Influence of physical structure of haylage on equine eating behaviour

Abstract

Forage related factors such as physical structure may influence eating time and eating behaviour of horses, which is important from an equine welfare perspective. The physical structure of the forage is influenced by a variety of factors. The effect of increasing plant maturity at harvest of haylage, and the effect of mechanical treatment of the grass at harvest (cut vs. long-stemmed forage) of haylage were investigated in two separate studies, where the influence on equine eating time and eating behaviour were studied. Feeding haylage harvested at an early plant maturity resulted in a shorter eating time compared to haylages harvested at later plant maturities. Feeding cut or long-stemmed haylage resulted in very small differences in equine eating time and behaviour. In conclusion, harvest at a later plant maturity may produce a forage that increases the eating time for the horse, but the hygienic (and nutritive) quality of the forage also needs to be considered.

Keywords

Behaviour; Haylage; Ingestion; Plant maturity

Published in

Publication- European Association for Animal Production
2010, volume: 128, number: 128, pages: 81-83
Title: The impact of nutrition on the health and welfare of horses : 5th European Workshop Equine Nutrition Cirencester, United Kingdom 19-22 September 2010
Publisher: Wageningen Academic Publishers

Conference

5th European Workshop Equine Nutrition Cirencester, United Kingdom 19-22 September 2010

SLU Authors

• Müller, Cecilia

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science

Publication identifier

• ISBN: 978-90-8686-155-2
• eISBN: 978-90-8686-711-0

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/132435