Foderhäckar till hästar i lösdrift
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.