How do you all store whole flax?

[BoyleHeightsKid]

And how do you feed it? I picked up a 50lb bag from the feed mill. Price in the low 30’s. I’ve been feeding omega horseshine for years but the price has doubled. Getting 2 1/2 times of whole flax for less than 20lbs on the OHS is nice. I have 2 horses that will be getting probably around a cup a day (around 3oz) in winter, about half that in summer. I’m estimating 50lbs is gonna last me a little over 4 months in the winter months, so that seems to be okay as far as spoilage. In the summer, maybe not.

About feeding it. Soak or grind it? I feed beet pulp so it would be easy to just throw it in with that and would be quick. If it’s better to grind it, than that’s what I’ll do.

[csaper58]

How many horses are you feeding flax to?

I found the 50lb bags developed weevils so I buy whole flax in 5lb bags which I put in the freezer for a week. It then goes into an air tight container designed for pet food by Iris.

www.tractorsupply has the Iris 50 lb Airtight container for $23.99 #100037799. It’s worth it, because if weevils do hatch in your flax seed they might not get into your other feed.

[Simkie]

I do ground flax, and I store it on a shelf in the feed room in it’s bag. The top is tightly rolled and clipped. I pull out maybe 15 lbs at a time into a separate container for active feeding. No problems so far, works fine.

When I did whole flax, I didn’t soak or grind it. Still really liked the results, and saw only a very rare blue flower in the field. I vote for feeding it whatever manner is easiest…you can always change it up if you’re not happy with the results

[JB]

I feed it whole. I’d grind it if I thought someone was having an issue chewing or digesting well enough. But it’s cheap enough to just feed a heaped, instead of level cup to make up for some wastage, over spending the time grinding every day.

I keep extra things like this tightly rolled up like Simkie, then in a a garbage can with a tight-fitting lid in the tack room, and have never had an issue with anything.

Whole seeds last a really long time, as long as they are dry enough

[Scribbler]

I have white recycling bins from IKEA stacked in my loft and the large ones just hold a 50 lb bag of grain. I have no problems with spoilage damp or mice getting in. We are PNW which is very damp, the loft is over 80 or 90 f on hot summer days, and there is mouse evidence in the corners. But we aren’t tropical heat and damp.

My whole flax goes in that. I used to grind but my coffee grinder was fussy and didn’t take a whole cup. I add the flax along with vitamin supplement just before feeding a mash that has been soaking for hours. I read somewhere prolonged soaking deteriorated the omega 3 or maybe the vitamins in flax?

Anyhow maresy stayed shiny after I switched to not grinding so I figure she is getting the nutrients.

However when she spits mash on the wall those whole flax seeds are just about glued in place.

[INoMrEd]

I buy a large bag of flax seed and store it in a large Vittles Vault in my garage and bring it out to the ranch in a smaller Vittles Vault bucket as needed. I feed both my horses whole flax seed now instead of buying the NutraFlax from Horsetech. The Horsetech product has added calcium that my horses don’t need (they need phosphorous added to their daily rations).

[Melissa.Van_Doren]

I keep it in those 10 gallon white construction buckets, in the tack room (no freeze and no terrible heat). Never a problem with bugs or mold, etc. Grind with a coffee grinder for optimum digestion, although I do switch back to HorseShine or another stabilized, ground form every once in a while when I get tired of the extra step at feeding.

[Stacie]

I had been feeding whole flax and then switched to triple crown naturals golden flax. It’s stabilized. I saw improvements in their skin that I had not seen with the whole flax. It was amazing. Plus the horses love it. It’s about $25 per 25 pounds, but totally worth the cost because it has a huge bang for the buck.
The guys at the Southern States warehouse told me that they’ve been selling it like crazy and they hardly sell the whole flax at all annymore

[HorseKrazy]

@Stacie

I had been feeding whole flax and then switched to triple crown naturals golden flax. It’s stabilized. I saw improvements in their skin that I had not seen with the whole flax. It was amazing. Plus the horses love it. It’s about $25 per 25 pounds, but totally worth the cost because it has a huge bang for the buck.
The guys at the Southern States warehouse told me that they’ve been selling it like crazy and they hardly sell the whole flax at all annymore

Where are you finding the tc flax for $25? It’s $50 for a 25 pound bag on their website, twice the price if buying in bulk

[pasolover2]

I live in TN, but go to the Southern States in KY to buy the TC Balancer Cubes and the TC Omega Max Golden flax and it costs me $26.75, actually up a dollar more than I used to get it for. I don’t know why it is priced so much higher on their website unless it has to do with shipping???

[Simkie]

I think the TC stuff is about $30 here? Definitely not $50!

[mmeqcenter]

Kept the bag in a (new) blue trash bin from Lowe’s, which is what we store all our grain in. No problems for 2 months in the middle of Florida summer. It was for a temporary boarder (sold a farm and bought a new one, we had their horses for about three months in between). Fed it soaked. Can’t say the horse cared for it much, but ate it begrudgingly. No problem with bugs or spoiling in the blue bin.

[BoyleHeightsKid]

Thanks all… I will give it a shot and see how it goes. Every time I’ve tried to either stop or switch from the Horseshine to something cheaper I always ended up going back because I didn’t care for the results of the cheaper product (insert Dumor Ultrashine here yuck!). Maybe that won’t be the case this time around.

[betsyk]

Every couple years I forget what a pain whole flax has been, and I buy another bag. The mice LOVE it. REALLY love it. I find little hoades of flaxseeds everywhere, and not just in the part of the basement where we prepare the feed. I found them upstairs in the silverware drawer one time. And after the mice eat the good part, they leave the little shells behind and I find those in little dusty piles in other places, like the plastic bedding bags we use to store winter clothes in the off season.

The other part of whole flax that drives me crazy is those little tiny seeds stick to things you don’t want them to. I used to soak it with the beet pulp, and I’d spoon out the beet pulp with a silicone scraper/spoon, and the flaxseeds would fight to stick to the soaking bucket. Then they’d stick to the feed pans and the horses didn’t care enough to lick them off. So the barn mice ended up with beautiful shiny coats, too.

I think whole flaxseeds are a wonderful feed for mice, nice fat shiny mice. so your cats can catch them and get secondary benefit from all those great coat enhancing fatty acids. I decided to switch the horses to roasted soybeans, which are somewhat less appealing to mice, a whole lot less expensive, and produce nice shiny coats in horses, not just mice and cats.

[buck22]

I feed 3 horses 1 cup of whole flax seeds per day. I buy 100# at a time and keep it in a metal trash can with a liner at the barn. In 6 years of doing this, I have never had bugs, moths, mice or spoilage. I live in an area that is hot and humid in the summer and sub freezing in the winter.

The metal can keeps the critters out, and the liner keeps the food fresh and makes for a tight seal with the trash lid.

It does stick to everything though, and mice do find what the horses tossed aside, or if I spill anything and miss cleaning it up. They do make little flax seed caches in the most frustrating spots… like inside a helmet, or under a pile of saddle pads, etc.

I feed it whole, even to my toothless 37 yr old. Poop piles do sprout little flax seedlings, and I’m sure if I ground it would perform better, but it performs well enough whole and just isn’t worth the hassle to me.

I feed it mainly for its sand clearing properties and for 48 weeks out of the year, it does its job admirably. The shiny soft coats are a happy by-product.

I did feed OHS years and years ago and switched to whole flax because of the price. I did not regret the change at all.

[jvk8]

My feed store (which is awesome in many ways) sells me what they call “Flaxseed Meal” which is just ground up flaxseed. It’s around .78 cents per pound and I can buy as much or as little as I want. I found that feeding ground flax gave better results than whole flax (JMO).

The ground flax is easier to deal with RE: sticking to everything like whole flax does

I’ve never had any problems with spoilage / mice etc. and I keep it in a trash can in my (not temperature controlled) feed room.

[BoyleHeightsKid]

Those of you who grind… Do you find it easier to use a coffee grinder or a food processor? I could do more at a time, like maybe a weeks worth in the food processor.