I recently tried whole oat groats for the first time and discovered, much to my delight, that I love them. It is the tastiest hot breakfast cereal that I have ever eaten, and I just love the chewy texture. I’ve been eating them every morning now, with soy milk and a little sugar and cinnamon. Now I’m even craving them for lunch! When I first decided that I wanted to try whole oats, I bought a 7-pound box from Bob’s Red Mill for $10.16 plus $9.29 shipping. They will also sell me a 25-pound bag for $16.13 plus $14.45 shipping. Neither one will break the bank, of course. The bag works out to about $1.20/pound, or about 27 cents for a 100-gram (dry weight) serving. But I can probably get a 50 or 100 pound sack at the local feed store for probably half that or even less. Is there any reason why I can’t or shouldn’t eat oat groats intended for horse consumption? Before anybody states the obvious, I would rinse the groats thoroughly before cooking. It seems to me that it might even be advantageous to buy horse groats as opposed to human groats, because the horse groats might be treated with compounds intended to retard insect infestation, which would give me extended protection against grain weevils and pantry moths. The only problem I can foresee is that the groats might be an inferior market class, and might not be as satisfying as a high-grade product, but that’s just conjecture. However, is there any chemical reason why I shouldn’t eat them?
Missed the edit window. Another possible issue which comes to mind is that the standards for allowable amounts of foreign matter in grains intended for animal consumption are probably a lot more relaxed than those intended for human consumption. I might find a lot of bugs/bug parts, rodent hairs, etc. in equine feed that I of course wouldn’t encounter in food packaged for human use. Is this the case? Can any horse owners offer some insight?
As far as I have ever observed, horse oats are not hulled. The are often sold whole, but at most they are crimped (the outer hull is pierced), and more often rolled. But I would be surprised if your feed store sells 50lb bags of actual groats.
Could be wrong of course! The feed store is a strange and miraculous place.
Oh crap—I think you’re right, as indicated by the first paragraph on this page. I’ll keep digging, though.
You might want to consider steel-cut oats (oat groats that have been chopped up a bit). I get them from a local store for $.79/lb in small quantities (around 2 lbs at a time).
Yeah, I was thinking of trying those next. But there’s just something about the inherent chewiness of the whole groats that really appeals to me. I just finished eating a bowl right now. 
Look out for supplemented feed. The mineral and whatever maybe too much for a human.
In addition to the concerns already raised, there’s the one I use to keep the kids at work from sampling the horse feed:
“Feed stores and the companies that make horse fees are not, as a general rule, overly concerned about the pest levels in their storage areas. Therefore, you will notice a high amount of rodents anywhere said food is contained. Did you know that rats and mice expel bodily fluids nearly constantly, including on whatever they’re eating?”
The kids usually take a second to think about this, then get :eek: , then never, ever try to eat the feed.
Now, keeping them from licking the salt blocks is a lot more of a challenge.
Having worked for a feed company at one time, I know that it’s not unusual to sample the feeds from time to time.
It may be safe, but it’s going to be digestively unpleasant to make a steady diet of it.
I’ve sampled it before, when I owned a horse. It was inoffensive enough and I suffered no ill effects, but I sure wouldn’t want to make a steady diet of it. My horse liked it, though.
Perhaps it’s best to let horses eat food prepared for horses; and as a human, to eat oats etc. prepared for humans.
No, I didn’t know that. I still don’t know it. Can you give us a cite, please?
Because I’ve never heard it before.
- Not from a friend who has kept pet rats for over 20 years.
- Not from another friend who has managed a research lab containing hundreds of mice & rats used in medical tests.
(But it was probably a good story to tell the kids at your workplace)
This is not a cite. It is an anecdote.
I have owned mice and rats. The mice–all of them–did pretty much pee all the time. Whenever I was playing with a mouse, it would pee on me. If I put it in the mouse ball (which was an exercise thing) I always had to clean pee out of the mouse ball. Poop, too, but mostly pee.
Now it could have just been that the mice were scared when being handled. They didn’t seem scared, and in fact would walk right into my hand, but it’s possible they were secretly terrified–I wouldn’t blame them.
The rats, not so much, although hand-washing after handling them was also a given.
I also had horses and tried the horse chow. What I was feeding mine at the time looked kind of like granola and had molasses in it, along with oats and corn and barley. Smelled really good. Very, very chewy, though. Obviously it did not kill me.
I also sampled the wafers I fed to my fish. Good god, what was wrong with me?:eek: And yet I was known as a picky eater!
ETA: I even tried dog food. It looked good. It made gravy! Never tried cat food, though. At least I preserved some sense there.