We usually get our T.C senior from a co-op but for some reason ran out so I went to grab a bag from a nearby feed store…
Well, the difference was noticeable from each bag.
the lot # and mill # were in a different format so I know they came from Different mills.
The one from the local feed store had a 5 letter and digit number on the paper end of the bag , while Our normal batch had a much longer letter/number combo and you could easily tell when it was made.
The local feed stores bag was full of chopped corn, looked and smelled like waaaay more molasses and the beetpulp was chopped much finer.
The co-op bag had no chopped corn. Bigger flakes of beetpulp and no molasses smell or sticky stuff stuck to the inside of the bag.
I was talking to a feed rep about a year ago she she said some major changes were probably going to happen to Triple Crown. Southern States apparently sold out Cargill, who owns Nutrena and Purina, and her hypothesis was that Triple Crown was going to start using Cargill’s mills. (Her goal in telling me this was to sell me Cavalor or something I think.)
Our co-op is part of Southern States and their “Legends” products are now in Nutrena packaging with a picture of the old Legends bag in the corner. My barn owner has noticed a difference in the Triple Crown products as well as the Legends products. He says every horse in the barn who eats those products has had changes in their manure and behavior and is not happy about it. He says they’re wired, so it makes sense that there is a new, more sugary mix out now.
So OP, hopefully your coop didn’t run out because their supplier is switching mills too.
Your post is absolutely full of misinformation. The feed salesperson you spoke to was trying to sell you the product she represented.
Southern States was purchased by Cargill more than a couple years ago. While Cargill owns the Purina brand everywhere BUT the U.S., Purina and Cargill have no affiliation in the U.S. Triple Crown is its own entity. They own their brand, do their own formulations, and have their product toll milled by other companies who own mills, as Triple Crown does not own any mills.
Purina is currently milling Triple Crown products. Blue Seal or Kent may also be milling for Triple Crown currently.
Triple Crown Senior has never had corn in it, unless it was whole corn left over from a cleaning run of the equipment in between batches. If there is more than a few kernels of corn here or there in a bag, you need to call Triple Crown’s customer service and report the issue. I seriously doubt Triple Crown has changed a formulation to a “new, more sugary mix”, as Triple Crown Senior has been a well received, well known low sugar, low starch product for many, many years now.
Feed can be manufactured by the same company, in different mills, and have a very different appearance due to the difference in ingredients. Ingredients can change from truck load to truck load.
Find out who the TC rep is for your area, give them the batch number, and “make” them find out what happened.
There might have been a glitch in the process that adds molasses. This bag might have been at the very beginning of a run and the chute wasn’t cleared of the corn that was used to clean the chute :lol: so you ended up with a “throwaway bag”. Mills should be setting aside X number of bags from the first of the run to make sure crossover contamination doesn’t happen. Batches should be tested. Purina’s mills do this (are supposed to), and I assume Blue Seal mills are supposed to as well - pretty sure that’s a TC Requirement.
It’s been a couple years now, and TC stopped using Cargill mills, and went to Purina Mills in the East ( I don’t remember all the states/territories)
Was this a feed store feed rep? That are among the worst, in general, when it comes to knowing what’s going on.
Our co-op is part of Southern States and their “Legends” products are now in Nutrena packaging with a picture of the old Legends bag in the corner. My barn owner has noticed a difference in the Triple Crown products as well as the Legends products. He says every horse in the barn who eats those products has had changes in their manure and behavior and is not happy about it. He says they’re wired, so it makes sense that there is a new, more sugary mix out now.
So OP, hopefully your coop didn’t run out because their supplier is switching mills too.
Nutrena/Legends is entirely separate from TC-anything, in all ways.
No, there is not a new, more sugary mix out there. TC formulas did not change. If you’re having issues with TC feeds, please call them and talk to them about it. They really, truly care, IME. If your rep doesn’t seem interested in getting to the bottom of this, please PM me and I will bring it to my region’s rep’s attention.
The ingredients don’t vary from mill to mill, truck load to truck load, with TC. They are very particular about who they source their main ingredients from, they don’t just take any Joe Farmer’s oats because they are cheap and local. They test every batch of ingredients for consistency in nutrition, and reject any that don’t fall within a narrow margin of standards. So while oats might be sourced from different places if you’re in NC vs Maine, they are still going to be very similar in appearance and nutritional profile, definitely not enough to make a very different appearance.
TC is a fixed formula line of products, which is why their main ingredients have such a narrow range for the nutritional profile.
Beet pulp can be lighter or darker depending on where it comes from, so that can change the shade of it to a degree, but not drastically
They most certainly do. TC do not Mill all their products themselves. In my area it is milled by Purina. I have stopped using it as the quality has plummeted.
I’ve been using Triple Crown on and off for the better part of 20 years and cannot say “the quality has plummeted.” We were having the same debates then as we are now regarding nit-picky things like rouge corn kernels, color/odor/texture change, bricking… none of which have ever seemed to amount to anything substantial. But overall, the formulas and ingredients have more or less remained consistent.
There are major feed companies where I believe the quality HAS plummeted due to changes in their formulations to improve cost effectiveness or changes in ownership. I would not put TC in that group.
They don’t vary any more than any other company with mills in different areas of the country, or companies with different sources of the same ingredient.
TC has never milled their feeds. Their formulas have not changed since moving to Purina’s mills.
The TC feed rep was actually out on Thursday. Triple Crown just changed the minerals in their senior formula slightly to increase amino acids. This could possibly cause the change in feed you’ve seen.
I gave up on TC over a year ago. I had very weird bags of TCC over several months and lost faith in their processes. And yes, I sent bag codes and such directly to TC each time.
Yes, they updated the AA profile to be in line with ratios found in muscles (using lysine as a starting point), which did increase some of them. They also added some which weren’t there, like leucine.
I’m talking only about TC, as my post indicated. And I know all this because I talk directly to my local rep, and have toured a Purina mill where my regional TC feeds are made, seeing how it all works, getting educated on the quality control processes they have.
And if you’re referring to various mills having different batches of oats as being “different ingredients”, then I also already covered that, and TC is no different from any other company who uses different sources for the same ingredients.
Touring a mill as a consumer is much different than working in one. I can assure you that batches of feed will appear different based on ingredients, even if the ingredients have the same nutritional profile. And that goes for Triple Crown products, as well as any other feed.
I never said otherwise In fact, I specifically called out beet pulp as one ingredient that can be lighter or darker and therefore alter the look of the end product.
Beet pulp also has a once-a-year harvest, and by the time you get to the end of that harvested product, it’s likely to be more broken down than when freshly dried and stored. So, that starts affecting the look of anything with actual beep shreds in it. Like TC textured feeds.
I don’t know how much the color of oats vary. I DO know they vary by weight, and TC is particular not only about the nutritional profile of every batch of oats they get, but their weight as well - can’t be adding X volume of oats and have the feed be light this batch and heavy the next, and can’t be adding Y pounds of oats and have the feed be low volume one batch and high volume the next.
In fact, I specifically called out beet pulp as one ingredient that can be lighter or darker and therefore alter the look of the end product.