The Stable Secretary Blog

Tips to Organize Your Feed Room

The feed room is a vital part of a horse facility. It’s a place visited at least twice a day (although usually more) by a farm manager and staff. Whether your feed room is a corner of your garage or a full room in your barn, keeping things neat and tidy is important to ensuring every horse receives the proper nutrition in each meal. Here are a few tips to organize your feed room:

Have a Central Command Station 

Time is a precious commodity for farm workers, and no one wants to waste it digging around in the feed room trying to sort out which horse gets what food and where to locate it. Because feeding incorrectly can have detrimental health effects in your horses, prioritize setting up your feed room right! Establish a central command station where you can easily view your feed list (more on this later) and reach each individual horse’s bucket. You should ensure this area is well lit, and preferably add a small table or flat surface to place things as you work since this will be your primary location for mixing and measuring.

A Place for Everything, Everything In Its Place

Around the feed room, you should group similar items either by type (all supplements in one location, all medications in another) or by horse. However you choose to organize the room, be sure to use the right storage solutions for each group of items. Everything should be stored in sealable containers to prevent attracting bugs and rodents. 

Create a Master Feed List

Every horse has different nutritional needs, which means you’ll need a master list that covers what grain, supplements and medication should be fed at every meal. You can set this up however you like, but it should be placed in an easy-to-view location near your command station, list every horse on the property, and be updated as horse needs change.

Label Everything

The moment an individual horse’s grain, supplement, or medication enters the feed room, it should have a label with the horse’s name added to it (along with administering instructions if needed). This will prevent any issues with owners worrying that their items are being used for another horse, and will make it easier for those feeding to determine which items belong to which horse and how to feed it appropriately. 

Train Your Staff

When new staff members arrive, take time to show them where everything is located and explain how to add or remove items as horses come and go. Having them help you or another experienced staff member during feeding will give them the opportunity to see how things are done and where items are located. This will prevent new staff from having to dig around in the feed room when they’re feeding alone, which could potentially result in items getting moved from their place. 

Institute a Cleaning Schedule

Take a few minutes every week to tidy up and remember to do a deep clean every couple of months to toss old supplements or feed, sweep out under tables and containers, and update any documentation.

Let Technology Help!

StableSecretary can help make feed time simpler. Add updates to horses’ diets in the health records section so staff members can easily make note of the changes. You can also add a scheduled task for tidying the feed room to ensure it is done regularly.