BRAN MASH ISSUE 40_Jerkins feature.qxd 30/11/2012 15:44 Page 1
NUTRITION
BRAN MASHES Useful tradition or nutritional pariah?
I f
N ITS most common form a bran mash consists of a warm sloppy mixture of wheat bran, with other minor ingredients such as rolled barley, linseed, vegetable oil, honey, molasses or date syrup often being added. The exact recipe for a particular yard’s bran mash is often a closely guarded secret, being regarded as part of a winning formula, and it could have been handed down through the generations of trainers. Traditionally a warm ‘mash’ has been offered to horses following hard exercise, or sometimes just once a week on the day of no or limited exercise, which is commonly a Sunday. Some of the oldest horsemanship texts give us insight into the rationale for a bran mash as part of a racing diet. Bran mashes were seen as having a purgative or laxative effect and so were used in the belief that they would help to cleanse the digestive tract and maintain the normal movement of the gut, thus preventing impactions following hard exercise and during days of rest. Bran mashes have also been used to encourage normal eating and water intake during periods where appetite may be suppressed such as in sick horses, following surgery, or simply after racing or hard days of work. They have also been used as a method for introducing medications or other additives given on a periodic basis. In clinical settings, wheat bran is also combined with paraffin oil in an attempt to soften faeces and help resolve early stage impactions within the digestive tract, although in this application the wheat bran really only serves as the carrier for the paraffin oil, which can of course be introduced by the veterinarian via nasogastric tube. When evaluating the usefulness of wheat bran mashes, we need to consider the main nutritional characteristics of this ingredient
56 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 40
Bran mashes are perhaps one of the most traditional elements of a feeding regime for a horse in race training. The attraction of this equine equivalent of a warm bowl of ‘Ready Breck’ or cup of hot chocolate has endured despite the many other changes in feeding practices over the years. WORDS: CatheRine Dunnett BSC, PhD, R.nutR PhOtOS: BOB LanGRiSh
and evaluate whether it’s suitable for the job. Wheat bran, as the name suggests, is a by-product of the production of flour from wheat, made from the high fibre outer layers of wheat, whereas wheat feed or wheat middlings, which are widely used in horse feed pellets, contain much more of the inner layers of wheat including some germ and endosperm. From a negative viewpoint the
fibrous outer layer of cereals including wheat bran can harbour undesirable mycotoxins. Nutritionally wheat bran is high in fibre, which has a relatively low digestibility. It is also comparatively high in protein, but the starch content is relatively low, as most of the starch would be located in the grain portion of the wheat itself. Wheat bran provides a low level of digestible energy and also has a low
NUTRITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 Nutritional Characteristic
Unit
Wheat bran
Wheat feed
Protein
%
15.5
16.5
Oil
%
3.5
4.5
Crude Fibre
%
11.0
7.5
NDF Fibre
%
45.4
32.0
ADF Fibre
%
13.4
9.9
Ash
%
6.0
4.5
Starch
%
16.0
23.0
MJ/kg)
9.5
11.0
Calcium (Ca)
%
0.12
0.1
Phosphorus (P)
%
1.15
0.95
0.1:1
0.1:1
Energy (DE)
Ca/P ratio