I have a choke-prone senior who is fed a TC Sr soup twice daily. I have been soaking his AM feed when I feed dinner, and his PM feed when I feed breakfast, but with the temps warming up I’m wondering how long (and at what temps) is okay to soak in advance without the grain going bad?
Thanks!
The answer is really “until it goes bad/ferments” which is going to depend a lot on your local conditions. But yeah, you’re risking that in summer temps.
If the am/pm routine is easiest, you can start it with cold water and leave it in a cooler. That’ll keep the bugs off and should buy you more time, since it’ll be able to stay cooler for longer.
Or, if you have a barn fridge, stash the bucket in there.
Or, add hot water right before you feed, so it’ll break down quicker. Should only take five/ten minutes.
Even with cool water I can’t imagine it would take more than 5-10 minutes to soak up. I have one that I put the water in then immediately walk it out to the field and it is softened plenty in the 46 seconds it takes to get there.
If your summer is 80F+, I would definitely soak it right before feeding or put it in a fridge.
Add more water and it won’t need to soak forever. If you start with warm warm water, it soaks really fast in warm weather
In the winter, when it was below freezing I was hauling hot water from the house to barn to soak right before feeding. Now that the temps are more mild, soaking with cold water in advance has been far easier than lugging it from the house!
But, I may have to stick with my hot water method once we get into the hot summer months, although I have been meaning to move a mini fridge out to my feed room in which case it can soak there!
It really doesn’t have to soak very long though even with cold water or “room temp” water. How much time do you have? I fed a soupy 5lb twice a day all last Summer and part of the Summer before with barn water.
I have ancient TBs who are fed it, one who is toothless and eats nothing but TC senior- about 15-20lbs a day depending on the season. I don’t spend any time soaking the feed.
I add cold water from the hose and plop it straight in their stalls. By the time I lead them in it is plenty soft.
In the winter, the only thing that changes is I bring a warm bucket of water from the house.
In the summer, it doesn’t take long before it starts to smell sour and the flies get to it. After about 2 hours I don’t want them touching it because it already smells off.
I feed alfalfa cubes and beet pulp which need much more soaking and much more water than any ready to eat feed.
They are ready to go within an hour of soaking in hot or cold water. I’ve never seen them get rancid even with overnight soaking. However this is a temperate climate and even in summer night temperatures are under 20 C/ 70 F. And hay and beet pulp are probably less fragile than a composed feed.
I am however careful to always scrub the buckets after use. Just with water, but I make sure there is no old feed in the corners.
Alfalfa cubes and beet pulp =/= Triple Crown Senior
They are not the same thing.
I know! 
True, I have just seen him choke one too many times and get paranoid if it’s not complete mush 
It takes me less than 5 minutes to bring them all in and feed but I can certainly do a chore or two while I wait on it to soak! Gives me a good excuse to do something productive in the barn
This is my personal favorite way to soak TCS in the summer. No worries re it souring or flies and it’s nice to think of giving the horses a cool feed in the misery of summer heat.
TC Sr soaks down very quickly. By the time I prepare 3 horse meals and add salt, flax, etc., it is ready for my old pony to eat. Probably 5 minutes soaking time. This is why I much prefer it to pellets, cubes, or beet pulp.
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