Foderhäckar till hästar i lösdrift

Abstract: Knowledge about feed racks for feeding forages to horses is lacking. Racks for sheep and cows are sometimes used for horses. Feeding roughage on the ground, or feeding silage bales with the plastic and net still on, can bring on a lot of different problems. The opportunity to control the hygienic quality is small and feed losses can be high. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate how the eating behaviour and consumption of horses were influenced by feeding racks of different constructions. Feed losses and changes in chemical composition of the forage were also studied. The experiment was performed during three weeks with one rack being used every week. The racks used were one bale cradle, one feed table with roofing and vertical shoulder supports and one circular frame. The horses (a group of yearlings) used in the study, were kept in their ordinary loose housing stable, and were used to eat forage from feeding racks. None of the feeding racks were adapted for roughage feeding to horses. The construction of the feed racks impeded the horse's natural eating behaviour and position. The feed racks that gave the horse's the biggest possibilities to carry out their natural eating behaviour was the feed table and the circular frame, as they did not affect the head position negatively. It occurred more often that the horses dragged out forage from the feed table than from the circular frame, but consumption and feed looses did not differ between the feed racks. When the bale cradle was used the horses ate with their heads outside the feed rack all the time, as the constructions made it impossible for the horses to eat with their head in natural position.