Check food quality. Types of feed and what to check for. Concentrates. Oats

Transcription

1 Check food quality Always purchase fresh fruit and vegetables. Check grain, pellets and roughage for spoilage, dust or mould. Fresh meat should be refrigerated or frozen after purchase and used within a specified time- it is not advisable to feed meat that has gone off. Tinned meat products should be refrigerated after opening, used within the specified time (assess this by checking the used by date ) and do not use any tinned meat products if the tin is damaged as this may effect the quality of the tins contents. Use the senses of sight and smell when inspecting incoming food. Tasting is not recommended as the produce may be contaminated. Appropriate storage method is extremely important is ensure the lasting quality of feeds. Types of feed and what to check for Each type of feed will have different things to look out for when checking their quality. Concentrates This group includes all grains, pellets and extruded products. There are three more commonly used grains: oats barley corn. Oats Oats are fed whole, cracked, rolled, steamed, rolled, crimped, bruised, soaked or crushed. Good quality oats should be a large whitish, plump grain, freeflowing from the bag, with low dust and free of contaminants such as weed seeds or broken grain. The oats should have a fresh, sweet grain smell. 1

2 Barley Barley contains good nutrient levels, especially vitamin B group. Barley grain is used for livestock feed and malt barley is used to make alcohol. Barley is a hard grain that should be cooked or processed in some way like roasted, extruded, steamed, rolled, or crushed before feeding it to horses. Soaking it has little effect on the hard grain. Corn Corn is very hard and best fed cracked or flaked. Fresh corn cobs are very popular with many rodents, rabbits, and even possums. Dried corn is in many bird seed mixes. Corn is a very high energy carbohydrate grain, which grows on cobs, and dries off before harvesting and removing the grain from the cob. Wherever possible, grain should be stored in a waterproof silo to protect it from spoilage. Pellets Pellets are a very popular and convenient way to feed animals. The ingredients are usually based on concentrates, protein and oilseeds, vitamins and minerals, with very little roughage and are often meant to be fed with hay and chaff. First, the ingredients are mixed together and crushed; then heat and moisture are added. Once this has been done, the mix is pressed into pellets and dried quickly to seal in the nutrients. 2

3 Pelleted feeds are a convenient way to feed a range of species. Produce stores usually stock a range of good quality pelleted feeds. Extruded feeds Examples of this type of feed include dog and cat biscuits. Extruded foods are dry foods that is becoming popular due to it s ease and convenience. Extruded feeds are a similar mixture to pellets, but the manufacturing process is different. This sort of feed is hit with very hot steam to release the starch in the grains, which makes them a cool feed, but the steaming also locks in the nutrients. This makes them more palatable, more nutritious and easy for the animal to digest. The feed is formed into crunchy balls about the size of a pebble. Then they are put into lined and sealed bags to lock in the freshness. It seems that extruded feeds are fast proving themselves as the safest way to feed animals, because of their digestibility. Quality of feed Feed Good quality Bad quality Lucerne hay and chaff Cereal hay and chaff green colour, evenly cured, cool to touch, with a sweet smell, no dust, mould or weeds present. Bales should be reasonably heavy and tightly packed bright colour, green tinge with wheaten, more of a gold colour with Oaten brown, grey, white patches or black, very uneven colour, brittle dusty, light weight, musty, warm or hot to touch presence of moulds and weeds grey, yellow colour, mouldy, musty or sour smell 3

4 cool to touch, low dust, good grain content, reasonable weight sweet grain smell dusty, light weight weeds present Grains when you buy wholegrain, it should be whole, (not cracked or broken) dry, plump heavy grain, little dust bright colour appropriate for the grain type, and every type has its own distinct fresh smell even processed grain should be free flowing, no moulds, etc Pellets regardless of what shape it is meant to be, it should be whole, unbroken, free flowing, low dust, good odours and consistent colours smell and colour should not change from bag to bag of the same product black hollow spots, broken or shrivelled, dry and dusty or oily and the presence of moulds or fungus weevils create a lot of dust, and give all grains a distinct sour smell crushed, crumbled, powder, high dust, uneven colours, and no consistency from bag to bag rejection by the animals could indicate palatability problems of poor ingredients Grain mixes you should be able to identify the grains and some of the other ingredients in the mix, which should be dense dust free, free flowing with good sweet, appetizing smells a powdery type mix full of crushed, unidentifiable dusts and powders that have unpleasant odours weight is usually very heavy or very light The photo below shows an opened bag of lucerne chaff. It is the end that you would open, so you would think that the chaff was good quality. But when we opened the entire bag we found the bottom half of the bag was old and dry and not suitable for horses. 4

5 The photo below shows some grain mix that looked fine on top but did not smell right. When I buried my hands into it I found it was hot to feel. Bringing some of the underneath grain to the surface we found it was hot and mouldy. This could easily kill a horse. Delivery times Arrange delivery times so you can personally inspect, accept and store items. Don t allow food for example, bread and milk to be left outside the door where it can be interfered with by passers by, or contaminated with dog or cat urine, dust or other environmental elements. Hygiene Delivery personnel have to observe the same personal hygiene and handling procedures as you do. If they don t, draw it to the attention of your supplier or local environmental health officer and change your supplier if not satisfied. Food poisoning can ruin not only your business but theirs as well. 5