If you want to offer free-choice salt (loose salt, not in a block), do you just buy a bunch of Morton’s salt and dump it in a feed pan or bucket? Or is there somewhere to buy bulk loose salt?
I buy a big bag at the farm supply store. I think 40 lbs at a time. It’s not Morton’s though.
Yeah, I buy loose livestock salt from Tractor Supply. $5 for a 50lb bag. My horse was licking a himalayan salt block, going through it waaay too quickly and flooding her stall; drinking tons of water due to over intake of salt. Now I put 1 Tbsp of salt into her feed bucket daily in the cold months. 2 Tbsp in the summer when she sweats more.
I also buy it from the feed store. It’s something like $8 for 50 pounds. Offer a couple cups at a time hanging in a bucket in the stall, toss it and replace when it gets dirty. Only really have one horse who consumes it. Shrug.
The pertinent part:
“If you get the electrolyte concentration in the horse’s water too high, it will discourage the horse from drinking. The best way is to put the electrolytes in the feed trough,” he said. “But in my description of electrolytes, we’re talking about salt. You don’t need the complicated electrolytes that have sugar, amino acids, and all that stuff — just plain sodium chloride.”
Potter advised horsemen to place a handful of salt in the horse’s feed tub, separate from the feed, with each meal. Do not mix it through the feed because too much salt will discourage the horse from eating. In his research, Potter found the optimum amount of salt per day for the average horse is 90 grams, or roughly three ounces, in addition to the minimal amount contained in commercial feed. He discourages horsemen from providing a tub of free-choice loose salt in the stall because he said some horses may develop a psychological salt addiction, which may cause physical problems.
1 Like
My farm feed store/mill sells large bags of loose salt (not the sidewalk kind).
I think you want iodized salt, so make sure that’s what the farm supply store is selling. I use salt from the grocery store but will be checking Costco for bulk salt.
