Good evening, everyone. My name is Charlotte, and thank you for joining us for this evening's webinar, Forage and Pasture All A Horse Needs. Tonight's webinar has been kindly sponsored by Bailey's Horse Feeds, so a big thank you to Bailey's Horse Feeds for making tonight's webinar possible.

So a bit about our speaker this evening. Joining us today is the lovely Emma Short. Emma joined Bailey's Horse Feeds as an equine nutritionist after graduating from Rittal College with a Bachelor of Science with honours in equine Science in 2002.

Her role is varied, covering the provision of feed advice from general horse owners, working on specialist feed programmes for larger yards and professionals, and providing technical support for the Bailey sales and marketing teams. Emma enjoys applied and clinical nutrition, having seen plenty of changes in progression over the years within the industry. She's keen to apply new research to the benefit of the welfare and performance of the horse through Bailey's product development, as well as educational talks to horse owners, and associations, veterinary practises and retailers.

I wish to let you all know that today's session will be recorded and available on playback, and you will all receive a certificate for today's attendance also. Please use the Q&A box for any questions you may have for Emma throughout the presentation. If you run out of time with the questions submitted, we will email out any responses to you in the next few days.

So with no further ado, I'd like to now hand over to Emma to start today's session. Thank you, Emma. Hello, and thanks very much.

I'm gonna turn my video off through the presentation, and I will pop back up at the end, but I thought I'd just introduce myself and say hi. So I will just turn that off now. Fantastic.

So, Obviously our talk this evening is regarding forage and pasture and whether this is all a horse needs. So pasture and forage or all forage should be the basis of every horse or pony's diet. It's what they're designed to live on.

But modern past. Sharing equine management practise in the state often oversupplying some nutrients and under supplying others. And with over 15 years of forage and pasture analysis to draw on, I wanted to look at the effect of forage quality on the horse and how the diets can be adjusted accordingly.

Oh, the slide doesn't want to go, there we go. So this evening we are going to look at what nutrients, do pasture and forage supply, how do these fluctuate throughout the year, and what nutrients may be lacking. We're gonna look at water soluble carbohydrates, so what these are and why they're important, the digestibility of the grass as it matures, and what impact this has on the horse's diet, and how to achieve a balanced diet and is forage alone sufficient.

How also to change the diet to account for a potential increase in energy or calories come springtime. So forage as we know, is the main feedst stuff that our horses have evolved to eat, however, it's not a consistent source of nutrients. And pasture will vary in nutrient content according to the time of year, environmental conditions, as well as sward type.

And this fluctuation along with harvest times will also affect the quality of any hay or haulage that we're making. The spring pasture or hail or hailage cut earlier in the season will be lower in indigestible fibre and higher in both energy and protein, and this declines as the pasture matures. So we can see that in this next slide.

So as nutritionists, we analyse a lot of forage, so we can see what the forage portion of the diet is providing our horses. And between the years of 2007 and 2021, we collated around 830 hay samples, 948 haulage samples, and around 435 grass samples in between the years of 2002 and 2021. So this graph shows the average crude protein content for grass for each month between April and October, basically due to smaller numbers of samples taken in the winter months, so we didn't have enough to support data, during that time.

But we can see clearly that average protein in grass was highest in the spring when the grass is growing. And then it declines as the grass matures coming into summer. You then have a late flurry of grass growth in the autumn, and you can see average protein levels rising slightly again, and typically these would then be expected to then decline over the winter months before rising again in spring.

And although there is not enough data available at this time to confirm the winter and spring patterns, the results from summer and autumn months confirm the expected changes in protein content. So putting this into practise, when you're dealing with horses struggling to build muscle tone or top line, this shows the importance of taking time of year and grass access into account as well as the concentrate feed and also workload. Even if the grass looks plentiful, you know, if it's matured coming into summer, then obviously protein levels will have been reduced, and if we're getting to potentially the end of winter, will the horse have plenty of grass access coming into spring, which may actually help to support muscle development with increasing workload, and.

Also brings into question whether we need to maybe supplement the diet according accordingly, so whether we need to look at higher protein forages such as an alfalfa char, for example, to pick protein levels up, or do we need to top up the diet with maybe an appropriate concentrate or balance that. So unsurprisingly, when grass is compared to both hay and hailage, grass had a much higher average crude protein content, which was obviously to be expected. This can be why it can be more difficult to develop and maintain muscle condition over the winter months or for those horses that are stabled more and on less grazing.

Haig had a marginally higher average crude protein content than hay, but it's not a huge difference between hay and haulage and. It's the individual cuts of hay and haage will, will really vary, so hay will not always be higher in protein than hay. It's also important to consider that individual forage quality and maturity, for example, whether it's soft and leafy or coarse and stalky may also affect the availability of the protein contents of the horse.

So it's also important really to remember that this is just purely crude proteins. So we're not actually looking at the amino acids, so the lysine profile of the forage, just total protein. So it's not giving us necessarily the the full picture.

So let's have a look at how fibre can influence how well a forage is utilised, and I wanted to just have a quick recap really on the two fibre levels that we analyse for when we're looking at forage. So you have the ADF or acid detergent fibre, which measures the crude fibre and soluble lignin portions of the plant structure. You then also have the NDF or neutral detergent.

Fibre, which includes the hemicellulose, the cellulose, and the lignin contents, which are more of your structural components of the plant cell walls. Now, your ADF and NDF are good measures of plant digestibility and maturity. So a higher ADF and NDF value indicates that the plant is more mature and that the hay or haage may have been cut slightly past the optimum time.

Hazes and hailages with higher levels of ADF and NDFs are usually coarser and stalkier to the touch and may also be less palatable for the horse, whereas forages with lower fibre levels may appear to be softer and leafier and may have been cut slightly earlier on in the season. So as the fibre portion of the plant increases, the other nutrients decrease, resulting in the forage becoming less digestible and also available to the horse. And your high NDF and ADF can also affect the rate of passage throughout the gut, and this can also have negative sort of.

Nicotative sort of effects really for, for gum gut functions, so thinking of things like impactions for example. And in these instances there is typically a greater reliance on the concentrate feed to supply easily digestible fibre as well as carbohydrates for body condition. Your fibre levels can be affected by lots of different factors, such as time of harvest and also environmental conditions during growth.

Forages with ADF figures that exceed 35%, have increased levels of mature and lignified, plant material. The NDF can be used as a measure of forage quality and also intake potential, so the lower the NDF, the easier it is for the horse to digest the fibre and therefore more can be consumed. Now lignin is completely indigestible for the horse, whereby, whereas hemicellulose and your cellulose needs to be broken.

Down by the microbial population in the hind gut. So a higher NDF indicates a much thickened layer of these sort of structural components around the cell walls, which can prevent the fermentation process in the hindgut from breaking down the forages effectively and therefore affecting the nutrients that are available to the horse. And for most forages your NDF usually increases with increasing plant maturity.

So having a little look at the graph here, you can see there was not much difference in the average fibre levels between hay and haulage. However, fibre levels tended to be lower in grass than they are on the hay or hailage, indicating that the grass will be more digestible. And grass would also typically be sampled, for analysis usually earlier on during sort of the growing season, so the vegetative state.

So again, we would typically expect the ADF or fibre levels to, to be lower there. And here we're just looking at the ADF, levels, but patterns, but we did see similar levels with also your, your NDF. So this graph is showing the average ADF content each month for the grass pasture samples that we looked at.

And it tends to be fairly low in April when the grass is in its earlier growth stages, rising steadily as the grass matures through into the summer months. And at this stage, it tends to remain relatively high, which is to be expected. We can see how this changes as grass matures and why earlier sort of cuts or later cut haze and haages will also have different ADFs.

And a similar pattern was also seen for the NDF levels in the grass throughout the months, . For the months that are not shown, we would expect it to stay fairly high through the winter, possibly reduced if there is an autumn flurry of growth, and then it would drop down again once the grass, starts to grow again in spring. So here in this graph, you can see the relationship between the fibre and the protein content of the pasture.

So as grass matures and becomes more fibrous, the protein content will typically reduce. And your protein typically is found in the leaf of the plants, therefore, it's not surprising as the plant matures and becomes more stalky, that the amount of protein found declines. So what implications does this have on the horse?

Well, firstly, Your grass digestibility declines as the indigestible fibre levels increase, so the nutrients are not so easily available for the horse. And secondly, your protein levels decline, so again, there's less available. So this can have an impact on the balance of the diet.

He may fall short of protein, which may be reflected in his muscle tone, his hoof, and his coat quality, and general overall condition. And we also need to maybe have a question mark about how well the performance horse is potentially going to perform, particularly when forage may be is restricted or they don't have access to a lot of grass, and also the impact of things like breeding stock, which will also have higher requirements. Mhm There you go.

This graph that shows the changes in average ADF content, each year for hay and hailage. And interestingly, the pattern of peaks and troughs is very similar in hay and hailage, indicating that these changes are not just due to chance, but likely due to weather conditions such as rainfall levels prior to harvest. And I just wanted to show this slide, as I think it illustrates that hay and hailage are more closely related than we think.

And in actual fact, It is individual forages, regardless of whether they are hay or hailage that actually matters. Typically a high rainfall can result in increased ADF and NDF levels. And furthermore, if it's raining a lot around the time when the farmer would normally harvest their hay or haulage, they may have to wait longer to cut it.

So later cut forages tend to be more mature, and this may also lead to a higher ADF or NDF figure. So what do we know? So digestibility, rate of passage, and palatability of forage all determined by the ADF and NDF levels.

Indigestible fibre, so the lignin content increases as the plant matures, and as fibre content increases, the nutrient levels are typically declining. So as grass matures, there is more indigestible stalk and stem and less nutritious leaf. And the leaf, as we said, is where the majority of your nutrients are situated.

And for me, the fibre content and how digestible it is, is the most important value that we can analyse. So we can always incorporate protein and minerals into the diet with a concentrate ration, but we can't alter how digestible a forage is and ultimately how many nutrients are available to the horse. So we know that an early cut forage with a low ADF or NDF is typically more digestible for the horse.

But are these forages also higher in calories or energies? So let's have a look at some of the links between your fibre levels and your digestible energy. So this chart shows.

About 830 green dots, each representing a result for each of the 830 hay samples that we took, with the position of the green dot corresponding with the ADS value for that sample along the bottom axis, and the DE value for that sample along the top. So for example, the dot is circled in red. Has a DE value of 7 megajoules per kilo and an ADF value of 36%.

And we can see that there is generally a downwards pattern here. So as ADF increases, your digestible energy decreases. So we can assume that a forage with a low ADF value will probably have a high DE.

And a forage with a high ADF will probably have a low DE. And you can see that there are some outliers which don't follow the pattern, but generally speaking, this will be the case. So out in the field, if you're looking at a very soft leafy forage that you think might have a low ADS value, you can probably assume that the DE will be high as well, so more calorific and obviously vice versa.

And in practise, forage digestibility can have an impact on how well that horse fares. So for example, you may have a horse that is losing weight or condition whereby they have been doing very well on the same diet for some time, and when nothing else has changed other than the forage that they receive. And it's likely that the forage quality and also digestibility of that forage is potentially changed.

And therefore the availability of both nutrients and energy have declined. So we need to look at, adjusting the forage, if we're able, that's not always quite as easy, or we may need to look at the concentrate ration, as a means of adjusting to ensure that we're meeting, our horses requirements. So let's have a look at our average digestible energy for each forage type.

So the average digestible digestible energy in bone in your hay and haage was relatively similar, as you can see from the chart here. You know, the DE for hay was marginally higher, but not by, by a lot. .

With the lower ADF and NDF and crude fibre levels in grass that we looked at earlier in the slide previously, it's unsurprising really that the DE in grass is also higher than in the hay or haulage. But despite this, there was not a huge difference in DE, so only 0.4 megajoules per kilo.

Between your grass and your hay. So what is perhaps more relevant is the higher levels of indigestible fibre that we saw it gain in the side previously for hay and hailage compared to grass, as this will impact on the availability of the energy or calories to the horse, and how well the forage will help to maintain weight and condition. It's not unusual to hear our customers or our clients assuming that it's better to feed haley rather than hay, if their horse needs to maybe put put on weight, or requires more energy.

However, these results highlight that this is not actually the case, and actually the DE or calorie content of hay and haulage is very similar. Individual cuts of either hay or haulage will still vary a lot in what they're providing, depending on the plant and environment conditions at the time of harvest. And therefore, forage should be considered on an individual basis when deciding which is better for weight gain or taking into account visual appearance and feel.

Rather than generally either, yeah, hay or haulage is, is better, is the better option. So grass, especially in the spring, supplies considerably more nutrients, as well as energy or calories, compared to both hay or haulage. And it's likely that the energy or calorie demands will be partially, if not fully satisfied, and in some instances exceeded by what each horse grazes each day.

And then that also poses the question about, well, what about our hay and also our haulage. So let's have a look at a few figures here. So the National Research Council or NRC, Nutrient Requirements of horses from 2007, provides us with guidelines for the minimum daily intakes of different nutrients, including digestible imaging.

For horse body weights and workloads. So let's have a little look at the GE provision compared to minimum requirements from NRC. So you can see here on average hay, on average, your hay had a digestible energy content of around 9.07 megajoules per kilo.

And this means that if you're looking at our average 500 kg horse, that's being fed 10 kg of hay per day on a dry matter basis, on average it would provide them with 90.7 megajoules per day. Haulage has an average DE value of 8.97 megajoules per kg.

So again, when 10 kg of haliage on a dry matter basis is fed, it would provide 89.7 megajoules. And then your grass pasture had an average DE content of around 9.47.

So again, 10 kg in dry matter, when fed at 2% body weight, would on average provide 29.7 megajoules per day. So the NRC suggests that a mature 500 kg horse in light work needs a minimum daily energy requirement, 83.7 megajoules to maintain body weight.

Do, however, note that this may vary between animal and between horse, with factors such as things like age, health status, temperament, and voluntary movement, and also ambient temperatures obviously all playing a role. However, For those that hold their weight very well, this does highlight why forage alone with little or no hard feed can still result in excess weight gain as a purely hay haage or grass only diet. Even when fed at 2%, as this illustrates in this slide, it's already likely to be exceeding basic minimum daily energy requirements for those that are at rest or in light levels of work.

So let's consider also voluntary dramatic intake. We've simply looked at 2% average intake in the previous slide, however, for longer turnout periods this figure would likely be increased, and could easily exceed the average voluntary dry matter intake of 2% of body weight, providing even more energy and calories. Per day.

And some studies, so if we look at Dugdale, ETA found that some ponies consumed up to just under 5% of their body weight in dry matter per day when they were fed ad libs, so as much as they want. And Long Lin Eal found that in a 3 hour grazing period, ponies would consume over 1% of their body weight in dry matter. So for example, if we're looking at 3% of body weight for our 500 kg horse, this would equate to 15 kg on the dry matter basis of grass per day, which would provide a whopping 142 megajoules per day.

So we know from our previous slide that the NRC suggests that a mature 500 kg horse in light work is a minimum. Energy requirements, so 83.7 megajoules to maintain their body weight.

We see, again, as you've said, this will fluctuate slightly depending on individuals. However, for those that do hold their weight really well, this does obviously highlight why forage alone with little or no hard food can still result in excessive weight gain. As purely hay and haulage or grass, only diets, I mean, even just fed at 2% body weight is already exceeding obviously requirements, so we do need to be pretty careful.

So those in moderate and harder work intensities, as well as breeding stock have a higher requirement for energy and forage alone may not supply requirements. So in contrast to what we've just said about the 500 kg horse at rest, if we were to consider a lactating brood mare with a 1 month old foet foot, she would actually have a digestible energy requirement of 132. 33 megajoules per day.

And even if she was consuming 2.5% of her body weight in forage, so 12.5 kgs, if we're looking at the 500 kg, horse in dry matter per day, on average, neither hay, hailage or grass would actually supply adequate energy or calorie calorie levels to meet her minimum requirements.

So each individual will have varying requirements according to age, reproductive status and workload, but it isn't static, it is forever changing. And assessing body condition score along with weights and also other morphometric measurements, so belly girth, for example. Is a good indication to whether the diet is supplying adequate or over or under supplying energy requirements.

But what will be less obvious is whether requirements for vitamins, minerals and quality protein are fully met through forage intake alone. So this poses a question, does grass, hay or haulage provide all the nutrients that a horse or pony needs? And actually, the answer is probably not.

So let me justify that. We know just from years of feeding horses that forage alone is not usually sufficient to meet all of our horse's nutrient requirements. And horses on a forage only diet may show evidence of this through a poor coat, hooves, lacking energy, lacking muscle, etc.

And we can compare our own data from our own forage analysis results, . Against the NRC, which provides guidelines for minimum daily intakes of different nutrients, including our protein and minerals for all horse body weights and also workloads. So based on the dry matter forage intake of 2% of body weight, we were able to work out how much of each nutrient our average hay, haage or grass would provide.

And here we looked at intakes of trace minerals for a 500 kg horse at rest on. Either single type or mixed forage diets, and compared it to the NRC guidelines. Although we didn't look at other body weights, it would be expected that the levels would adjust up or down accordingly and follow the same patterns.

And NRC, so our minimum nutrient goal, is seen here in dark green. And although in all diets, manganese and iron are exceeding the minimum required, required, unfortunately both your copper and your zinc levels are below minimum in all forage diets. So for all ages, workloads and reproductive stages on average hay and haulage, on average, sort of your hay and haulage will not provide enough sulphur, copper and zinc to meet minimum requirements.

So for a 500 kg horse in light work on average, hay and hailage provides only 47% of a horse's daily zinc requirements, leaving a 52.8% shortfall, and only 29% of copper requirements leaving a 70. 0.7% shortfall.

So on average, brass pasture will also not provide enough copper and zinc to meet minimum NRC requirements for all types of horses, though sulphur requirements were generally met. So for a 500 kg horse at restaurant in like work, grass pasture on average provides 61% of daily copper requirements and only 67.3% of daily zinc requirements, leaving a shortfall of gain of of both copper and zinc.

But generally speaking, incorporating some brass access into the diet alongside your hay and haages did improve nutrient levels compared to just using hay or haage alone, which is unsurprising. However, copper and zinc levels were still not sufficient for all horse ages, workloads and reproductive stages, even with the addition of grass, which I think is very interesting. Your copper, zinc, and sulphur were the biggest shortfalls for all types of horse.

But as we move actually up into higher workloads, and nutrient demands, the shortfalls become greater. So for moderate and harder workloads actually. Things like phosphorus, your magnesium, and your sodium levels are also not sufficient to meet minimum requirements.

And remember that NRC is the minimum amount before we hit a deficiency. So this really highlights the importance of supplementation potentially all year round, to ensure that the diet is fully balanced. And again, just remember that this is based on a horse consuming the.

Suggested percentage to average percentage of hay or haulage, so 2 2.5% of body weight on a dry matter basis. And so if less is consumed, so for example, those that may be on a lower calorie ration for weight loss, or those animals that are on restricted forage rations, such as the performance horse, then other nutrient intakes would also be lower and may result in further shortfalls.

As requirements increase, particularly in lactating mares and growing young stock, other nutrients, mainly protein, calcium and phosphorus, but also not be provided in adequate levels to meet minimum requirements, particularly in hay and haulage diets, as well as the copper, the sulphur, and the zinc that we've also found. And when we're looking at the levels for a 6 month old foal, on average hay. It will provide 53% of minimum calcium requirements, 48% of phosphorus, only 57% of protein, 25% of copper, and 42% of minimum zinc.

And even with the addition of grass pasture access sort of alongside the haze and haulages. Whilst nutrient intake improved, protein levels are still not sufficient for lactating brood mares and levels of protein, calcium and phosphorus was still not adequate for growing youngsters. So again, it just reinforces the need to have a fully balanced concentrate ration, even if they're holding and maintaining weight and condition well.

So as we mentioned, for all horses, the levels of copper, zinc sulphur in average forage will not be sufficient to meet requirements, but it's important to remember that low levels of some minerals can impact on the digestibility of others resulting in further deficiencies. This mineral will shows just how many different interactions there are between different minerals. So for example, if we look at copper, .

This has a direct effect on zinc, iron, molybdium and also sulphur, and this effect is the reason that single nutrients really shouldn't be focused on unless there is a known or quantified deficiency or excess of a certain mineral to that animal. It's all about that balance. So, so what, so the importance really of, of vitamins and minerals in the horse's diet can't be overemphasised.

If we look at copper, for example, it's important for the formation of haemoglobin, it plays a major role in mobilisation and utilisation of iron. You zinc and and manganese are also vital components of enzymes and play an important role in the utilisation, metabolism. Of, of energy, and therefore, even though a diet may supply more than enough energy to fuel work, if the micronutrients are in short supply, energy sources may not be utilised to the full, and horses may become fatigued or below par, not able to work as often or lack conditions.

Resulting in vet visits, and potentially the copious inclusion of lots of different supplements, when actually, in actual fact, just simply balancing the diet to what the forage is providing, is all that's required, to meet, you know, their, their needs. So a balanced diet should provide all the nutrients a horse needs according to their specific requirements for work, life stage and reproductive status. It should balance the nutrient shortfalls within the forage and the quality of the forage fed will.

Determine what bucket feed is appropriate and how much is required to balance the diet and how well the horse thrives. So as you move into spring and the grass quality with respect to nutrients and energy increases, then the diet may need to be adjusted to take into account these, You know, increments. And apart from assessing the horse with regards to weight and body condition scoring, we can also ask our clients and customers, key questions so we can determine whether the horse's diet is balanced or not.

So questions such as what is currently being fed, including hay, haulage and any grazing they may have, is the horse fed hay or haulage? How much of that Are they receiving? Do they have ad lib, and what do our clients perceive as ad-lib forage?

How many hours of grass does the does the horse does the horse have? And what is the perceived quality of the hay, hailage and grass? Let's look at the time of year.

What do the paddocks look like? Do they look like they're overgrazed, or does it look like they've got plenty of, you know, grass out in the paddocks? And remember, So that stalkier later cut forage tends to be less nutritious and less digestible than your softer, leafier forage.

Do we need to be looking at analysis? Be aware with analysis, it's very useful, but it's not always relevant. So if you have a customer that has an insufficient supply of forage, or they're unable to store a large amount of the same batch, then actually it may not be worth, analysing.

Other questions we need to be looking at is what feed. So are they feeding a mix, a cube, a balancer, how much of those products are they feeding? We need to be looking at weight rather than volume.

Is the horse getting the required amount for its body weight, age, workload, or breeding status? And remember that requirements for protein, vitamins and minerals increase with workload. Are they adding supplements?

And if so, what are they and what are they bringing to the diet? Is the horse the correct weight, you know, weight, body condition score, and are there any other clinical conditions that we may need to consider, so does it require a low starch diet, for example? So when the quality of that forage increases as we come into spring, the diet may need to be adjusted accordingly.

And as grass quality improves, we know that energy and protein also increase. So grass accessibility when horses are being turned out generally more, when the weather is better in spring. Increases, so they have more access to it.

And typically hay and hay, is reduced, and this can result in weight gain in some instances, as we know that grass is more digestible, and it typically has a higher energy content. There's also an increased risk for those with clinical conditions such as laminate, because your water soluble carbohydrate levels are increasing, and quite often the concentrate feed or any supplements that are given are reduced or potentially removed. So what are recommendations, so what are we basically trying to achieve?

Well, we want to achieve a healthy level of fibre. We want to potentially look at reduced or controlled calorie intake, particularly if they're overweight, and we really want to make sure that we're providing a fully balanced diet with respect to quality protein, vitamins and minerals. And this should be correct for current workload, body condition, age, and also reproductive status.

We also need to be looking at maximising chew time and potentially minimising calories. So minimum of the equivalent of 1.5% on a dry matter basis of body weight as fibre per day is required to keep the digestive system healthy.

The horse has a psychological and physiological need to chew and saliva is only produced when chewing and contains that buffering compound to neutralise stomach acid, so obviously important with respect to reducing the incidence of gastric ulcers. So remember energy intake is most likely exceeded in a majority of cases for those receiving good levels of fibre and whom are at rest or in light work. This doesn't even take into into account any supplementary feeding that may be going alongside that.

And although reducing hard feed will reduce calories, depending on what product's fed, the vast majority of calories are coming from forage alone, so we need to look at limiting. Or maybe completely taking out turnout time. Maybe looking at starvation paddocks, strip grazing or track systems with electric fencing, safe use of things like grazing muzzles, treat balls to encourage more foraging behaviour, more of a practical solution, obviously don't have rug.

And we may need to supplement, restricted grass intake with other forage sources. So we would look at recommending coarser later cut hazes or hailages if possible, as this is less nutritious, less digestible, contains obviously higher proportions of indigestible fibre, and therefore your digestible energy value, your calorie content will be lower. You may need to look at soaking your hay for potentially anywhere from a minimum of 8, up to 12 hours to leach or wash out, those water soluble carbohydrates or calories.

And this is particularly important. For those that suffer from laminitis or metabolic syndrome. However, we do need to balance the benefits of soaking hay to reduce water soluble carbohydrates, because this can increase in bacteria and also pollutants.

So we need to, do need to be particularly careful, through, hot, sort of hot spells, hot weather. And we need to be looking at dividing the overall ration into as many small portions as possible so that we're creating more of that trickle feeding effect, using smallhold nets, hay balls, or other methods to slow consumption. So with increasing digest digestible energy content of grass as we move into spring, often bucket feed needs to be adjusted to accommodate the high calorie intake.

However, reducing bucket feed doesn't just reduce calories, it cuts back on essential nutrients as well. And we know that forage alone does not supply sufficient minerals, and protein quality, and, and these amounts fluctuate. So it's important that the correct feed is chosen.

And we should be looking at a diet that is nutrient rich but calorie poor, particularly when we're looking for weight loss. It's important to be aware that compound feeds are formulated to compensate for the shortfalls within an average quality forage, and they should be fed at the recommended amounts of body weight and workload. You might find that recommended amounts of a mix or cube, will certainly provide a balanced diet, a fully balanced, but.

They may provide too many calories, so what do we go for if less of our cubes and mixes are being fed in order to reduce calories? Well, your balances are typically the best option to feed those that hold weight very well. They are high nutrients and have very little calories.

They're typically fed by the mug full, typically at around 100 grammes per 100 kg of body weight. So you're feeding very small volumes, which means small amounts of calories, and also things like your starch and sugar levels are also low, so their intake is negligible. Do be aware that if you're Go, you've got animals, you're recommending diets for animals to be more moderate to harder work intensity that the performance balance will be preferable.

Again, these types of products are low calorie, low starch, low sugar typically. It's just purely the nutrient content is elevated to support harder levels of work. You might want to look at introducing a low sugar or calorie fibre sauce, and to give, you know, additional chew times, so low calorie chars un molassed beets, are a great, great way of sort of increasing chew time and helps to keep them eating for longer.

Do be mindful of fortified chaffs, they're often not fed correctly. For example, A 500 kg horse would need around 2.5 to 3 kgs of a 45 chars to stimulus to that of a cube or mix to support requirements, and they actually supply similar calorie intake to a low energy or high fibre cube or mix.

So in comparison to a balancer, they typically provide more, so just be aware. So your recommendations, so we're restricting or even removing grazing, may be required, to lower both the calorie and potentially the water soluble carbohydrate intake. We need to offer an alternative forage source, one that is higher in indigestible fibre, that's lower in calories.

So consider potentially soaking your hay, and you may also want to have a look at maybe replacing some of the hay portion. With maybe something like an oat straw, particularly if you can't change the hay to something that's more mature. This is a great way of, of reducing, calorie intake.

Again, you can look at low calorie chars on molass beat pulps, but these need to be given in considered amounts. So be aware that when you feed more, you know, the calories will increase. And look at encouraging good practise.

So a minimum of 1.5% of forage should be fed per day. On a dry matter basis and simply removing or reducing the concentrate feeds generally not sufficient to lower calorie intake significantly.

So let's have a look at water soluble carbohydrates. So it's been recognised that looking at either the non-structural carbohydrates or the water soluble carbohydrate forage is the best measure to evaluate how much sugar start in fructon. Forage will supply.

So your water soluble carbohydrates, look at the total sum of free sugars, so mainly your glucose, fructose and sucrose, plus your fructin, which is your storage sugar within your grass. Whereas your non-structural carbohydrates, look at your water soluble carbs as well as your starch. So water soluble carbohydrate is an important consideration when talking about forages, starch is generally minimum.

Or minimal within grass-based porridges, however, your non-structural carbohydrates, may be more relevant to measure, compound fees that contain higher levels of cereals or cereal byproducts. So why is it important? Well, simple sugars are generally digested and absorbed in the small intestine and will therefore have an impact on blood sugar, so the glycaemic response, which is important for those that have sort of insulin dysregulation.

While frucin is fermented in the large intestine and induces a much smaller response. However, if larger amounts of frucin are consumed, they have been shown to induce laminitis due to disruption of the bacterial population in the large intestine. So therefore, forages with low levels of non.

Structural carbohydrates or water soluble carbs, would indicate that there are smaller amounts of starch, sugar or frucin present in that forage, indicating that there's less material that's gonna enter the large intestine and therefore, there's less opportunity for your bacterial disturbances and your laminitis. Research suggests that forage, and feeds contain less than 10 to 12% of the non, structural carbohydrates is advisable. However, I must say from experience, we rarely see forage, with such levels.

So there has been some suggestions for those that suffer from insulin dysregulation, when looking at water soluble carbs that actually a forage that has less than 5% would pose a low risk, those that maybe a 6 to 12% would be low to moderate, and those that are exceeding 19% of water solubles would be classified as high risk forages. The carbohydrate content of forage can vary widely due to the interaction of plants and also their environment. And when the production of your sugars exceeds the energy requirement of plants, they are converted to storage carbohydrates, starch and fructon.

Your cool season grasses tend to accumulate mainly fructon, where warm season grass is in legumes, so alfalfa, for example, accumulates starch. You also need to have a look at, variables, other variables that include sort of grass species. So Timothy and Coxsfoot, for example, tend to have larger fructon molecules, which are harder to break down, so often a preferred choice for those that are prone to laminitis.

And we need to look at the stage of growth, environmental conditions during plant growth. And your environmental factors, including temperature, light intensity and availability. Of water and nutrients.

So when you're looking at cooler temperatures between 5 to 10 degrees, they produce much higher fructon levels within parter and warmer conditions, and temperatures below 5 degrees prevents growth. However, if there is light available at the same time, it can still produce sugars. So therefore, cold, bright conditions such as in winter, can result in increased levels of fructon.

And typically your mature plants, Are that tend to be higher in fibre tend to be much lower in water soluble carbohydrates, however, your environmental conditions have a large impact on unfortunately carbohydrate contents. So how do we manage this? So we could look at analysis, but this does simply just give us a snapshot in time, particularly with pasture, and this fluctuates almost on an hourly basis, so it's really difficult to, to know.

It's slightly more accurate when you're looking at haze or hailages. However, you're only potentially taking a small sample of that hay or hailage, and it may not be representative of the full batch of hay or haliage that you're sampling. We can look at limiting grass intake or removing it altogether during higher risk times, such as spring.

This may be prudence. Your frutin levels tend to rise during the day, peaking in the afternoon to early evening, and they decline in the early hours of the morning. So turning out late at night or very early in the morning and bringing them in by mid-morning is generally the safest time.

You can consider things like strip grazing or limited grazing, it is often preferable, particularly when the fructons are at the highest, so in spring, for example. And avoid turning out onto pasture in cold, bright conditions such as frosty mornings. We do, when we are limiting grazing, we do need to offer an alternative forage source, to ensure that there's sufficient fibre that's provided.

And we can also look at soaking forage for a minimum of 8 hours, which will also reduce your water soluble carbohydrate intake, particularly if you haven't analysed, and you don't know what your starting point is, this is always, good advice. So let's have a look at our take home messages. So there's a wide range of factors that affect nutrient content and digestibility of forages, including weather conditions during growth and harvest, but geographical regions in the time of year, particularly for grass, and stocking density on grass or turnout in confined areas will also affect nutrient intake.

It's not possible to make generalisations about hay versus hailage in their energy, protein fibre, soluble carb or mineral levels, as different cuts will vary. The only consistent difference between the two is the dry matter moisture content with haage typically being wetter than hay, and therefore, forage should be considered on an individual basis when deciding which is more suitable for a particular horse or yard, taking into account visual appearance and also feel. Your ADF content, so measuring your fibre digestibility is strongly linked with the energy and calories the forage provides, whereby a forage with a higher ADF will typically have a lower DE content and vice versa.

And the majority of all forage samples that we tested did not provide sufficient copper or zinc for any horse type or workload. Interestingly, I was at the European, equine Health and Nutrition Conference, nearly two weeks ago now, and figures that were presented from German forage research also concurred with our findings. Incorporating spring and summer grass pasture access, maybe alongside hail haley rations will typically improve the nutrient provision compared to just hay or hay diets alone, which I think we already know.

And in particular, grass in spring and summer will typically provide a higher protein and energy content, and then hay or hailage. But it's really important that we're balancing the diet. We know that some of those microbe.

Nutrients are not sufficient, and we know that levels with all nutrients are fluctuating throughout the year. So even if we're looking at something like a balancer, for example, to ensure that the correct levels of vitamins and minerals and quality proteins provided all year round, we can ensure that calories and energy are kept to a minimum whilst supporting correct nutrition. And that brings us to a close.

So sorry, I have overrun slightly by my timings for questions, so hopefully we will have some time for those as well. So thanks for listening. Thank you, Emma, for presenting today's webinar.

Lots of great information there. We have had a few questions submitted, so I'll crack crack on with them now and see what we can get through and obviously any, we can't get through today, we'll email responses, out to everyone. The first question I have this evening is any pasture maintenance strategies to raise protein content of, pasture in summer months?

Yeah, I mean, I'm not an agronomist, unfortunately, so I don't I don't know. Probably best to speak to somebody that's, more in the know. But yeah, I mean, you can certainly look at, increasing these like the nitrogen contents, etc.

But when best to do that, I wouldn't like to comment because I don't, I don't really know, unfortunately, so I don't want to give. The wrong information. Thank you for the honesty.

The second question we have are, are those values of crude protein percentage as fed, or on a dry base matter? Yeah, I believe they're on an as fed, as fed basis. Lovely, thank you.

And then another question we've got is to which kind of hay do these numbers of D refer to? What about native pasture, any predictive values of DE? Ooh, now the, so every year, so all of the levels that I've presented tonight were just forages that we analysed literally from England itself.

So we eliminated anything that we had done from Ireland, etc. Or from abroad. So it's just England for English forages that we were looking at.

Sorry, I didn't catch the, the first part. Of that question, I misheard that, sorry. Sorry, so it was to which kind of hay do these numbers, do you refer to?

Which kind of hay. So I believe, it would have been mixed. So there would have been meadow grass, you know, meadow hay that would have been potentially ryegrasses, etc.

As well. So it was a general mix, of, of sort of grass hay, basically. Thank you.

And next one we have is, can we assume that high quality pasture are prone to excess weight on horses? And if so, should we be thinking on having lower quality pastures to allow for longer time of grazing and protecting the body score and behavioural needs? And if so, how can we get a good balance?

Yeah, potentially, yes, . I think it depends on if you have got very good, particularly if you've got sort of forage that's maybe been designed for maybe cattle, for example, you know, different types of animal to the horse, then absolutely I think that quite often our grasses are supplying certainly maybe too much digestible energy and potentially protein as well. Regardless of whether your energy or protein levels are high, which they typically will be, particularly now we're coming into the growing season, you will always find that particularly your copper and your zinc levels will be low.

So we do need to, at, at the very least, supplement with vitamins and minerals to make sure that we're balancing that forage out. So, that was quite a lengthy question. I don't I've answered all of that.

No, I, I, I think you have. That, that was a very good answer. .

Yeah, our forages, I think, unfortunately do provide in, in quite a lot of cases, particularly for those that hold weight very well and are not, you know, those animals that aren't working particularly hard. I do think they provide potentially too many calories. So we do need to be, be careful.

Yeah. And the next one we've got is, the provision from different forages useful, but how does each forage type affect insulin production? I know that hayage produces a bigger insulin spike than hay for equivalent mix per kg, but how does grass compare?

The vast majority of cases are far too fat and or have, insulin dysregulation. Yeah, absolutely. I haven't looked at that specifically, but the fact that your grass is far more digestible, potentially, particularly at this time of year when obviously the growing period is, is just beginning, and you've got more leaf and you've got less stalk and stem.

Then absolutely you're going to find that, you know, your insulin levels are going to increase at this time of year, just purely because of that fact. And you will also find that your soluble carbohydrate levels are also, increasing during spring. So it is absolutely much more of a high risk time unfortunately.

So we do need to be careful. That's why potentially those that are, you know, that have got insulin dysregulation issues, you may need to be very careful with turnout times. You may even need to look at reducing and or cutting turnout altogether and offering an alternative forage source such as soaked hay, for example.

So I think maybe we need to be a little bit more on it. Yes, grass is natural and we certainly want to get our horses out, but in some instances, it's not necessary, you know, best practise for a horse that, that, that has clinical conditions. No, totally agree there.

Another one is just a little bit more of a statement saying it's sort of encouraging different pasture types and access would be a lot more. Ethical and sustainable, then perpetrating starvation paddocks and zero grazing as well. Yeah, I would agree with that.

I think unfortunately, I think we have to be realistic and a lot of, our horses are in livery yards and a lot A lot of people don't have, the option to change what they have available to them. Yeah, so in an ideal world, yeah, absolutely. But whether that will happen or whether that is something that we can encourage, who knows.

Next one we've got is when soaking, to reduce the CHO and energy, do we need to compensate also for soluble vitamins? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, your vitamins, particularly when you're looking at things like hay and haulage, are not particularly high anyway.

So things like vitamin E, for example, you absolutely need to, you know, pop into the diet. Vitamin D obviously will vary depending on turnout times and that kind of thing, sunlight hours. So, yeah, that is the biggest issue that we find with, with soaking forage, particularly when you're soaking it for 8 hours plus.

You know, you are going to obviously reduce your carbohydrates and your calorie levels potentially, but you are also reduced. Nutrient intake as well. So that's where absolutely your vitamin and mineral supplements or ideally your balances, so you're incorporating your quality protein in there as well, is a way of supplementing and supporting forage, whilst obviously keeping your calories and your energy as well as your starch and your sugars, though.

Thank you. Another one we've got is, what makes a balanced diet a good diet? Many will claim, that they're balanced, but you know, what, things should we look out for, to make it sort of balanced, and comparing.

Yeah, I think the real thing here is to know what to know your forage, because the forage is what you're feeding the most of, and your forage has a such, hence the presentation, has such a huge impact on. What you need to be feeding alongside it. So if you're able to, and if, and if it's in the right conditions, then if you can get analysis, although, you know, it can vary, then that is a really good starting point, because you can see what is deficient within your forage.

And then make sure that you're putting in the correct. Levels of vitamins, minerals, potentially quality protein, according to, you know, body, you know, body condition, workload, age, that kind of thing. So I think that's really the key, is to know your forage and then you can then back that up with the right product, depending on, on what you're doing with your animal.

Yeah, perfect. Like you say, it's, you know, every, every animal's, you know, individual. You know.

Another one we've got is, grass layers vary considerably with age, species, and mixtures of grasses. Does this result in significantly different copper, zinc, and sulphur levels between grass layers? Not that we've found, I must say, the samples that we were looking at, obviously they are samples that we've gone into yards, so into our customers.

The yards that we have gone into, are vast in, in, in, you know, from sort of studs, you know, big, big, big sort of, sort of thoroughbred studs to those. That maybe have got just a small livery yard, for example. So there's very different levels and types of, of sward and, and how those pastures have been looked after, so whether they've been fertilised, or whether they haven't.

So it encompasses a lot of different, sort of grass pastures and paddocks, that we're looking at. So yeah, I, I would say. That unfortunately even on paddocks that have been truly fertilised and looked after with some of the big, big yards that we look at, we still find copper and zinc levels are still too low.

Thank you for that. Another one in regards to, soaking, of, hailage, what is the impact of soaking and protein levels? Yeah, that's a, that's a tricky one, There has been some suggestion that protein levels, when you're soaking forages, do decline.

But I haven't seen enough research, from my point of view to suggest, to give us any real indication. But yeah, there's certainly been a lot of research on, on soaking and whether protein and your mineral content. Declines.

Some papers, support that. Papers don't, unfortunately. So I think, I think the jury is still out to, to how much.

And I think it depends on your starting points. You know, if you've got a high level of protein in your forage initially, then there is a question that you might get more protein loss potentially. And I think also how.

That's sort of almost tied up within the forage, so the fibre levels, all that kind of thing will, will potentially have an impact. So yeah, the jury's out I think still unfortunately on that. Yeah, thank you.

And this will be the unfortunately, the last question. Does time of the day grazing grass influence the amount of carbohydrate contained in the grass? Yes, I would say it does.

It, there's so many, unfortunately there's so many different variables. We have looked at water soluble carbohydes, we didn't have enough, enough data really to, to, to give you anything, unfortunately tonight. But yeah, I mean, we can, you can go into a paddock and take a sample set at 10 a.m.

For example. And, you know, the sun, the, the weather conditions may change, you know, an hour or so later, and your carbohydrate levels are already changing. So it's, it's really hard to say, you know, absolutely, you know, you must be turning out at this time.

We do know from looking at fructon specifically, that, levels obviously tend to rise, sort of throughout the day. So turning out at nighttime, is quite often thought to be the best time when you're trying to reduce frucin intake. But that's obviously only the, the storage sugar, so we're not looking at the overall water soluble carb levels, we're not looking at glucose, etc.

Alongside that. So it's rude, it is very tough, to be specific, because it's fluctuating and it's so variable, unfortunately. Thank, thank you so much for, that answer there.

And like you say, it's, it's such a deep dive. We can go on, we can go on forever. Yes.

But thank you again, Emma, for such an informative session, and I just want to say thank you again, Bailey's Horse Feeds for sponsoring tonight's webinar. We hope that everyone enjoyed this evening's webinar, and we thank you all for joining us and have a good evening. Thanks very much.