Buying Clean Feed

This is something that I've been meaning to post for the longest time...and then forget to do so. But, today, I'm on top of things and was reminded to post this when I went out to feed.

Normally, I buy very clean, steamed, rolled barley for my mare's grain. I only feed enough to get her vitamins down her, not really for nutritional purposes. She gets about a pint of grain twice a day.

This last bag I bought of barley has a LOT of chaff in it. When I bought it, I didn't think to ask for triple cleaned grain and got this stuff instead. I kind of wondered, in an off-hand way, why the bag was so cheap, er, inexpensive and now I know why.

Since I've opened it, I don't know if the feed store will take it back, I thought well, I better figger out a way to clean the grain up. Simple, really. All you have to do is when you scoop the feed in the scooper, pour it out slightly higher than normal into your bucket while standing in a bit of a wind. The wind blows the chaff away and the grains fall down into the bucket. Do this several times and you'll have pretty clean feed, not perfect but better than chaff-y feed. By the way, do this before you throw feed into your horses' feed bucket, do it outside somewhere.

Next time, I'll be sure to ask for the right grain... :-)