Winter Horse Feeding

North Carolina is known for mild winters; however, there are still a few things that horse owners should think about in order to keep their equine friends happy and healthy during these colder months. 

It happens every year during the winter, some horses put on extra weight and some start to look too skinny.  The best way to tell if your horse is getting enough food (or too much) is to monitor their Body Condition Score (BCS).  Most horses require 1.5 – 2 % of their body weight in forages and feed a day to maintain the proper BCS (which most experts agree is a 5 on a scale from 1 to 9).  This means that for a 1,000 pound animal, they will need to consume 15-20 pounds a day.  Of course, a majority of that should come from forages.  Horses that are “easy keepers” may require a little less to maintain their BCS and older horses, horses with certain medical problems or those that are just plain harder to keep may require a little more to stay at their ideal weight.  Likewise, horses that are kept in a stall during the colder winter months might not need as much as horses that are on pasture all winter.  The following article from the University of Maine describes body condition scoring and what to look for when doing so.  The main thing is to just be aware of your horse’s BCS and how it changes throughout the winter. 

http://umaine.edu/publications/1010e/

 

With all this talk on feeding, don’t forget the water!  Cooler months usually lead to periods of inactivity, changes in diet and drinking less water than normal.  All of these have the tendency to raise the incidence of impaction colic.  A typical horse should drink between 8-12 gallons of fresh water a day to ensure that the normal bodily functions continue to stay “normal”.  Horses like their water between 45-65°F and free of ice.  This is often hard to do during the coldest months of the year.  To guarantee that your horse’s water is adequate, check buckets at least twice a day, emptying the icy cold water and replacing it with fresh, warmer water.  If twice a day water checks are not feasible, then you may want to check into some automatic de-icers.  Most experts advise that you continue to offer access to free choice mineral/salt blocks throughout the winter months, as this will also increase their intake of water.

For more information on winter feeding, body condition scoring your animal or anything else mentioned in this post, please don’t hesitate to contact your local Cooperative Extension Center.     

So I Tested My Hay. . .Now What?

You had your hay tested to make sure it will meet the nutritional needs of your animals . . .now what?  What do all those numbers mean?  Hopefully this will help!

Dry Matter (DM) is the amount of dry matter in the forage.  It should be at least 80% but 85% and above is preferable to prevent heating during storage, forage deterioration and combustion.

Crude Protein (CP) is the amount of Nitrogen.  It varies depending on species, stage of maturity and fertilization but is generally between 15-23% for legumes and 8-18% for grasses.

Unavailable Protein is the portion of protein that is bound and therefore un-useable by the animal.  Small percentages of unavailable protein are normal.

Adjusted Crude Protein is the value used to evaluate the forage and balance rations.  It will usually be the same as the Crude Protein value, unless significant heat damage has occurred.

Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) uses 2 of the fiber components of the cell wall - lignin and cellulose, to determine how well the animal will be able to digest the forage.  The higher the ADF, the lower the digestibility will be. 

Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) is the total cell wall – lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose and is used to determine how much dry matter the animal can eat.  As NDF increases, the dry matter intake usually decreases.  This could affect the ability of the equine to eat enough feed to meet the daily nutritional requirements.

Digestive Energy (DE) is just a hint of what the actual amount of energy the animal has available for use might be.  It is the gross energy in the forage minus the energy that is lost in feces. 

Total Digestive Nutrients (TDN) is the sum of the digestible portions of protein, fat, fiber and other nutrients and gives us an approximate energy value of a forage.  The higher the TDN, the better quality forage.

Non Fiber Carbohydrates (NFC) is the measure of the starch and simple sugars in a forage.  These are particularly important for horses that are prone to laminitis and those that are insulin resistant.

Ash is the total mineral content of the forage.  This includes the minerals inside the plant (internal) and those that are in the dirt picked up during the harvesting process (external). The average internal ash for legumes is around 8% and 6% for grasses, anything more would be from the external sources (dirt/soil accumulated during harvesting, raking and baling).  The average ash content for all types of hay is between 9-10%.

Minerals are essential to the health and wellbeing of all animals.  Most feed reports analyze forages for Calcium, Phosphorus, Sulfur, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Copper, Iron, Manganese and Zinc.  The daily recommended values of these minerals will change depending on age, weight and activity level so you should check with your veterinarian or local extension agent after receiving your results to see if your forage will meet these needs.

For more information about how to test your hay and interpret the report, contact your local livestock agent.