Teff, A Solution For Overweight Equines

I'm Susan Allen . Like people, some horses and ponies have the propensity to gain weight and like their human counterparts, this brings with it a host of health issues. Teff is becoming more and more popular especially on the West side with the horse show crowd as a forage alternative. Here is Natalie Shaw, a teff specialists with WSU. Shaw is currently looking for growers fro the 2017 season for more information on Teff contact Natalie.shaw @wsu.edu

SHAW: The need for Teff has really grown in the entire United States as more and more veterinarians are recognizing the symptoms of diseases like Cushing Syndrome and equine nutritionist are breaking those diseases apart and understanding them a lot bet and recognizing the nutrition role in those diseases and syndromes.

As a someone who has raised horses for the year the whole controlled carb concept has been relatively new.

I think in the last 12 and 15 years people have been searching for more options both on the seeded forage side for controlled carbohydrate products meaning getting away from the grain based feeds.

Some of the leading researchers on equine laminitis, EMS which is an equine metabolic syndrome, there's some statistics out there that one in five horses are at risk for laminitis so 20% of the horse population that is a great potential market for these hay growers to tap into.

It makes a great rotational crop and Shaw is currently looking for teff growers for the 2017 season for more information on growing Teff contact Natalie.shaw @wsu.edu.