Product Spotlight: Milne EasyWay Hay & Chaff Replacer

Milne EasyWay Hay & Chaff is a low-energy, low-protein, high-fibre pellet designed to have similar nutritional value as cereal hays. It is a super-easy and convenient way to increase the fibre in your horse’s diet without adding extra grains, whilst also being kind on the hip pocket. EasyWay is made using Milne’s unique fibre-grinding process to form a palatable, pelleted fibre source. This makes EasyWay ideal for horses with limited appetites, aged horses, or those that require extra feed for weight gain. The pellet is also easy to use when travelling or when storage space is limited.

Michelle Meylan, the Milne equine nutrition advisor, explains how EasyWay can be used.

‘We’ve had some great success with EasyWay being used for aged horses and horses with poor teeth. The pellet is ideal for older horses that can’t chew or eat enough roughage. Often, in order to maintain weight on these horses, owners feed larger concentrate meals, and may include ‘senior’ or high-protein, high-energy feeds. This may normally achieve weight gain; however, because horses are largely forage eaters, when the grain portion becomes out of balance with the roughage portion of the diet, the gastrointestinal tract doesn’t work as efficiently, impacting body condition and potentially causing digestive upsets, such as hindgut acidosis. Being able to provide a high-fibre pellet in the meal allows calories to be supplied from fibre, rather than carbohydrate, sources. EasyWay can be soaked and softened to make chewing easier and to allow horses to consume the pellet slowly.”

Michelle offered two examples of EasyWay being used in the field.

“One case involved a 29-year-old pony mare whose owner sought my recommendations. The pony was in poor condition, had only two molar teeth left, and was unable to eat hay. This meant that aside from the small amount of grass she could chew, her main calorie intake was coming from her hard feed, which was chaff and grain. We removed the grain and replaced with softened EasyWay plus Gold Pellet, a vitamin and mineral supplement. She was able to slowly make her way through about 4kg of EasyWay a day, which resulted in a brighter disposition, vastly improved body condition, and a shiny coat.”

The second diet Michelle worked on was with a five-year-old Thoroughbred that had recently retired from racing. “He was in light condition, had a tendency to be a bit hot, and was fussy about eating more than about 2 or 3 slices of hay a day. We added 2kg of EasyWay to his hard feed, along with chaff and 2kg of Coolmax. The EasyWay increased his volume of intake and provided calories from a fibre-based source, without the need to increase his Coolmax intake. We were able to achieve the desired weight gain without heating him up.”

To find out more about EasyWay click here.