Hay mineral profile (from Barb Peck)

[guest@endurance.net]

Barb Peck bpeck@together.net
HI:
  A very good lab is Servi-Tech in Nebraska.
http://www.servi-techinc.com/services/labs/default.htm
phone 402-463-3522
  For $20.00 they do a standard mineral profile: Calcium, Phosporus,
Magnesium, Manganese, Potassium, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Sulfur and sodium.
And they offer additional tests.
 If you call them, they send you plastic hay bags for the sample, a
catalogue of their services, and water bottles if you're doing water.
  An excellent reference book for $29.95 is "Nutrient Requirements for
Horses" From the National Academy press 1989 edition (they have a website
too). I recently purchased this edition (mine was the 1972 edition) and it
came with a diskette (for energy conversions) in the back cover.. Not a
bad deal!.
 Hay test macro-minerals mineral results are given in percent (%)
and the micro-minerals are in ppm (parts per million)
  Converting ppm to milligrams confuses people the most.. but it's not
that bad.... 1ppm= 1 milligram/Kg  (1Kg= 2.2lbs)
  ALso.. on the web, if you need metric conversion tables..
just search on those words.  After you do this a few times, it'll be easy.
  Figure the content in how many pounds of hay you feed, then
look at the grain tag and figure all that in be sure to also
look at the paragrph listed as ingredients, cuz some manufactures do not
list things separately, and you may have to call them...
The after you do this analysis, you'll KNOW what your supplement needs to
deliver if you need to balance any
mineral ratios.
  Mineral ratios are variable depending on what reference source you use.
  I use the following, which is an average from many reference sources for
1000lb horse
Protein 1.5 lbs/day
Calcium to Phosporus Ca:P ..  2:1
Calcium to Magnesium Ca:Mg .. 2:1
Iron to Manganese.... Fe:Mn.. 1:1
Zinc to Copper Zn:Cu......... 3:1
Zinc to Manganese to Copper Zn:Mn:Cu...3:3:1

If you need help, there are people out there that do the analysis
for a fee (I think Susan Garlinghouse offers one).

Barb