The Benefits Of Feeding A Chaff
Chaff is the term given to short, chopped fibres that can be made from a number of different forage sources such as hay, straw, grass, or alfalfa. The need for a chaff is often put down to simply providing bulk or a ‘filler,’ to the feed, but there are many benefits to feeding a chaff on a daily basis.
Digestive Support
Unlike humans, horses only produce saliva when they are physically chewing. Adding a chaff or chop to your horses concentrate meal will therefore promote better chewing and an increase in saliva, minimising the risk of conditions such as choke. Digestion starts in the mouth, and so promoting the breakdown of feed through chewing and saliva will kick-start the digestion process. In addition, saliva will neutralise stomach acid and so acts as a natural stomach buffer, promoting good gastric health. Feeding chaff also slows the rate of passage of the feed through the digestive system, helping to ensure the horse can fully break down and utilise the feed in the correct areas of the gut.
Increasing Fibre Intake
Chaff is a short stem forage and so will of course add additional fibre to your horse’s diet. It is important that a horse receives no less than 1.5% of their body weight in forage per day, and so for horses that can be fussy or cannot eat long stem forage such as hay or haylage, using chaff as an alternative fibre source can be a great way of increasing their fibre. In addition, horses exhibit ‘sensory-specific satiety’ where they become ‘fed up’ by one forage type but are still motivated to consume others. If this occurs in stabled horses who are only fed hay OR haylage the motivation to eat other forages will increase and the horse may start to display redirected forms of searching behaviour such as box walking, weaving, wood chewing, crib biting etc. Studies have shown that by increasing the number of forage types offered to the stabled horse forage eating, browsing and behaviour is all improved. Placing small buckets of chaff alongside your horses’ typical hay or haylage ration can therefore help to stimulate a normal appetite as well as maintaining forage intakes.
Pre-Exercise Chaff
Workload is one of the suggested risk factors associated with Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome in horses. Research has found that horses with less than 2 days of rest a week are at an increased risk of developing gastric ulcers. Further studies by White et al (2007) also found that horses in light to heavy work for as little as 8 days were at an increased risk, with only 27% of 102 horses being free from gastric ulceration. Exercise increases the production of gastric acid, and contraction of the stomach during exercise allows acid to splash onto the non-glandular region of the stomach, increasing the risk of acid injury to this relatively unprotected mucosal lining. Using a chaff 30 minutes before riding will provide a ‘fibre mat’ in the stomach, helping to soak up any acid produced during exercise and minimising the risk of ‘acid splash,’ injuries in the horses’ stomach.
Choosing which chaff to feed
There are many varieties of chaff product on the market to choose from. Some contain a blend of fibre sources, and will in turn be more beneficial to specific types of horses. One of the most popular blends of fibre is cereal straw, as it is readily available in the UK. Cereal straw is less digestible than other fibre sources, making it lower in energy and suited to horses who are in light work or who maintain their weight well. In contrast, chaff's that are alfalfa based are much more digestible, with alalfa being considered a 'super fibre.' Alfalfa is also an excellent source of protein, and so is often recommended to youngstock, broodmares and performance horses. For fussy horses, considering a soft grass chaff or chop can be of great benefit as it is typically much more palatable due to it's naturally sweet taste.
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