The latest research shows that the equine sector in the UK has a gross output of over £3.5b. Over 2.5m people are involved in riding close to 1m horses. Increasingly suppliers of equine feeds are developing a greater understanding of the improved scientific evaluation of feeds and their interaction with equine performance.

Acknowledged experts now maintain that a balanced diet for horses should include forage, bran, chaff, molichaff (a mixture of chaff and molasses), barley, linseed, oats, maize, seaweed, fruit and root vegetables. To ensure maximum digestibility, barley is miconised (a cooking process) in order to gelatinise the starch.

Sciantec has extensive expertise in all aspects of equine feed analysis, and can analyse the quality of all the above including the gelatinisation of starch, and work with many of key players in this sector.

We offer a comprehensive testing program for analysis of equine feed and forage including:

• Nutritional analysis
• Fibre fractions
• Starch gelatinisation
• Forage analysis by NIR or wet chemistry
• Mineral analysis
• Analysis of undesirables such as caffeine, theobromine
• Microbiological analysis including moulds