Forage, such as hay and pasture, is critical for the health and wellbeing of all horses. Understanding the design, function and reliance of the horse’s digestive system on forage is the first step in appreciating the critical value of forage. Knowledge of what’s in forage, the types and physical formsRead More →
Feeding the broodmare. The feeding program of the broodmare is an important management aspect. Feeding can affect the fertility, milk production, and the skeletal development and growth of the foal. Understanding the nutritional needs of the maiden/barren, pregnant and lactating mare is essential for the development of a proper feedingRead More →
Choosing hay for horses. In the previous edition we presented an example of forage testing of four types of hays and reviewed the results of the laboratory analysis. In this last part of the series about choosing the right forage for your horse, we continue interpreting the analysis results andRead More →
Hay testing With thanks to SGS Agriculture & Food Laboratories for providing the analysis specifically for this series. Conserved forages can comprise a large part of the diet of horses; therefore, it is important to review the type and quality of all the roughage we are feeding. Last month, we providedRead More →
Choosing quality roughage. Managing your pastures to provide enough forage for your horses would be ideal; however, in reality not many horse owners have the capacity to maintain horses on pasture as well as harvesting roughage/hay to preserve for lesser times in the year. Moreover, in parts of Australia, theRead More →
In previous articles we have discussed a number of aspects relating to pasture management, and provided an overview of a number of common grass species found in horse pastures in Australia. In the Pastures for Horses series we touched briefly on non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) in the different species, but manyRead More →
