My 17 hand Holsteiner is a hard keeper and we have added a cup of ground flax to his diet per day split between 2 meals. He is about 1400 pounds. What would be an acceptable upper limit ? The weight of the flax is 4 ounces per day and it measures out to be 1 cup.
We give a cup of ground flax as the standard supplement but a quick review of studies on PubMed show a wide range that if you wanted to up the flax in his diet, you have a lot of flexibility (if you’re okay spending a lot)
- O’Neill, McKee & Clark 2002: “Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum) supplementation associated with reduced skin test lesional area in horses with Culicoideshypersensitivity” used 1lbs per 1000lbs body weight
- White-Springer et al 2021: “Dietary omega-3 fatty acid supplementation does not impair vitamin E status or promote lipid peroxidation in growing horses” used 60 mg n-3/kg body weight from milled flaxseed
- Saastamoinen & Särkijärvi 2020: “Effect of Linseed (Linum usitatissimum) Groats-Based Mixed Feed Supplements on Diet Nutrient Digestibility and Blood Parameters of Horses” used linseed groats at 0.8 g/kg BW/d
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Plain whole flax has doubled in price here over the past couple of years. Apparently linseed has important industrial uses. But it’s still very cheap to feed a cup a day. I stopped grinding, couldn’t be bothered, horse still looks great.
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Flax doubled in price recently largely because of a real shortage a year or so ago due to the drought conditions where it’s largely grown. Prices have come down, but you know how that goes, once prices go up, it’s easy to keep them up in many cases.
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I got a 50 pound bag of whole brown flax for $80 and have been grinding 3 days at a time.
I have been hearing about the flax prices for over a year now, but I hadn’t seen too much increase here in MD.
A few months ago I bought a bag of TC Flax for the higher end of $30-something. A 50lb bag of whole flax was about the same price.
But the price hike finally made it here. I went to pick up another bag this past weekend and they were both nearly $60! Yikes.
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Oh shoot! I thought $80 was a good price! I’ll shop around next time.
I keep hearing it’s costing people this much. I don’t know why my price creep is slow but I suspect it’s a sign my suppliers aren’t moving the product very fast.
Have you considered flax oil? Its about 4x the calories.
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During the pandemic,I started ordering my flax from Amazon. I previously would pick it up at the local Tractor Supply, and now that I am out and about I find that they seldom have it in stock these days.
The interesting thing about Amazon and flax is that I typically pay $30-35 for an 8 pound bucket of MannaPro brand, and I order about once a month. When I log in to re-order, I often find the price has jumped to over $55. But if I don’t log in first, and just search and put it in an anonymous cart, the price is still $35.Then I can log in, order, and the price in the cart stays at $35.
I recently read that flax was not necessary during the seasons when horses have access to fresh green grass, so I am thinking of stopping flax for the spring and summer. Has anyone read the same, and is it true?
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I always used to feed about a cup and a half a day of whole flax to my horses and they looked amazing (and I had pretty blue flowers in the fields!)
However, current horse breaks out in spectacular hives at the mere mention of flax, which is a giant pain because its in everything nowadays.
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In theory, they get enough omegas from grass that they shouldn’t “need” it. But, I find my horses benefit from being on it year round.
I feed about 1/2 cup per day.
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@CindyCRNA I believe you can give up to 1cup of oil per day (divided in feedings) but check with your vet. Standard flax oil directions say to feed 2oz per 1000lb per day.
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The MannaPro product is ground flaxseed. No other ingredients are added. I have been feeding 1/4 cup twice a day along with ration balancer and access to forage 24/7/365. During the spring and summer they sure don’t need it for any additional calories. I have no idea what their coats would look like without flax, as they have been on flax the entire time I have owned hem.
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The cost has doubled here too. I used to be able to buy a 50 lb bag for $29 and last time I went to the feed store it was $58. I am about to run out so I guess I will find out if the price is still going up. I hope it isn’t $80 though. It is just so much cheaper to buy the whole flax and grind it with a coffee grinder in the morning when I am preparing feed than to buy the heat stablilized ground flax. I am feeding less than one unground cup per day per horse. I feed what fits in the coffee grinder per horse. I wish the grinder held more.
Sorry I was thinking of a different product in oil form. I’ll edit my reply to avoid more confusion.
