05/13/2026
If protein % in a feed or ration balancer is make-or-break for a horse’s diet, hay is probably the bigger issue.
Example:
For every 2% increase in protein, you only gain about 10g more protein per pound of feed.
A horse eating 6 lbs/day of a 12% feed gets about 326g of protein.
The same horse eating 6 lbs/day of a 14% feed gets about 381g.
That’s only a difference of 55g.
20 lbs/day of an 8% protein hay provides about 726g of protein on its own, enough to meet many horses’ basic protein needs.
This doesn’t account for digestibility or amino acid profile, but it does show that forage contributes far more protein to the total diet than small changes in feed protein %.
This ONLY refers to protein; forage alone will not provide adequate vitamins/minerals for working or breeding horses.
