How Feeding Teff Grass Pellets Can Help You and Your Horse

May 19, 2020

Teff (Eragrostis tef) is a warm season annual grass that originated in Africa where it is used primarily for grain production. Teff in the USA is grown primarily as a forage crop for livestock; it’s adaptable and can grow in various environments.

Fine stemmed, fast growing, and high yielding, Teff Grass is a summer annual grass. What really makes this grass unique and exciting for horse owners, is its nutrient content. Teff is a “C4 Warm Season” grass with a moderate protein and calories, but with a low sugar and starch content.

Teff Grass Pellets offer a solution to many issues that plague our horses in these modern times. As a high fiber, low sugar and starch forage, horse owners with horses suffering from many disease conditions can rest easy knowing that this product is now available. Quality Teff Grass can be difficult to find, but with Teff Grass Pellets now available from Standlee Premium Western Forage®, horse owners will no longer struggle to find a low sugar forage they can count on, that is of high-quality and consistently grown, for their horses with a number of ailing conditions.

1. Teff Grass Forage Pellets for horses are a nutritional solution for horses challenged with sugar/starch sensitivities such as those diagnosed with: Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS), Insulin Resistance (IR), Cushing’s Disease, Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy (PSSM) and Laminitis.
   
   To nutritionally manage horses with metabolic issues such as Insulin Resistance and Cushing’s Disease, we want to avoid feeds that are high in sugar and starch. Since much of the sugar and starch intake of a horse originates from forage (pasture and/or hay), feeding a low sugar and starch hay is critical to their digestive systems and Teff Grass Pellets fit the bill.
2. Teff Grass provides the horse with plenty of fiber, making the horse satisfied and full, but because of the low sugar and starch content, it does not fuel weight gain like many other forages may. Teff Grass Pellets are an ideal feed source, for overweight horses as well.
3. Replacing baled grass hay with Teff Grass Forage Pellets eliminates the added chore of soaking hay in water to reduce the sugar content for horses with sugar sensitivities. It also eliminates the time, hassle and expense of nutritionally testing multiple batches of hay to find a source suitable for your sugar sensitive horse.
4. Research has shown Teff forages to be palatable in comparison to other forages.

With the addition of Teff Grass Pellets, Standlee Premium Western Forage provides full line of forage/fiber solutions to meet the needs of all your horses. Visit standleeforage.com/products for additional information including Standlee’s full product line, feeding instructions and guaranteed analyses by product and animal type and other helpful nutritional tools and papers.

By Dr. Tania Cubitt
Standlee Nutritional Expert - Performance Horse Nutrition

---

Scientific Reference

McCown, S., M. Brummer, S. Hayes, G. Olson, S.R. Smith Jr, L. Lawrence. (2012). Acceptability of Teff Hay by Horses. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science. 32:327-331.