I’m feeding Vermont blend to my 2 year old. He was on it since middle of November 2021. I have thought about in past to switch to tc30 but I didn’t. I don’t have pasture so I do add vit e and flax. I feed Vermont blend in alfalfa pellets and he gets grass hay free choice. I was comparing Vermont blend to others like Kistrace cal trace etc and Vermont blend doesn’t have vit a cobalt or manganese and of course vit e but already add that in. I was told by maker of Kistrace that vit a cobalt manganese are important specially manganese for a young horse. Not sure if it was more of sales pitch to get me off Vermont blend or if true. So just thought I pick brains here.
A lot of areas of the country have way more Mn than the horse needs, including a lot of the NE, which is why there isn’t any in VB.
If a horse is eating enough fresh grass, or really green hay, he’s getting enough Vit A. If he’s eating enough grass, he’s getting enough Vit E (for an average normal horse, some may need more).
There has been no documented cobalt deficiency
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I have switched all of my horses to soaked timothy pellets with Vermont Pro, salt, flax and BOSS, including my two that just turned 3. I am super happy with how well they are doing on this diet and they look incredible
OP said “I don’t have pasture.”
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Yes. No pasture. No fresh grass and we don’t always feed fresh hay. It can be a year old if we need to buy hay before hay is getting made for new hay season. And way it’s going here now, idk what hay crops will be like this year. Last year at this exact time we cut a cattle pasture before we left cattle on it in June, and got 35 rounds off (not huge pasture either) this year right now it’s not even ankle high
That was explaining why there aren’t vitamins in VB, since the OP wondered why they weren’t there.
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Im in the Midwest, Iowa, I don’t know what Mn is here.
Check with your local extension office, they should have someone you can talk to about area soils.
Manganese in Counties of the Conterminous States (usgs.gov)
That’s just soil and doesn’t directly translate to what’s in your hay/grass
But yes, if your county’s extension agency does forage testing AND they do trace mineral testing (many don’t) they should have an average of what forages in that county have
I messaged a friend who works for ag company here local and test alot of hay and makes
Rations for cattle. i just asked what hay around here test on average
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