As part of nutritional management of horses you need to know the dietary intake of the horses that you manage. As part of the practical class requirements you will undertake pasture evaluation, collection and analysis. Based on these calculations you will determine the daily requirement for lacating mares and determine any supplementary feeding required in addition to the pasture that is available to the mares. A detailed document for this assessment will be provided at the practical class.

Professors comments

files updated The excel is the data we collect from our feeding paddock, and the data is not completed calculated, you have to calculate and have the mean value of each group of data, then compare to the " Feeding value of pastures for horses", and have a discussion (see the detail in "ANIM3030/7117 Equine Nutrition and Health (Internal and External) 2018") Its like a lab report, and here is the instruction PRACTICAL CLASSES In these practical classes you will undertake a number of activities to assess the quality of pastures. 1. Pasture collection Samples will be collected from two different pastures used to graze horses. From these you should be able to determine an estimate of the quantity of pasture available on a per hectare basis. 2. Chemical analysis of pasture and concentrate samples The samples will be analysed for dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ash, acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and minerals. From the raw data given in the sheets provided, complete the calculations for the different nutrient classes. This data will give a good assessment of the quality of the pasture. 3. Calculate the daily ration for a lactating mare Calculate the nutrient content of the pasture and concentrate. Estimate the amount of available pasture and the daily feed intake of mares with foals at foot that are aged 1 to 4 weeks. We will assume that we have samples a 2h paddock and base our calculation on that. Determine how many mares with foals at foot you could reasonably graze on each of the 2 paddocks. You have a concentrate available. If you do feed this how much would you feed and what time of day? Should minerals be supplemented? Assume that the mares have free access to pasture, weigh 500kg, are in the 1st month of lactation and you need to maintain them at the same body condition score.