I received a call from a customer that had just recently transitioned her farm from a mill mix to Safe Choice.  We had delivered 4 tons of bulk feed to her farm.  She was very upset that after 3 weeks on the feed the bin was almost empty.  She was convinced that the delivery truck had mistakenly only delivered 3 ton of feed.

I  contacted the freight company and our plant, both weight tickets confirmed a little over 4 tons of feed were delivered.  I then went out to visit the farm.

I talked with the farm owner and manager and reviewed the dietary program we had established for the horses.  All of them looked good, and some had put on additional weight in the three weeks on the feed.

The manager had her notes with the dietary recommendations for each horse, as we had weight taped and body scored all of them.  I then asked the manager to show me the feed cart and measures they were using.

She showed me what she believed to be a 3 pound coffee can.  She said that she would fill it to the top for the horses needing 3 pounds per feeding.  Those only needing two pounds would get the can filled to the second ring.  She said it was always accurate with their old mill mix.

I took the coffee can and filled it with feed.  When I poured it into my scale it weighed 4 pounds.  So in essence the horses were getting about 33% more feed, by weight not volume.   This spread over a few weeks accounted for the missing ton of feed!

A small weight scale is a great investment.  It can help take the guess work out of feeding  and also help you keep your horse healthy!