Tribute Feeds

[PassagePony]

My horses are all older equines…the two who are draft are 18 and 23 and my Thoroughbred’s are 23 as well. The gelding has arthritic changes in his hips and hocks, the two drafts in their knees and hips, per our vet and a thorough check. They are on an arthritis top dressing. One draft, true to the breed, has bad hooves so she has been on “Kombat Boot” which is a brewers yeast pellet. It has been working but $50 for a 20lb bag every 5 weeks wears on your wallet. The arthritis supplement is $65 for an 8lb tub.

I started to look at a complete feed and talked to a Tribute nutritionist, we broke down all my feed and the supplements vs their cost and what comes in their feed. It did make sense that I would be saving almost $150 a month using just their feed vs all that I am getting now. I like that it has everything I am feeding in one bag, the price is a bit higher than I thought but it if it helps then it will be worth it.

Does anyone feed Tribute feeds and if so, what do you think of it? Do you like it? How do your horses do on it? We started to integrate it into our feed and slowly switch over to it completely so I am curious to see how it does with ours.

[cutter99]

I worked for a dealer who sold Tribute feeds, and let’s just say I was not impressed. Their level of honesty with us as someone who was selling their product was not good.

[TWH_Girl]

Love Tribute!! My barn feeds low starch, and my younger one gets the Essential K too. I switched from Triple Crown and actually prefer Tribute.

[babecakes]

[QUOTE=cutter99;8507381]
I worked for a dealer who sold Tribute feeds, and let’s just say I was not impressed. Their level of honesty with us as someone who was selling their product was not good.[/QUOTE]

So what do we need to know about the feed as a product?

[TWH_Girl]

[QUOTE=cutter99;8507381]
I worked for a dealer who sold Tribute feeds, and let’s just say I was not impressed. Their level of honesty with us as someone who was selling their product was not good.[/QUOTE]

I’ve heard this about several feed companies- Purina, Nutrena, Progressive, Triple Crown, etc. Bottom line is to try it and see what works. I don’t believe every questionable opinion or even a few occasional bad experiences. If it’s overwhelming negative, that’s another story.

[blue_phlox_farm]

I’ve been feeding Tribute Kalm and E-Z, a pelleted grain for about three years. It’s low starch and has a fair amount of fat and protein for all my seniors. I think the grain is very comparable to a lot of senior feeds. My hard keeper boarder, a 28 yr old Thoroughbred mare has done great. I’ve amazed at the weight she has on her this winter. My big problem has been choke. I have had an unusually high incidence of full blown choke to boarderline hacking and head hanging. It’s the old T-bred mare, a 30 yr old mini, a 13 yr old pony and a young large pony have all either started to choke or required a shot of ace to relax their throat and swallow the lump. But the worst was a 35 yr old who would get full blown-call the vet, choke. Regularly. He died recently of something unrelated. In my 32 years living here I had a horse choke once before starting the Tribute grain. Now, I’m still feeding the grain because I have a simple solution. I mix some soggy beetpulp into every meal for them. No more choke. Problem solved

I think there are older threads on here about Tribute grains and I also think someone else wrote about their horses getting choke on it. I’m still using it because the price is good and beet pulp is an easy fix.

[Dutchmare433]

[QUOTE=TWH Girl;8507401]
I’ve heard this about several feed companies- Purina, Nutrena, Progressive, Triple Crown, etc. Bottom line is to try it and see what works. I don’t believe every questionable opinion or even a few occasional bad experiences. If it’s overwhelming negative, that’s another story.[/QUOTE]

Agreed–I’ve heard “bad” (aka vague and gossipy) things about all of these companies and many more. I’ve also heard great things about all of the same companies.

My horse eats Tribute and is doing great on it. I can’t speak to the choke, as we soak all of our grain regardless.

[JB]

Tribute as a brand is very good. But not all the products are good, which is true for pretty much every brand. For example, Solutions 10 is about 30% NSC IIRC

But the Kalm N EZ products, both pelleted and textured, as nice. The Essential K ration balancer is nice.

So you can’t talk about a brand as a whole, you need to talk about a specific product.

[PassagePony]

We are starting to feed Essential K GC Plus…

As for choke, had one of my mares get an alfalfa cube piece stuck in her throat and scared the tar out of me, I have never seen choke before this! A wheezing gasping sound, throwing herself backwards, head hanging, blinking, etc. I really thought I was going to loose her. Vet got out there and it finally passed down but NO MORE alfalfa cubes for her!!

[starrunner]

I am currently feeding Tribute. I formerly fed Buckeye (mostly Growth & GroNWin). My younger horse was also on Purina Junior at the trainer’s.

They have looked consistently the best on Tribute. I haven’t had any issues, but I usually just talk directly to Dr. Burke the nutritionist and he’s been very good about my questions.

[Texarkana]

[QUOTE=starrunner;8507568]
I am currently feeding Tribute. I formerly fed Buckeye (mostly Growth & GroNWin). My younger horse was also on Purina Junior at the trainer’s.

They have looked consistently the best on Tribute. I haven’t had any issues, but I usually just talk directly to Dr. Burke the nutritionist and he’s been very good about my questions.[/QUOTE]

My experience was the total opposite. I fed Buckeye products for years, specifically Gro N Win and Safe N Easy. I moved to a barn who promised me they would always keep those products on hand, only to have them tell me a few weeks later that I would have to switch my horses to Tribute.

I had a horse with allergy issues at the time and I could not get in contact with anyone at the company for the life of me. I emailed, called, left messages… no response. When I finally got a response, it was a vague “thank you for your inquiry” type thing that didn’t address any of my questions.

My horses both lost condition on Essential K and Kalm N EZ. They went from being in good flesh with beautiful coats to being ribby and scraggly looking. My mare, who is about the easiest keeper on the planet, lost so much condition it was unreal. I know there could have been other factors at the barn playing a role, but I was still not impressed.

I switched my horses back to Buckeye and they looked better in just a couple weeks.

Anyone can find folks with both good and bad experiences for any brand of horse feed. But my experience was so markedly bad that I have yet to give the company a second chance.

[starrunner]

Yeah, I don’t like the contact based off the website. I met/have talked to Dr Burke in person and have his email & cell # so usually go that route.

FWIW–he was worked at Buckeye before going to Tribute, so I think in a lot of ways, they are pretty similar.

Sorry to hear about your experience. I feel the same way about some of the Purina products too, but I think it is so dependent on what works for individual horses and the hay quality. Soo frustrating as a boarder sometimes to have variable hay quality. I have seen a major difference as it changes and then I have to go back and reevaluate feed again.

[3rottenponies]

There are several barns that I take care of on a pretty regular basis that feed Tribute feeds. I think most use Tribute Kalm and EZ or whatever, and all of the horses look wonderful.

[Beethoven]

I feed my old man Tribute Kalm Ultra and he does well on it.

[Brian]

[QUOTE=Texarkana;8507582]
My experience was the total opposite. I fed Buckeye products for years, specifically Gro N Win and Safe N Easy. I moved to a barn who promised me they would always keep those products on hand, only to have them tell me a few weeks later that I would have to switch my horses to Tribute.

I had a horse with allergy issues at the time and I could not get in contact with anyone at the company for the life of me. I emailed, called, left messages… no response. When I finally got a response, it was a vague “thank you for your inquiry” type thing that didn’t address any of my questions.

My horses both lost condition on Essential K and Kalm N EZ. They went from being in good flesh with beautiful coats to being ribby and scraggly looking. My mare, who is about the easiest keeper on the planet, lost so much condition it was unreal. I know there could have been other factors at the barn playing a role, but I was still not impressed.

I switched my horses back to Buckeye and they looked better in just a couple weeks.

Anyone can find folks with both good and bad experiences for any brand of horse feed. But my experience was so markedly bad that I have yet to give the company a second chance.[/QUOTE]

Interesting, only because Dr. Burke was with Buckeye prior to working for Kalmbach.

[GaitedGloryRider]

I’ve been feeding Tribute for several years now, love it. My very, very hard keeper does great on the Seniority GC Plus (used to be called Maturity GC). I also use their K Finish in the winter to help keep the weight on, it’s the only fat supplement I’ve found that he doesn’t leave in the bottom of the bucket.

My girls were on the Kalm N Eazy when I boarded, now that they are home and I have the pasture to support them I’ve taken them off the pellets and just put out the 12-8 Vitamin/Mineral supplement free choice for all the horses. For the first time ever last year my horses had dapples! They’ve never looked better.

[myleetlepony]

My big problem has been choke.

Interestingly, I had the same problem. My barn won’t soak feed, so after the third incident, I switched to Nutrena and no more problems. What’s weird is that the Nutrena pellet is about the same size. I’m guessing what ever they are using for a binder is where the problem is.

[morgans4me]

I am sure there are some horses that will do better with another brand out there, but they are few and far between. I have fed Essential K, and Calm N EZ since last fall, and have been amazed with them. I had tree rescues come in looking with horrible feet, and I am amazed at how quickly they are turning around. One thing I notice is that the coronets start looking more noticeable and alive.

Kalmbach’s customer service on the other hands is the worst ever.

[fordtraktor]

My biggest problem has been palatability. They all seem to like the Essential K pretty well and I use it. But I have 2 hard keeper horses who need something more, and they outright rejected the Kalm N Ez (both pelleted and I even tried the textured, no go). I finally tried the Kalm Ultra and it was also rejected. These 2 won’t really touch K Finish at all. It is frustrating. I even tried adding rolled oats – nope, not happening.

I am switching the older guys over to Nutrena Pro Force Fuel just to try to get calories in though I’m not usually a Nutrena fan. The easy keepers are still on Essential K, I am happy with how they look (the same as when they were on Triple Crown 30).

[Squirt]

I love it. I switched a few years ago after raking care of a BNT barn that fed it without ten million supplements and ALL of his horses looked fantastic, even the broodies. I wasn’t completely happy with what I was feeding and the Tribute feeds countless. I figured if I didn’t like the results I could always switch back. Well, I’m still feeding Tribute and my horses have done so well that I had to switch them over to the Essential K ration balancer because they weren’t getting enough of the Kalm n EZ to get their vitamins and minerals. They all are fat and shiny. I have used the senior on an ancient pony with very few teeth and he did better on just that than Purina senior with soaked alfalfa cubes. I am a fan.
Oh, yeah. I have had no incidence of choke on this feed (knock on wood ) even with my horse that would occasionally choke.