How to take turnout into account for hay/bodyweight calculation?

[Cobiau Cymreig Wyllt]

Do I remember rightly that when calculating hay/fibre requirements via the 1-2% bodyweight ratio, that you also take into account whatever they may be getting via turnout?
Mine live out and so 24/7 grazing and am just wondering how much you would estimate for this...I will be weighing haynets.
They're both native good doers, youngsters and the 11.2 will be keeping an eye on specially for taking too much weight.
Ta!

 

[TGM]

To be honest, if they are at grass you can't really work it out that accurately and you will need to feed by eye! If they are out 24/7 they presumably have a bit of grass to nibble on, so you don't have to worry about keeping them occupied, it is just making sure they have enough to help them maintain condition. Start with small nets and weigh tape the ponies once a week. Assuming they are the correct condition to start with, then if they start losing weight increase the hay ration. If they start to put on too much weight, then cut it back!

 

[cullord]

Can't remember where I read it now but on a bag of feed I recently purchased it quoted 1kg grass intake / hour of turnout - although I strongly suspect this is during summer turnout on a decent amount of grass. I guess only you know how much winter grass you have. Perhaps you can guestimate from this?

 

[Cobiau Cymreig Wyllt]

Brilliant ok..that gives me a rough place to start...and so if working on a 16-out-of-24-hr basis on decent grass you'd be estimating...16kg??? Sounds a lot
But anyway, obviously less through winter...probably half I suppose or even a quarter...oo desperately guestimating here!!!!!!! So maybe somewhere between 4kg - 8kg from turnout...
hmmm, sorry, completely musing outloud now!

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Having been measuring out feeds very closely during a recent lami scare, its amazing how little 1kg of forage is. I could easily imagine a horse eating 1kg an hour with maybe 6 hours in every 24 where they werent eating (sleeping, dozing etc). So maybe 16-18kg. It is said that for many good doers, 24 hours a day on grass (even if not lush) will lead to weight gain.

I am using a grazing muzzle to restrict intake as the grass is still growing here (in N E Scotland!).

The other way to measure intake roughly is to count poos!! Eg 3 or 4 kilos of soaked hay in completely bare paddock was producing 4 poos (! sorry for the detail!) whereas field with a bit of grass but same pony in muzzle is producing 2-3 poos, day after day. So I am confident that she is (i) getting some food through the muzzle but (ii) less than when she had the hay (but then the grass will be a bit higher energy/sugar). Its more of a comparative than an absolute measure but it's useful.

 

[StickyToffee]

You must remember to remove the water content which is roughly 80% so 1kg of grass has only 200g dry matter. 18kg of grass per day equals only 3.6kg dry matter. I am sure that a 500kg horse would cosume roughly 50kg of grass during the summer per day and as low as 15kg during the winter. My horse maintains her weight during the winter with 10hrs turnout and approx 6 or 7 kg of hay at night x

 

[Cobiau Cymreig Wyllt]

You must remember to remove the water content which is roughly 80% so 1kg of grass has only 200g dry matter. 18kg of grass per day equals only 3.6kg dry matter. I am sure that a 500kg horse would cosume roughly 50kg of grass during the summer per day and as low as 15kg during the winter. My horse maintains her weight during the winter with 10hrs turnout and approx 6 or 7 kg of hay at night x

Aha yes, that makes perfect sense - my 2yo gelding is approx 400kg and have calculated that he will need around 5-6kg hay per day, allowing for whatever is left of the grass - they are on 3 acres just now and there is some growth still but have been asked by farmer to rest some so will be keeping them on 2 in another week or so.
the rising 3 sec a is 210kg - so will be building him up to 3-4kg per day max
and sec b - around 300kg has been very overweight but coming back down to reasonable levels now but lami prone - so leaving her owner to work out what to do there!