September 2013 - Preparations for the weaning of foals

We have come to September and the year's grazing season is drawing to a close. It is also time to prepare for the weaning of foals. For many foals, weaning can be a stressful process that affects them both physically and mentally.

It is important that separation from the mare is done as gently as possible. There are several ways to implement weaning. Some prefer to separate the mares and foals quickly, while others prefer a more gradual process. Breeders must rely on their own experience and apply the methods they find most appropriate under the given conditions. One important factor is the number of mares and foals in the herd. Whether your mare is on her own or is part of a larger herd where there is a number of foals will make a big difference.

Where foals are weighed regularly, it is often found that the daily gain is reduced during the weaning period. This is not desirable, since a period of reduced growth is often followed by a period of rapid growth. The latter is called compensatory growth, and occurs when the foal’s body tries to compensate for the period of low growth after weaning. In such periods we often see that the foals become thin. They appear higher over the croup than over the withers. Such compensatory growth during this period is not welcome as the foals may be especially susceptible to undesirable development of tendons, joints and bones. An important part of preparations for weaning is therefore to ensure that foals are eating well and are able to maintain normal weight gain in the period leading up to, and during, the period of actual weaning.

It is well known that stress can cause gastric ulcers in horses, especially in horses that in training receive relatively high amounts of concentrates. Many riding horses and race horses therefore struggle with gastric ulcers. It is less well known that that this can also be a problem for foals and yearlings. Studies have shown that a part of the foal population may also develop gastric ulcers, especially those receiving concentrate supplements, for instance through creep feeding. It is therefore desirable that the use of concentrates is kept at a moderate level through the liberal feeding of good quality roughage.

If foals continue to be on pasture after weaning, there are usually no problems as long as the pasture is in a reasonably good condition so late in the season. We can also optionally provide supplemental hay or silage if the quality of the pasture has in fact started to degrade.

 Where foals are taken in from pasture at weaning, it is important to give free access to forage, either as hay or haylage, with an appropriately high quality for foals. This means that both energy and protein content should be relatively high and this should be confirmed through proper feed analysis, not just assessed through traditional “experience”.

Foals at weaning and during their first winter need forage that contains high levels of energy, protein and calcium. Swedish experiments show that foals grow equally well on forage-based rations as on traditional winter rations with concentrates. However, this requires that the forage is of an appropriate quality for young growing horses.

When comparing nutrient concentrations among different feeds, you should always use the values ​​given per kg dry matter. This is particularly important when using haylage, as this feed type varies widely in dry matter content, depending on the moisture it had when baled.

As a guideline, roughage for foals and yearlings should have at least 9,5 MJ energy and 130 grams of crude protein per kg dry matter. In addition, the calcium content should be 4 grams or more per kg dry matter. To evaluate this you need a feed analysis.

The PC-Horse program is an important tool in this context. Feed analyses are easily entered into the program, allowing you to formulate rations based on the actual nutrient values of your own feed instead of using standard table values.

PC-Horse is working to get agreements with feed analyzing laboratories in several European countries in order to enable a direct import of digital certificates of feed analyses into the PC-Horse program. This procedure enables horse feeders to use their own roughage data without any risk of errors in the transfer of nutrient data and represents a huge step forward in the accurate and effective planning of rations.