Horses prefer silage, not hay
Hay, the staple winter diet of domesticated horses for over a thousand years, has come in last in a university study exploring equine preferences for conserved forage.
researchers at the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management at the Swedish
University of Agricultural Science in Uppsala, was designed to determine horses’
preferences between wrapped forage (silage) and hay. The horses ate much more of
the silage given to them, than the hay.
Preference for wrapped
grass
The study involved four kinds of preserved forage – grass
baled and wrapped with three different moisture contents, and hay. The four
different kinds of forage fed to the horses had been made from the same paddock
of grass, all of which was cut at the same time. The horses’ clear preference
was for the wrapped grass with the highest moisture content.
They never left
this in preference to any of the other feeds, and ate up to 90% of what was
offered, compared with only 23% of the hay.
The containers from which
the horses were fed were all the same size and colour, and were swapped around
daily.
Related link:
University of Uppsala
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