” of the region. Probably because there are large rolling pastures that have been cleared of the trees and the bigger rocks.

Entering the store, I was disappointed not to see a wipe board list of the feed offerings and when I went to the horse area, which was skimpy, found they were offering a low grade feed that you see at stores like Atwoods, Orscheln, etc…not “real” feed stores. Hm…

At the counter, the guy asked me if I needed help. I told him I was new to the area and wanted to know the horse feeds they carried.

“Oh, we want to please our customers! I can special order anything you want!”

From my experience this was doubtful. Feed manufacturers want to have regular custom in the thousands of pounds delivered, not drop off one or two sacks!

“Well, I really like Triple Crown.” This received a blank, non-comprehending stare.

After a moment, he said, “I can’t get that but I can order any special feed.”

I mention a second feed and he finally admitted, “I can order any special feed that we carry right now.”

(!!!!!!)

We got in the car and couldn’t stop laughing!

A small feed store very close to our home carries oats! Whoopee! and chopped alfalfa and one of their homemade feeds that is “as good as Strategy.” Well since I didn’t like Strategy, I don’t think I would like someone’s rip off formula of it either.

Next feed store, I still didn’t see a list of feeds, but there was a backup for truck loading and there were some brochures. It also had a nice collection of horse barn management stuff such as meds, equipment, fencing etc…  An older guy came out from the back and I asked him what horse feeds he carried.

Blank Stare. Wheels trying to turn but not getting any speed…. I was tempted to add, “Horses, you know, four legged animals that carry people about…? as opposed to cows, swine, or goats….?”

Finally. “We carry Patriot. That’s a good feed.” Hmmm Admani makes some good products, but they were not as successful for me as I would have liked. I settled for a bag of Nutrena’s Safe Choice (low carb feed which is “okay”) as I was growing desperate. BTW I prefer Triple Crown Low Starch and I love their Senior product!

Third feed store reminded me of Stillwater Milling as it had the more obscure farming ointments and tubs of mysterious old-timey cures. However, again, it had no specialized feed and carried the same old crap that Orscheln would have carried.

I called Molly and told her I was reaching desperation level. She told me of another place (close to me BTW) that her vet recommended but she hadn’t been by yet. I had passed by this place but thought it was only tractor supply stuff. 

Going in I was very encouraged. It had the environment of a place that knew something. At the checkout counter, a trim, older lady asked me if I needed help. I explained I was new to the area and was looking for horse feed, specifically something low carb.

She knew what a horse was! She brought forth a copy of the horse feeds they carried! She told me that this brand of feed is from Kentucky and it is Guaranteed Analysis! She told me other stuff too but I was too busy thinking THANK YOU LORD!

Z will be going on Legends, Carb Control with a cup of oats (this will most likely be cut back, we’ll see). Pandora will get 1/4 cup of Carb Control, plus AniMed Remission (the two main ingredients, Chromimum and Magnesium, I once manually compounded for Dear One during her Cushings at a time when these products were not being offered), and JointCombo.1 Tbsp salt a.m. and p.m. for Z and this same, halved for Pandora.

The MFA also had a huge covered barn full of hay. Husband will be making me some slow feeders and I’ll have to supplement hay during the summer - the pasture is just too poor (which in one way is good news as I won’t have to worry about Pandora foundering once I see improvement in her hooves).

I also found a feed store for the dog’s food (Natural Balance or Wellness brands) but found out that the cat food will have to be bought from the vet since it is a prescription diet (here I can get it through a pet supply store that has a vet service as I provided a prescription from my regular vet).

I’ve also got the name of an equine vet, with another for backup. I’ve got to check in at the vet I’ll most likely be using for the dogs and cats. The cats have been acting badly – peeing on a rug and I suspect that all the changes in the house are disturbing them and the dogs.

My L-shaped dream barn

I had posted previously that I would most likely go with an L-shaped barn. Here is a to-scale plan and some thoughts on it:

Wood L-shaped barn

TACK ROOM: The 8′ x 16′ tack room is the north/NW wall. Those corner walls will be heavily insulated and provide some wind break shelter to the stalls. This should give plenty of room for 4 horses and their collective goodies.

This area will have power and outlets. Would prefer the floor be cement but due to costs may have to go with stone, reclaimed brick or plywood.

EXTERIOR STALL DOORS: The stalls on the north edge have full walls with a 4′ wide door opening from the pasture. These will be sliding, solid barn doors. If you leave these without a door you will regret it – snow and rain will inevitably blow in on those worst days and it plays hell with your bedding and drafts.

I’m not a fan of Dutch doors for horse stalls. If the horse is going to be stalled for long periods of time I guess they help, but I have found that the dinky latches are hard to open/close with gloves on, and they catch in the wind, making it hard to close in storms. I would rather have the north wall be solid during storms and have the horse have viewing interest in the front of the stall where he is protected from the weather.

The stall wall with slashes on the exterior wall will start as an open run-in/loafing shed, and later become half walls with a 4′ wide opening (no door).

Before the dividing wall, a fence panel partition

One thing I like about these types of buildings is they can be built in stages depending on how quickly your budget recovers. Here we used metal U-channels (see photo below on left post) mounted on the posts to slot the boards to make a solid partition. BTW when you use slotted boards, when one is kicked and destroyed you replace ONE board vs. an entire sheet of plywood.

Hmmm naughty Z! that wall needs to be a bit higher...

Another example of staggering work is each stall wing could be built at different times as long as the entire pad is leveled in the beginning.  This is important to me as I do not plan on loaning money to build the barn but build it with cash and our own sweat labor.

INTERIOR STALL DOORS: Stall doors and doors to turnout are also not close together. This alleviates some pushing behavior and allows horses to have  a comfort zone when entering to be fed. This is important as two stalls will open to one pasture.

European Style - open front for stalls

It really depends on you and your horses, but I will be opting for half walls on the aisle side and 3/4 walls between stalls. I like horses being able to reach over and be petted or where they can interact with me and visitors.

100 percent view often seen in vet clinics

OTOH, if you have a biter or boarders this is a real pain in the neck (I had one boarder horse bite the tongue off another boarder horse because they could reach each other over the stall door!!).  That type of design opens you up to issues so I think it’s a personal decision how much you want to close horses off from each other and the barn life.

Horse Gossip Gate... Loving it!

FEED ROOM: The feed room is centrally located. This allows two people to feed going in opposite directions. Anyone who has dealt with impatient horses knows why.

Now here's some organization!

There will be a way to feed without going inside the stall (a passthrough or door). Note that corner feeders in the stall are NOT adjacent to the neighbor but on opposite corners. When you put feeders together, fights break out, even if there IS a wall between them.

Hay will be placed in slow feeders (BTW in this next pic my only issue is the gap between feeder and floor – a rolling horse could get cast under this). Read this from the website: “the most important aspect of slow grazing for horses is psychological.  Horses live in the moment. If they don’t have something to graze on they think they are going to die.” ROFLMAO!!! So true!!!

The feed room will also contain a laundry sink with cold water to rinse and a water pump. Locating the water pump centrally in the barn allows it to go either direction without being short in length.

There is a hall and gate passage next to the feed room so I can visit the pasture on that side of the barn without going through a stall. For example, imagine that you have quickly called horses up to eat as a blizzard is coming! I can dodge though this gate and close their exterior doors while they are busy munching.

Next to the feed room is an open bay to store square hay bales. This is an awesome feature so you don’t have to wheelbarrow hay from your hay barn when the snow and rain hits (as long as you planned ahead and stacked some!).

AISLES & FLOORING: All aisles are 4′ wide, covered and with a surface of either pea gravel, brushed cement, or brick (rubber or stone). The aisle wall of the feed room (going to the gate) will store shovels and picks for stall cleaning.

All stalls would have rubber matting. It makes the clean up way easier and prevents the soil floors from becoming rutted and stinky. I’ve gone with both soil and mats, and I would choose mats any day. Pine shavings is the preferred bedding in my area and bags can also be stored in the open hay area.

ELECTRIC: The electricity in the barn will be powered by solar panels with back up to “real” electricity. The interior corner of the L will have an exterior barn light mounted on a pole. This should provide me with enough light to get in and check horses or turn on more lights without stumbling around in the dark.

Each stall will have an electrical outlet (safely hidden from playful horses) for water bucket defrosters and summer fans. If there is one thing I can’t stand and that is breaking ice out of water tanks. I’m also a firm believer that horses prefer warm water in winter vs. ice cold.

WASH RACK: I’ve gone into wash rack matters elsewhere, but in brief, I want a stock situation so I can bring the horse up (see the hay rack!?), tie him up to munch and then hose him AND his tail down without dancing about. The wall will have storage for shampoo etc… and the stock be centrally located in the floor space with room on both sides for the groomer to move. The water for the wash rack will be heated with passive solar power.

Also, I prefer wash racks to be located at the end of the barn. It’s a huge pain in the neck for someone to bring a horse all the way through the barn to reach the wash rack! Having it on the end also allows draining off to the grass instead of into a wall or a nearby stall or barn aisle.

COVERED EXTENSION FOR SHADE: BTW if I wanted to make this barn cooler in the summer, I would put an extension on the south facing stalls – such as another 10-12′ overhang. This cools the summer wind before it enters the barn and provides another shade option for the horses.

Hm well I am sure there are other things I could tell you about this plan. I do have photos galore (but not on this computer) of this and that feature I want to put in.

peace of mind

This is the first weekend w/o hubby as he has managed to come home every weekend until now,  a month after starting his new job. Instead, he is off doing a meditation retreat at Molly’s new place of 40 acres with a river and stream – as well as horse feeding duties while Molly and her husband are out of town.

Meanwhile, I got over to the feed store and picked up feed for Big Guy. The mystery over how his current feed bill in no way matches the amount I was buying before – when he was being fed the same amount that he is being fed now continues. Of course I understand why he looks like a pregnant mare now – he’s not working and he has plenty of grass but…. that doesn’t explain the feed purchase record.

So I guess, as much as I am actually shocked to believe this, (I guess I remain naive and trusting about human nature despite all the shanks in my back), the barn owner at FR must have been using MY feed for other purposes. It could not have been a boarder, because my feed was kept in the well house with only one other boarders feed – and that boarder showed up about once every 2-3 months.

I’m fighting fact against what I believe about human nature, as I would never have thought – and still find it hard to do so, that the FR BO was using MY feed either to feed her own horses (located right across the driveway from the wellhouse) or perhaps the never-there boarders horses. Perhaps the kindest thing I can say is that they were feeding my horse more then what I thought…?

Upshot is that Big Guy is thriving. I had a chance to talk to Joe about him this afternoon when I delivered three bags of feed only to find that my barrel was still half full…

Joe told me that Big Guy is so easy to get along with – that he had to slap a huge fly off of him with a bucket and BG just turned around and shrugged his figurative shoulders. He told me that their own warmblood would have freaked out – but I told him that BG knows when you are slapping off flies and when you are slapping for punishment. Killing horse flies is appreciated. Punishment not so much.

It is no joke that the peace of mind I can have over BG’s location – which is not too far away, and taking care of him in the manner I would expect (such as separately feeding him) – as well as the new home for Pandora where she will be looked after by someone that is experienced – and both of them ARE AFFORDABLE… has lifted a HUGE burden off my shoulders.

Now I just wish I could find the same for Z and I would be able to sleep better at night.

it’s all in the grass…

Went out to check on Big Guy at his retirement home and to give him his annual vaccs (which went without a hitch). Weight wise he looks excellent! I also dropped off a 50# bag of Triple Crown Senior only to find his barrel still 2/3rds full when I was expecting it to be about half or less.

When we first moved him out there they were feeding him the same amount that he was getting fed at FR. But for some mysterious reason, my feed barrel wasn’t going down as quickly as it did at FR. I’m not sure what was up with that – either they were feeding more at FR or they are feeding less at the retirement pasture then the 2 scoops I showed them to feed. I don’t feel that FR would have stolen the feed or used it for other purposes or misfed. So it is a just a mystery at this point as to what was going on.

Now he’s on 10 acres of grass and getting fed one scoop a day and not only maintaining but gaining weight. The only difference is the grass access and it’s making all the difference in his level of weight, especially for a senior.

feed

Really waited too long to buy feed this time ~ Big Guy seems to be going through an amazing rate (8# a day) as compared to what he ate about 1 year ago, prior to coming to FR. The question is this due to lack of green grass or age?

Triple Crown Senior….3: 50# bags at $17.70 each for a total of $53.10

Triple Crown Low Starch…. 2: 50# bags at $17 each for a total of $34

At this point, Dee has returned home and this will be the first time in about 8 months that I will be feeding only my own horses. It’s a good feeling to my pocketbook!

Of the 170 square bales bought for winter, at this point I have 25 square bales left. 

2011 Feed Bill costs running total: $432.65