Menü anzeigen

Does Lavisano contain cereal?

Changing the composition of our horses’ feed from the feed that is available to them in a natural environment is what causes modern equine diseases. The biggest change is feeding cereals. Many feed bags state that the content is ‘oat free’ or ‘cereal free’. So why are cereals problematic? Our modern cereals were derived from grasses. Surely horses should be able to tolerate them, then?

The cereal grain is composed of the husk, the germ and the endosperm. Flour is made from the endosperm. Let’s explain it taking the example of wheat. The more of the husk you take away the whiter the flour is and the more you leave, the darker the flour is. Flour with a high quantity of husk and thus roughage is called wholegrain flour. Roughage is simply a fibre. Even in the human intestine microbes are responsible for breaking down these parts of the grain. The husk (fruit and seed coats) contains the highest quantity of minerals in the grain (up to 40%) and the majority of roughage. These high-protein and high-mineral outer layers are an important element of a horse’s natural diet. The germ is the embryo that grows into a new plant. It contains everything necessary to root and grow. The germ is the most nutritious part of the grain. It only accounts for 2-3% of the grain’s weight but contains around 26% of its total protein. This part of the grain provides the horse with essential and easily digestible nutrients.

The husk and germ are called the bran. The endosperm contains almost 100% of the grain’s starch (sugar) and shouldn’t be fed. Horses have problems digesting the endosperm, not the bran. Lavisano contains this bran.

Finally, barley is a very special kind of cereal.

It is the most easily digestible and contains the most nutrients, so it’s surprising that it has lost all significance in our modern diet. Since barley is complex to process for human consumption and its lack of gluten makes it unsuitable for baking, it has virtually disappeared from our diet and is almost exclusively found in animal feed. It was recently rediscovered as a ‘super food’. There are many different varieties of barley. The LAVISANO products naturally don’t contain feed barley! Only very small quantities of the variety that is suitable for human consumption are used.