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Horse Forage and Forage Management |
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Palatability Palatability in this case is how horses relish and consume various forages. Given a choice and time, all stock will choose one forage over others, and observations show that the order of palatability changes as plants are grazed down and stage of growth or season proceeds. Palatability is important in that grossly unpalatable forages may present a problem through insufficient forage intake. The reverse is that very palatable forages increase dry matter and nutrient intake and enhance horse maintenance or gain performance. To some extent, you should consider palatability when planning horse pastures. It is common for medium- to low-palatability beef cattle forages to be consumed like more palatable forage if the pasture is a monoculture or close to it, or if good rotational grazing is practiced where stock densities are relatively high. A key to managing forages with variable but acceptable palatability is to use rotational grazing methods because the animals are only briefly on a paddock whose stock density does not allow extensive picking and choosing. Therefore, in a relatively short time, they eat what is reasonably acceptable to them. Beef cattle rotations have been managed on grass mixtures when graze-off of forage in a given paddock was accomplished in one-half to three days with no obvious signs of undesirable selective grazing caused by palatability differences. However, extremely short grazing periods of one-half to one day to use all forage may not be realistic for horses. The cattle didn't have time to sort out palatable plants. They ate what was there in a hurry. Also keep in mind that horses are not (1) intelligent enough or (2) intuitive enough to balance a diet on the basis of forage palatability. A cafeteria of forages may not be totally helpful in balancing horse forage rations. Most horsemen and others who have observed pasturing horses know that small-grain pastures, ryegrass, lush bermudagrass, crabgrass, certain Old World bluestems, and other grasses are all well used by horses. Research illustrates the relative palatability of southern forages to horses (Ball, 1985; table 2). Palatability will change with different horses, season, and stage of pasture growth. Arrowleaf clover rated low in palatability in this study, but it can be used some in a grass-clover mixture in rotational grazing situations. Palatability is important, but not the last word. Archer (1973) of the United Kingdom has researched horse forage palatability. Many of the forages he tested are not important here, but results for some forages we also have in the United States are presented in table 3.
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