Trying to estimate how much grass my veteran is eating each day??

[Hels_Bells]

My veteran is being turned out on a large field which was grazed by sheep until about 6-8 weeks ago when it was rested and snowed on!! Snow now gone and he is out between the hours of 9 and 4. He is 32 and his teeth aren't that great anymore but he manages to get about 1-1.5 kilos haylage down each night and seems fairly capable of grazing (he doesn't stop all day!).

It's really difficult to tell how much grass he is getting each day so I can calculate how much hay replacement feed I should be giving him.

Does anyone have a rough idea how much grass a horse like this is likely eat per day?? I'm guessing he's probably of similar grazing ability to a regular horse who is muzzled, maybe even a bit more adept?? Also bearing in mind there is likely to be little goodness in the grass.

 

[SmartieBean09]

Blimey HB! Wouldnt know exactly but I was advised to feed my hay replacer at 2-2.5% bodyweight as left to roam, this is what a horse would need to consume daily. So fo my Girl, I needed to feed 7.7kgs if Hay replacer each day.

My 14hh 29 year old girl is out from 10am until 4pm each day on good (but scace) grazing. She has a haynet of 3 slices of soft meadow hay, a hay replacer of 1kg (unsoaked weight) of Fibre-beet and 1.6kg of Hi Fi Senior each night, so she has more than enough and looks amazing!

I also give her 1.8kgs split in 2 feeds of No4 cubes.

She never finishes the hay (with or without the hay replacer) so by giving her the additional fibre, I know all is good with her

Did you ever hear back from Clare?

 

[Hels_Bells]

Thanks LD - I have PM'd you!!

Yeah, it's prob a bit too specific, but am just not sure whether the grass intake should be included in the percentage of body weight or on top of it!!

 

[SmartieBean09]

I think it is meant to be included as part of it but if you have no idea how much they consume then best to go with the whole 2% as a hay replacer I guess.

Just going to read pm now

 

[PucciNPoni]

I think generally speaking when working out a horse's diet, you should include grass intake. From a book called "The Horse Nutrition Bible" it quotes that one hour of grazing the typical intake is 10kg (22lb) fresh weight [or 2kg (4.5lb) dry matter], therefore multiply the above by the number of hours your horse is out to get their intake. It might be slightly more or less, depending on his teeth at that age. But if you think he's capable of grazing quite efficiently, probably a good enough figure (if what the book says is reliable).

Also, it says that if horse is out all day, that you should assume that 50-60% of the daily intake is grass (roughly 5k dry weight for a 500 kg horse)

hope that helps