# Ash content of feeds



## Georgie1234 (23 March 2010)

Can anyone tell me why the ASH content is listed on horse feeds?

Why is this important to know?
What does ASH do?  What is it good / bad for?

Is there an optimum / maximum % for a particular horse type or disease?


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## Puzzles (23 March 2010)

I, too, enquired about this: Ash is a mineral and it offers little or no other nutritional value. I do not know what minerals it provides exactly, but rest assured that it is not literal ash or dust of any kind!
I would recommend asking a nutritionist from any feed company to clarify those final points with you.


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## TGM (23 March 2010)

Ash is what is left of a feed after it has been heated to a very high temperature and all the organic matter has been burned off, so just leaving the mineral content.  So the higher the percentage of ash, the more mineral content there is in the feedstuff.


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## Georgie1234 (23 March 2010)

So the higher the % of ASH listed on the feed bag the better (hopefully)

That is really interesting; glad I asked!

Thank yoU!


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## dany (23 March 2010)

Georgie1234 said:



			So the higher the % of ASH listed on the feed bag the better (hopefully)

That is really interesting; glad I asked!

Thank yoU!
		
Click to expand...


Really? I just assumed it was a filler? Im glad i read this now x


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## TGM (23 March 2010)

Georgie1234 said:



			So the higher the % of ASH listed on the feed bag the better (hopefully)

That is really interesting; glad I asked!

Thank yoU!
		
Click to expand...

Well, to some extent.  Obviously an extremely high mineral content could be harmful, and, in theory, if a feed was contaminated with stones or soil then there would be a high ash content.

However, if you took two similar feedstuffs and one was supplemented with vit/mins by the manufacturer and one wasn't, the supplemented one would have a higher ash content.  And if you had two similar feeds and one had very basic supplementation and the other had a very high spec supplementation, then the high spec one would have a higher ash content.


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