Exploring Animal Science and Nutrition focusing on Equine Nutrition & Interesting Things
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I'm a freshmen at Michigan State University. I'm interested in animal science and hoping to focus on equine nutrition. I have two horses and work on a horse farm.
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Babies, babies, and more babies
It’s that time again. At least for farms when every one is starting to calve, lamb, furrow, or foal out. Some farms actually have been having babies since January. Those people are the ones who show or are trying to get the most weight on their babies before they go to slaughter. For me it’s been a time of excitement that has dimmed to “oh my gosh when is it going to be over” type of things. Considering where I work has eight foals on the ground and one more yet to come. I’m defiantly ready for this time of year to be done. There is one good thing about this time though and that’s because I’m trying to get my mare in foal for next year. This might seem like I’m contradicting myself but I’m not, especially when it’s my mare that’s going to foal not my boss’s horses. With getting in foal this changes the mares entire nutritional requirements, because she has to have enough food going in to make sure she doesn’t absorb the embryo. Below is an idea of the change in diet that is needed to have a healthy foal.
essential she is fed correctly during gestation. Once she has foaled and is
lactating, her energy requirements will increase by as much as 44% and
nutrients such as protein, calcium, phosphorous and vitamin A will be in
particularly high demand.
During the first three months of lactation a mare will give 3% of her body
weight daily in milk production so, for example, a mare of 454kg will
produce in the region of 13.6kgs of milk per day. Not providing the mare
with enough feed at this stage will reduce the quantity and quality of milk
production, which could affect the foal's health and growth rate.
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/stallionsandstuds/article.php?aid=48241
Posted by: lamber93 at 03:08 |
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