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Grass is a natural source of nutrition for a horse. Equine nutrition is the feeding of horses, ponies, mules, donkeys, and other equines. Correct and balanced nutrition is a critical component of proper horse care. Horses are non-ruminant herbivores of a type known as a "hindgut fermenter." Horses have only one stomach, as do humans.
Alfalfa is widely grown throughout the world as forage for cattle, and is most often harvested as hay, but can also be made into silage, grazed, or fed as greenchop. [23] Alfalfa usually has the highest feeding value of all common hay crops. It is used less frequently as pasture. [11]
Haylage sometimes refers to high dry matter silage of around 40% to 60%, typically made from hay. Horse haylage is usually 60% to 70% dry matter, made in small bales or larger bales. [9] Handling of wrapped bales is most often with some type of gripper that squeezes the plastic-covered bale between two metal parts to avoid puncturing the plastic.
Hay or grass is the foundation of the diet for all grazing animals, and can provide as much as 100% of the fodder required for an animal. Hay is usually fed to an animal during times when winter, drought, or other conditions make pasture unavailable. Animals that can eat hay vary in the types of grasses suitable for consumption, the ways they ...
Grazing of the plant by horses can cause nigropallidal encephalomalacia or "chewing disease", a neurological condition. The disease generally follows consumption of 60–200% of the horse's body weight over an extended period of a month or more, or 2.3–2.6 kilograms (5.1–5.7 pounds) of star-thistle per 100 kg (220 lb) body weight per day.
Fodder includes hay, straw, silage, compressed and pelleted feeds, oils and mixed rations, and sprouted grains and legumes (such as bean sprouts, fresh malt, or spent malt). Most animal feed is from plants, but some manufacturers add ingredients to processed feeds that are of animal origin.
Tree hay (sometimes also referred to as leaf fodder, leaf hay or tree fodder) is a source of animal fodder produced by harvesting the leaves and twigs of a variety of perennials, and in particular trees. It specifically refers to the practice of feeding the material to livestock directly after collection or more commonly after storing and ...
Some, like alfalfa, clover, vetch , stylo (Stylosanthes), or Arachis, are sown in pasture and grazed by livestock. Others, such as Leucaena or Albizia , are woody shrubs or trees that are either broken down by livestock or regularly cut by humans to provide fodder.
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