Episode Notes
On this episode, co-hosts Dr. Tania Cubitt and Katy Starr, along with the other half of PHN, guest expert Dr. Stephen Duren – the first time they’ve joined forces on the Beyond the Barn podcast! They break down “the why” for Standlee’s packaging updates and improvements, including three key changes on the front of the packaging that will undoubtedly help horse and livestock owners better understand what they see on their farm and ranch retail store shelf and what they’re buying for their animals.
Also, if you’ve ever wondered how long the storage and shelf life is of Standlee’s forage products, what a “date code” is and where to find it, they cover it in this episode.
Need some one-on-one nutrition answers from a PhD equine nutritionist? You might be surprised to find out you have this exclusive experience offering if you buy Standlee products.
Have any topics you want to hear more about? Let us know at podcast@standlee.com.
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Additional Resources –
- ~9:46 – Interactive packaging tool - https://www.standleeforage.com/products/packaging-tour/alfalfa/
- ~18:58 – Ep 19: Protecting National Lands with Certified Noxious Weed Free Forage and Straw - https://www.standleeforage.com/podcast/episodes/ep-0019-protecting-national-lands-with-certified-noxious-weed-free-forage-and-straw/
- ~24:34 – Feed Calculator to assist with building horse feeding diets (contact your veterinarian or nutritionist before making any drastic changes to their feed program) - https://www.standleeforage.com/tools/feed-calculator/
- ~26:05 – Feeding Instructions - https://www.standleeforage.com/nutrition/feeding-instructions/
- ~27:39 – Ep 25: How to Plan for Hay Needs and Useful Storage Tips to Avoid Hay Loss - https://www.standleeforage.com/podcast/episodes/ep-025-how-to-plan-for-hay-needs-and-useful-storage-tips-to-avoid-hay-loss/
- ~31:57 – Standlee website for more information – standlee.com
- ~32:31 – Reach out to Customer Service at customerservice@standlee.com or 1-800-398-0819
Read more about the changes to Standlee’s product packaging –
- “New Look, Same Great Product” blog post – https://www.standleeforage.com/standlee-barn-bulletin/standlee-new-look-packaging/
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- Check out the Standlee Barn Bulletin Blog
- Find more nutritional resources from Dr. Stephen Duren and Dr. Tania Cubitt at https://www.standleeforage.com/nutrition/
- Connect with Standlee on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok
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- *Views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Standlee Premium Products, LLC.*
Katy Starr (00:01):
Hi, I'm Katy.
Dr. Tania Cubitt (00:02):
And I'm Dr. Cubitt. We're going Beyond the Barn. Come join us on this journey as we bust equine and livestock nutrition myths and interview some of the most intriguing experts in the country.
Katy Starr (00:15):
We'll go behind the scenes of how premium Western quality forage is grown and brought to your favorite farm and ranch retail store. We're so glad you're here.
Welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Barn. Today in the studio I have both Dr. Duren and Dr. Cubitt with us to talk about something fun that's happening with Standlee.
Dr. Stephen Duren (00:40):
Thanks for having us, Katy.
Dr. Tania Cubitt (00:41):
Yeah, excited to be back.
Katy Starr (00:43):
So just before we get started, I do wanna remind our listeners that any of the topics that we cover on the Beyond the Barn Podcast are more generalized and not specific to any individual horse or any specific situation. Be sure to always work with your veterinarian and nutritionist before making any drastic changes to your horses' feed program, or you're more than welcome to reach out to us to talk directly with Dr. Cubitt or Dr. Duren on any specifics that you would like to know. And today I'm really excited about this conversation because although we have some big changes happening with Standlee and our new rebrand, many of you have probably already seen the new packaging that is out on shelves. We really wanted to kind of take this opportunity to share why some of these changes were made and the fact that it was with the horse owner, livestock owner, whatever animal that you own, we're making these changes with you in mind to help make your buying experience easier and to help you know what forage product or what other type of product is best for your animal or best suited for your animal.
Katy Starr (01:57):
And just to kind of get us started, I do kind of want to talk a little bit about Dr. Duren and Dr. Cubitt, how they're involved in this space with us and the company that you guys have and how it works with us. But Dr. Duren, could you kind of just start us off with speaking on what inspired you, first of all to start performance horse nutrition and what does your team do?
Dr. Stephen Duren (02:23):
Yeah, so the vision, if you will, behind Performance Horse Nutrition is there's a large gap between what is being actually studied or the research that's going on at universities and private research facilities to what translates or what technology actually occurs in a bag. So Performance Horse Nutrition was formed to short circuit that system. In the other words, to bring that technology to feeds quicker so that your horse can be healthier, your horse can have more longevity, be better from a competition standpoint and be healthier. But we wanted to advance the science and bring those changes to the end user and ultimately to your horse faster.
Katy Starr (03:05):
Excellent. And Dr. Cubitt, so you came on board with Dr. Duren and Performance Horse Nutrition. You had the opportunity to go any which way. So what kind of inspired you to kind of take the leap and jump on board with Performance Horse Nutrition?
Dr. Tania Cubitt (03:23):
Yeah, Katy, I think that in this line of education, it's kind of two directions you can go. You can either go work in a university and be a professor or work with the general public and horse owners. And that called to me more than working in a university. I really like taking the science and being able to explain it to different people, be it a veterinarian or a kid in 4-H and seeing that recognition that they understand what you're talking about, helping horses, you know, every little girl wants to be a veterinarian, but I ended up going down this nutrition path and feel like I can help a lot of horses through nutrition and their owners. Because really when you help a horse, you're helping their owners as well.
Katy Starr (04:05):
Right. And I'm asking you this question Dr. Duren, because you all have been working with Standlee since before I was here, and I've been with Standlee for about seven years now, working with you guys on our nutrition education and all of that. But how long has Standlee worked with Performance Horse Nutrition?
Dr. Stephen Duren (04:25):
So coming up in September, we will cross our 11th year anniversary. So 2012 is when we initially started our consulting arrangement and helping Standlee with their products.
Katy Starr (04:37):
Excellent. I think it's been, at least for the time that I've been here, I know that I have found a lot of value in having you guys on our team and working with us. And I think that's something that adds a lot of value to what we do as well for animal owners, livestock owners, just knowing and understanding that we know how important it is that you feed your animals the best that you can. And by doing that, we put performance horse nutrition on our team with us to support you in that. So I'm really excited that you guys are with us and helping us along to support the Standlee community and customers and everything. So Dr. Duren, as PhD Nutrition Consultants, you guys have the choice of who you take on as clients. And so why do you choose to work with Standlee?
Dr. Stephen Duren (05:29):
Well, with any of our clients, what Dr. Cubitt and myself look for is a company that is truly trying to get better, truly trying to do the best they can and improve their product line, whether it be forages or grain type products with added vitamins and minerals. We want that company and we select that company for one that that wants to do better, that wants to do better for the horse, wants to do better for the end user. And Standlee grew tremendous forage, but they had very little market awareness at that time. And so my initial look with Standlee was to help show the people from a scientific standpoint why these forages are better, why these forages are healthy and that, as I said earlier, has turned into an 11 year relationship.
Katy Starr (06:17):
And Dr. Cubitt, from your perspective, what do you see that Standlee does from growing the products and all of that compared to what you see from other, I guess could be hay growers or smaller producers or things like that? What do you see from Standlee that you value that we do?
Dr. Tania Cubitt (06:38):
I mean, Katy, I think I piggyback on what Dr. Duren said and that we choose companies to work with that hold our same philosophy. They want to get better, they want to to do that using science and technology. And we do this podcast, I am always talking about how Standlee grows hay scientifically. It is every part of the growth phase, whether it be fertilizing or when to cut, harvesting techniques and storage techniques. It's all top of the line. But I think what you and I have done over our time is the education. We've done any number of different types of education, it's always the same content, but I'm proud of the fact that we are constantly evolving. We're constantly changing to what the consumers are demanding and the way that they accept information. And I think we're getting really good feedback. We've done webinars in the past, we've done in-person meetings and now to the podcast. So I think that I like that Standlee is constantly evolving and improving to keep up with what consumers are demanding.
Katy Starr (07:53):
Well, and one of those things is just knowing and understanding that people all receive information differently, right?Some people prefer to just read a blog post. Some people love listening to a podcast, some might enjoy watching some videos. And so from my seat, I guess how I look at that is cause there is so much information that you guys help us, like you said, from the scientific point of trying to take that scientific research and relay that to the livestock or horse owner, that's what I just really love being able to do with you guys, is taking that information and how can we reach more people? Because at the end of the day, that's what I want to see. I want to see that we're all out there with our animals, spending more time with our animals, less time worrying and having to take care of them from different ailments or diseases or things that are coming up.
Katy Starr (08:48):
If there are ways that we can just really set them up for success to begin with. I mean that's what I love to be able to do. So I'm happy that we can work with you guys to do that. And so while today's discussion involves obviously our Standlee rebrand, which is visual, it's going to be a little bit difficult I think to convey on a podcast, but we are going to have some supported material, visual material that we're going to put together and we're going to link that in our show notes that you guys can check out whenever it's convenient for you. And so as I mentioned, our goal with this packaging update is we really want to be able to give you confidence to know that what you're buying for your animals, when you see our Standlee products on the shelf at your favorite farm and ranch retail store.
Katy Starr (09:34):
We just want you to have that confidence when you go in there that you know what you're going to be buying for them and you know that it's the right type of forage for them. And so we currently have this really neat interactive tool that's on the website where you can actually select the forage type and then it has a slider where you can see the old packaging compared to the new packaging and then click to see some of the key benefits of that particular product. So if you have not had a chance to check that out, I really, really loved that when I saw that. And so if you just go to www.standlee.com, you can find that and see some of those comparisons. But as we kind of get started, we'll just get going on kind of the front of the packaging and some of the things that we've made adjustments to and why we've made those adjustments.
Katy Starr (10:22):
So the most recognizable change that you'll see on our packaging is the color scheme. And that color scheme before was associated with the form of the forage. So when I say form, I mean pellets or cubes or chopped, but we've changed that to be associated with the type of hay that you are wanting to buy. So now that color scheme that you'll be looking at is going to be associated with alfalfa is kind of like a medium green type of color. Teff grass is this golden orange, timothy grass is navy, orchardgrass is burgundy, alfalfa timothy is like a light teal color. And then alfalfa oat is lavender. So Dr. Cubitt, can you speak on a little bit why it's important for this change of format versus type and why we're looking more at the type of hay?
Dr. Tania Cubitt (11:21):
Well, I think that it again comes from our consumers. And I want to point out this is a visual update. The same great ingredients, the same great pellets, cubes, chopped is in the bag. This is a visual update to make it easier for our consumers to recognize and grab the bag that you want. So in the past when pellets were a certain color, well, we have teff grass pellets and we have alfalfa pellets and timothy pellets, which are all for different categories of horses. And so especially if you're sending someone off to the store to buy your product and they just pick up pellets, it was easy to get confused. We're taking a lot of the confusion out. If you come home with a yellow golden bag, it's teff. Green, alfalfa. So it's much easier for the consumer. Everybody's busy, to run in, recognize the product type you want, look a little harder, you'll see pellets, cubes or shreds or chopped, the form. But it really is just to keep it much simpler for our consumers.
Katy Starr (12:26):
And very basically for anybody who may just be listening to this episode and haven't listened in or tuned into the podcast before Dr. Cubitt, would you just briefly touch on, for example, why if you're feeding your horse teff grass and you grab alfalfa, depending on your horse and the situation, what's kind of a scenario where you wouldn't want to be grabbing different types or "oh, I ran out of this, I'll just go grab whatever they have at the store."
Dr. Tania Cubitt (12:52):
But at the very basic level, it's making a rapid feeding change, right? Teff grass is a little lower in protein and calories and something like alfalfa, good quality, but higher protein content and energy. And so those bugs that live in the hindgut, you make a rapid feeding change, and you might see a little digestive upset, dig a little deeper. And alfalfa may be perfect for growing horses, horses that need to gain weight, but not necessarily great for a fat pony because it does have a little extra calories than something like teff. So takes out the confusion. We all know that even when you go to buy your feed, oh I buy the pink bag, I buy brand X and it's the pink bag or it's the black bag or the blue bag. And now we can do that same thing with the Standlee products.
Katy Starr (13:40):
So another thing that we've changed on the front of the bag that we've added to it is what we call benefit icons. So these benefit icons are specific to each forage, and we want to kind of give just a visual representation to what is in this bag. If you’re trying to, maybe you're going for the first time and looking at it and you're just not sure why would I feed this type of forage? So Dr. Duren, would you touch on a little bit about these benefit icons and some of these that we've added to the packaging?
Dr. Stephen Duren (14:12):
Yes, absolutely. So what we were trying to accomplish there was we were trying to give the consumer the ability to look at the front of the bag and with some of these limited benefit icons kind of match the benefit with their horse. Is this something that their horse would benefit from? So for instance, we have products that will have a benefit icon that says carb sensitive. Meaning if you have a horse that is, has one of the carbohydrate related diseases or a disease that's made worse with a high carbohydrate intake, you can simply look for a bag that says, hey, this is a product that works for carbohydrate sensitive horses. Another one we often use is we often use is called senior friendly. In other words, that means that this product is not only nutritionally appropriate for a senior horse, but also the physical form is appropriate. In other words, it could be a pellet and a pellet has already been ground and then formed into a pellet. So in essence, it's already chewed for the horse. You simply have to wet it and even a horse with poor dentition can eat it. So we went through, and we assigned some benefit icons to each and every product, again totally to make the consumer help match what that product will do with the condition or the need of that particular horse.
Katy Starr (15:36):
Excellent, thank you. So another addition that we have on the front of the packaging, which I think is really nice because obviously you can read some of the verbiage that is on the packaging, but just to have a nice visual indicator, we've added this forage form visual indicator on the front of the packaging. So that just shows you what form that package is. We have a picture on the pellets, there's just a handful of pellets that are pictured there. Same for the cubes, chopped, just so you know easily just by visually looking quickly, you can see what's in that bag. And of course, I should probably note that it's not to actual size, so don't be looking at the picture and comparing it and thinking that it is the exact size as what's in the bag. But that's kind of a nice visual indicator that we've added on the front. Another thing that we've done is add our nutritional highlights, which Dr. Cubitt, if you wouldn't mind speaking on a little bit about those nutritional highlights that we've added on the different hay types.
Dr. Tania Cubitt (16:38):
Yeah, Katy, the nutritional highlights or what people would've typically seen in a guaranteed analysis. We've got crude protein, crude fiber, and crude fat, is now just right there on the front of the packaging. And what I want to point out is none of the information that is on the bag is new. This information just maybe was hidden on the back, or it's been on the website, or it's been in marketing materials. But the most important information for our consumers to make buying decisions, we collected it all, simplified it into, some into graphics, and we've put it right there on the front of the bag to make it a lot easier to make that buying decision. We know that the three things that people use as criteria, number one is the type of horse they have. Is he old? Is he young? Does he have some carbohydrate issues?
Dr. Tania Cubitt (17:31):
Is it going to be palatable? That's the first kind of criteria they use to buy a product. And then it's the form it comes in, maybe I like pellets, maybe I like cubes, chopped. They want to know what form it comes in. And then third is the fiber, really the crude protein and then the fiber content and the fat is listed there. Fat is always going to be relatively low in forage products, but those are the three criteria that people make their buying decisions on. So the most important ones are right there on the front.
Katy Starr (18:04):
The other thing that we have on certain products that you will see, there are these feature badges. So for like Flock Fresh, you'll see a zeolite badge. For our organic alfalfa, you'll see that there is an organic badge on there as well. And then for our certified noxious weed-free products, there's a handful of those that we have. There is also that badge on there. So it's easy to identify what that product is, so you know, if you're needing to go buy that specific type of product for what you're using it for, you can easily identify that's what that product is separating it from maybe just our regular packages. Dr. Duren, would you mind speaking on those just a little bit, particularly the certified one for those that may be unfamiliar with what that means?
Dr. Stephen Duren (18:57):
Yes. So the certified is a product that is certified noxious weed-free forage. And the way that occurs is we actually have government inspectors come out, they inspect the forage when it's growing in the field so that they can make sure there's none of these noxious weeds associated with the forage. Then when that forage is harvested, it's actually tagged and labeled so that when we put that product into a feed, it can also carry that certification with it. And the reason this is important is anytime you make a trip with a horse into federal owned ground, so into the forest, into some of the BLM ground, they require that the forage that you pack in there not be a source of noxious weeds. In other words, they don't want the noxious weeds to contaminate trailheads, the trails, ultimately the meadows in where you're going. So they require that the forage is fed at the trailhead and during that pack trip or during that ride, all be certified noxious weed-free. So this is one thing that Standlee does to make sure that we have products that fit into that category. And again, those are all certified while they're growing in the field, those forages are labeled and put aside and then utilized in the production of the certified forages.
Katy Starr (20:22):
Right. And then as we go to the back of the packaging, a lot of the same thing, like Dr. Cubitt said, a lot of this is fairly similar. The graphic look is a little bit different. Dr. Duren, if you wouldn't mind touching on what we have here. So we have our feeding instructions, which is basically for the horse feeding instructions, and then we have our animal feeding instructions as well for a few other livestock. Can you touch on what that visual look is offering for those that are buying these hay products?
Dr. Stephen Duren (20:55):
Yes. So what every product needs to have is they need to have some sort of instruction for use or some sort of feeding instruction. And so what we tried to do here was expand that and make that more of a visual of what you're trying to accomplish with a horse. So for instance, if we're feeding one of the forage products, typically the intake for a horse is anywhere between one and a half and two and a half percent of its body weight if it's a sole source of forage. So we actually showed that with a horse visual of what that horse weighed, the 2% target feeding rate and what that would be in pounds of forage a day. So we've tried to express that more visually. Again, as Dr. Cubitt mentioned earlier, the products didn't change, the feeding instructions didn't change. It's just a simple way of trying to make those easier for the horse consumer to understand and feed.
Dr. Stephen Duren (21:51):
Then we also put feeding instructions for other livestock such as goats, llamas, where we, you could do the exact same calculation and we put what the target feeding rate for those type of animals would be. We also put in a, how many days does it take to blend the animal over to a complete change in diet seven to 14 days so thatthe microbiome in whether it'll be a horse or a goat, has adequate time to adjust. So we don't have a sudden dietary change that can cause a digestive upset in those particular animals. So again, it's the same information that was buried on tags or in materials before. We've just tried to figure out a better way or an easier way to express that so that people could follow the feeding directions and be more comfortable with the correct amount of forage to feed.
Katy Starr (22:46):
And looking at this too, seeing kind of the equation layout that we have here, it is based on if you were to take this product solely and feed it 100% right. So Dr. Duren, can you speak to what if, for example, someone is maybe they buy hay locally, but they're coming and wanting to kind of supplement their horse's diet, make some improvements, give a little bit better quality hay to give more to their animals. How would you then take what we have here in the feeding instructions and make that adjustment?
Dr. Stephen Duren (23:20):
Yeah, so the instructions that we gave on the packaging is for a total replacement. Let's talk about horses. The total replacement for that horse's forage component of the diet from the Standlee Premium Western Forage. So if you were only going to feed a percentage of that, you would just downgrade that calculation if you will. For example, if you had a 1200-pound horse, if you were going to feed 2% of its body weight in forage but you were going to feed half Standlee product and half local hay, doing that calculation, you'd find that you're feeding 12 pounds of the local hay and then 12 pounds of the Standlee forage for a 1200-pound horse. So you can partially replace your local forage or your existing forage with the Standlee products. And the reason that people would do that is because of the high quality of the Standlee product, it boosts the overall quality of the forage program. And when you do that, that simply means that your horse will get more calories, will get more protein, will get just a higher quality diet. And on the website there's actually a whole tool, a forage calculator tool that shows the power of improving the forage component of the diet. And it's very useful for horses.
Katy Starr (24:43):
And also knowing when we're talking about weighing feed, cause we do get this question. And so if you're looking at maybe you have your, some of your local hay that you're feeding, but you're wanting to feed pellets or cubes, remember that a pound is a pound is a pound. So if you're looking to replace some of that, you would just weigh it out. You'd have your, like Dr. Duren said for example, that 12 pounds of the long stem hay that you have from your local hay and then just weigh out the 12 pounds of either cubes or 12 pounds of pellets before you add water and it's all hay. That's something I want people to kind of understand because sometimes with our products being in packages, they might confuse it a little bit with maybe a concentrate or some sort of grain product or something like that.
Katy Starr (25:31):
And so just understanding that you're just replacing hay with a different type of hay or a different quality of hay. And then one other thing I also wanted to mention is just because you don't see an animal listed on the feeding instructions on any of the packages does not mean that like sheep, for example on our Alfalfa Timothy Chopped, we have a horse, donkey, goat and llama, but we don't have sheep but sheep eat forage. So we will have more species listed on our website that you can be able to look for and find if you do have questions. But just know if you have an animal that consumes hay that they can consume these products as well. And then additionally on the back, not that it's anything new and Dr. Cubitt mentioned how we have our guaranteed analysis, which is our crude protein, crude fiber and fat on the front of the packaging and kind of on the side, but we also have the guaranteed analysis on the back of the bag that basically tells you what you can expect to come from this product.
Katy Starr (26:32):
And that's something unless you're getting your hay tested from your local suppliers, something like that, that is something that we do with each and every one of our products is guarantee that this product is going to meet the maximum or minimum standards that we have listed on the packaging. And no matter where you are in the country, whether you are in Washington or if you are in Virginia, or even in Wisconsin, you're going to be getting the same forage. And so that can be very beneficial for you if you are traveling and you're wanting to, like Dr. Cubitt and Dr. Duren have talked about, sometimes it can be difficult making those transitions if you run out of your hay or especially if you're on the road. This is an opportunity for you to be able to keep your feed program consistent. And so that's what that guaranteed analysis means on the back of the bag. Storage and shelf life, Dr. Cubitt, can you touch on a little bit about the storage of hay?
Dr. Tania Cubitt (27:31):
Absolutely. It's really important, especially for those folks that are buying larger quantities of hay, that they're storing it correctly out of the weather, that it's not getting rained on, that your bags aren't being accessed by rodents and chewing into them. We have a lot of our listeners when they're buying bagged pellets or cubes actually do dump their bags into another storage container. And you have to be careful depending on where you live, if you live in Florida or somewhere where it's very hot and humid to be careful that the storage container that you put the product in doesn't sweat, which would then introduce humidity and moisture to the product and increase the risk of mold. So just make sure that if you are doing that, that you are using a container that will not encourage mold or humidity to accumulate. We also though recommend that you keep track of the date code on the bag.
Dr. Tania Cubitt (28:33):
So even if you have a little clipboard beside the canisters where you're dumping your product, this really goes for any product that you're dumping out. If you have a little clipboard and you write the date code right there and so you know, and the date that it was dumped in, you know exactly if there's ever any issue, we want you to contact us. But one of the things that we will need from you to be able to track, because we've got really great traceability, but in order to trace the product in which field it was harvested in, all the way through to it landing in your store where you purchased it, we need to have that date code.
Katy Starr (29:12):
Right. The date code can be located, you should be able to find on most of the products where the UPC code is or that barcode at the bottom of the back of the bag. If you look in that area, you should see a date code listed. And this date code is not by whenit's harvested or cut, but it's actually when it was produced and packaged into that item. And so just so you kind of understand what you're looking at when you read it is, it's going to have the code is read as day, month, year, and then bag number. So you can see this for an example would be like 06-07-2023-123. And so in this example, this would be bagged July 6th, 2023 and it was the 123rd bag that was of that specific run of that product.
Katy Starr (30:06):
And so look for that. If you need to be able to find it, make sure you keep track of it if you do need it, it's always good to kind of have that mindset, just to be prepared if you need to. And then if you ever need to reach out to us, we really love to hear from you guys. If you are loving things, if you have questions, if you have concerns, some of the things that can be really helpful for our team to really get your problem solved is by knowing what the date code is on the product, when you purchased it, so the day that you purchased it, what store you purchased it at. They also need to know how it was stored and how you're feeding it. So those are some of the things that our customer service team likes to ask to kind of get to know the situation and understand what's happening with what you are doing, how you're feeding things and how it's stored. And Dr. Duren, if somebody is storing their hay well, if they're doing a good job with it, how long can we expect for shelf life for hay?
Dr. Stephen Duren (31:09):
So good quality forage stored properly, so protected from the environment and protected from potential insect or rodent damage. The shelf life of hay can be years, certainly a year, maybe even up to two years without damage. We'll have a bit of nutrition change. The protein content will be stable, the mineral content will be stable. The caloric or calorie content will be stable. The vitamin content will decline, the fat soluble vitamins. But other than that, hay when stored properly becomes almost inert.
Katy Starr (31:48):
Honestly, I think the last little bit of an update I think on the bag is we just, we have a QR code that's on the back of the packaging and it goes to our Standlee website, which is standlee.com. So if you want to look for some more information, we like to be able to make sure that the website is a useful resource and a useful tool for you. So for the things that we can't fit on the packaging, we're putting that on the website to be able to give you more information on what you might need and of course at any time. So you can feel free to reach out to our Standlee customer support team if you do have any questions that maybe you weren't able to have answered from the back of the packaging or on our website. But you can always reach out to us at customerservice@standlee.com and you can feel free to give us a call as well at 1-800-398-0819.
Katy Starr (32:43):
One thing I I also really want to make sure that we share on this episode is knowing that obviously you have an opportunity to be able to buy your hay at different places. But something I want to be able to share with you of what Standlee really sees as being valuable and hopefully helping you as horse and livestock owners and understanding is the importance of making sure not only are we producing a really high-quality, good product for you to feed to your animals, that's going to give them the nutrition that they need to live their best lives. But we also want to be able to provide a consistent product for you with that guaranteed analysis and knowing that you can buy it, whether you're in the West Coast or East Coast and wherever you may be in your travels. And then also, like Dr. Cubitt touched on in the beginning of this episode, we love being able to take this scientific research, this information that can help make improvements to the lifestyle of your animals and being able to share that with you and help you understand some of these things that could be very valuable for your animals and the health and wellbeing of them.
Katy Starr (33:54):
And so by doing that with webinars or podcasts or some of our nutritional white papers or blog posts and things like that, if there is anything that you would love to just learn more about Dr. Cubitt and I love being able to hear about topic ideas and things like that that you guys are interested in that relate to nutrition and caring for your horses. And so reach out to us at podcast@standlee.com and share those with us. If you have other questions about just caring for your animal, please feel free to reach out to us cause that's what we're here for and that's what our goal is with all of this. And on kind of a lasting note, Dr. Duren and Dr. Cubitt, do you have any other thoughts that you would like to share with our listeners?
Dr. Stephen Duren (34:38):
Yeah, I guess I should add one clarification when I was talking about the shelf life, that shelf life also goes for the pellets and cubes. So as long as that packaging is stored properly, it's not ripped or torn or again,associated with the environment or with insect or rodent damage, that's also a extended shelf life on those products as well.
Katy Starr (35:02):
Thank you, Dr. Cubitt. Anything else?
Dr. Tania Cubitt (35:05):
No, I just, I really want people to feel more comfortable making buying decisions, that they're making good buying decisions and they have the information in front of them so that they can choose the correct product for their horse. If they still are at a loss, reading the packaging, not quite sure need little help. That's what we're here for. That is what Performance Horse Nutrition brings to the table, is two PhD nutritionists that you have access to. You can contact us through the customer service folks, we can help you design a ration. We can help you pick the correct product for your horse. So we really want to be part of your team and I hope that people realize that.
Katy Starr (35:45):
Excellent. Well, thank you both for joining us on the podcast today, and I look forward to the next one.
Dr. Stephen Duren (35:51):
Thanks for having me.
Dr. Tania Cubitt (35:52):
Thank you.
Katy Starr (35:54):
Thanks for listening to The Beyond the Barn podcast by Standlee Forage. We'd love for you to share our podcast with your favorite people and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite listening platform. Until next time, keep your cinch tight and don't forget to turn off the water.
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