Stock & Stable or Select Stock? How These Two Nutrena Feeds Differ

By Theresa Gibilisco, owner, The Hungry Puppy

This one comes up at the counter more than you'd think: "What's the difference between Stock & Stable and Select Stock?" The bags sit near each other, they're both Nutrena, they're both sweet feeds, and the names sound like cousins. But they're built for different barns.

The short answer: Stock & Stable is a 12% feed built around horses. One version is for horses only, and one version is for horses plus other livestock. Select Stock is a 16% feed for cattle, sheep and goats, with no added copper, and it isn't labeled for horses.

Here's the longer version, so you can pick the right bag the first time.

The three bags, side by side

Stock & Stable 12% Textured: the horse bag

Nutrena Stock & Stable 12% Textured Horse Feed is an everyday, value priced sweet feed for horses. If you've been with us a while, you may remember it as Triumph Select Textured. It's meant for mature horses doing anything from standing around the paddock to working hard.

Nutrena's feeding rates, in pounds of feed per 100 lb of body weight per day:

• Maintenance: 0.5 to 0.7
• Light exercise: 0.7 to 0.9
• Moderate exercise: 0.9 to 1.1
• Heavy exercise: 1.2 to 1.5

So a 1,000 lb horse in light work gets about 7 to 9 lb a day, split into two or more meals, along with 1.5 to 2 lb of good hay per 100 lb of body weight. Change over to it slowly, across 5 to 7 days.

The thing to remember: this is a horse feed. The tag lists copper sulfate in the minerals, at levels meant for horses. That's exactly why it doesn't belong in a sheep's bucket.

Stock & Stable 12% Multi-Species: for the barn with a little of everything

Nutrena Stock & Stable 12% Multi-Species Sweet Feed is the "one bag for the whole barn" option. Nutrena describes it as a convenient, value priced feed for livestock and horses, made as a supplement to pasture and hay for maintenance horses, beef cattle, goats and sheep.

A few honest notes before you buy it for everyone:

• Feed each species its own amount. The tag attached to the bag has the feeding instructions. A horse and a pygmy goat do not eat the same scoop.
• Read the tag before it goes to sheep. Nutrena doesn't post this feed's guaranteed analysis online, so the copper number is on the tag, not on a website. If you can't find it or aren't sure, ask us and we'll read it with you.
• It's a supplement, not a whole diet. Hay or pasture is still the main meal for every animal in that barn.

Select Stock 16%: built for cattle, sheep and goats

Nutrena Country Feeds Select Stock 16% Feed is a different animal, so to speak. It's a multipurpose feed for mixed herds of cattle, sheep and goats. It has molasses for taste, 16% protein, and, the big one, no added copper. Nutrena calls it ideal for sheep for that reason.

Why that matters: sheep are vulnerable to copper toxicity. Oregon State University Extension notes that when cattle, sheep and goats share a pasture, a mineral mix without copper is usually fed to the whole group because of the sheep. The flip side is that cattle and goats do need copper, so a copper free ration can leave them short. Oregon State's suggestion is to give goats their own goat mineral somewhere the sheep can't reach.

Two more things from Nutrena's directions:

• Feed by weight, not by volume. Weigh your scoop full and subtract the scoop.
• It's not meant to be the only feed. It's designed for animals on free choice pasture or quality hay, with fresh water and free choice salt.

And it is not labeled for horses. If you keep a horse in the same barn, store Select Stock where the horse can't help himself.

Is any of these medicated?

No. None of the three is a medicated feed. If you need coccidiosis prevention for young stock, that's a different bag, and it's species specific: the 16% Pelleted Goat Feed Medicated for goat kids, or the 16% Pelleted Sheep Feed Medicated for lambs. The sheep one contains Bovatec, which can be fatal to horses, so it never goes near the horse side of the barn.

When I'd pick one over the other

• Horses only: Stock & Stable 12% Textured Horse Feed.
• A horse or two plus a couple of goats or a steer, no sheep: Stock & Stable Multi-Species, fed to each animal by its tag directions.
• Sheep anywhere in the picture: Select Stock, or a sheep feed. Keep horse feed and goat feed away from them.
• Cattle, sheep and goats together on pasture: Select Stock, with a goat mineral where only the goats can get it.
• Milking does or pet wethers: honestly, neither. I'd point you to the 17% Textured Goat Feed, which is labeled for lactating does and includes ammonium chloride for urinary health. Just not for sheep.

Questions we get about these two

Can horses eat Select Stock?

It isn't labeled for horses, so I wouldn't feed it to them. Use a horse feed, or the Multi-Species bag if you want one feed across the barn.

Is Stock & Stable safe for sheep?

The horse version, no. It's a horse feed with added copper. The Multi-Species version lists sheep among the animals it's made for, but read the tag for the copper level and the sheep directions before you switch.

Which one has more protein?

Select Stock, at 16% versus 12% for both Stock & Stable bags. More protein isn't automatically better, though. A maintenance horse doesn't need what a growing lamb does.

Can either one be the whole diet?

No. All three are meant to be fed with hay or pasture. Forage first, then the feed.

Getting it to your barn

All three are 50 lb bags, and our own trucks bring them out Tuesday through Friday on your town's route day, free with a $20 minimum, across Monmouth County and parts of Ocean, Middlesex and Mercer. Check your day on our farm feed delivery page, or call us at 732-938-4470 and tell us who's in your barn. We'll help you sort out the right bag.