Horse Feed Calculator

A horse feed calculator that works from bodyweight and workload. Enter the horse's weight and the percentage of bodyweight you intend to feed as forage and as concentrate, and it returns the daily amounts in kilograms and pounds, the bales of hay that represents, the size of each concentrate meal and how all of it sits against the ranges published in the NRC Nutrient Requirements of Horses. Every rate is editable, so a horse that holds condition outside the table is not forced back into it. A second action lays out a day-by-day schedule for changing feed, because a sudden change is what founders a horse.

Calculator Type

Weight Unit

Kilograms Pounds

Bale Weight Unit

Kilograms Pounds

Body Weight (kg) *

Use a weight tape or a scale. Eyeballing a horse is the largest single source of error in a ration.

Workload

Forage (% of bodyweight per day)

Hay, haylage or pasture, on a dry matter basis. The published floor is 1% of bodyweight; below that the hindgut and the horse both suffer.

Concentrate (% of bodyweight per day)

Grain, cubes or a compound feed. Leave at 0 for a forage-only ration.

Concentrate Meals per Day

Largest Meal (% of bodyweight)

The usual published ceiling for a single concentrate meal is 0.5% of bodyweight, roughly 2.5 kg or 5.5 lb for a 500 kg horse.

Weight of One Bale or Flake of Hay (kg)

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