The effects of a new fibre-rich concentrate on the digestibility of horse rations

Commercially mixed feeds for light horse feeding are being used more and more and, in recent times, a particular role has been played by mixed feeds characterized by high fibre percentages together with pre-biotic or pro-biotic supplements. Consequently, more data about these new feeds are required. The apparent digestibility of a commercially mixed feed containing about 14% crude fibre (CF) as a feed and 1% lactulose was determined by means of 3 in vivo digestibility trials each performed on 4 saddle horses weighting about 550 kg over a 6 day faeces total collection period with a previous 14 day adaptation period. The diets were based on first cut meadow hay – whose digestibility was estimated in the first trial – and a mixed feed at a feeding level close to maintenance. The forage to concentrate ratios were 100 : 0, 75 : 25 and 50 : 50, respectively, in the three trials. The apparent digestibility of the dry matter, organic matter, gross energy, crude protein, NDF, ADF and CF were measured by the ingesta/excreta procedure. The data was processed using ANOVA. Significant differences were only found for the concentrate in the apparent digestibility coefficients of the dry matter (P = 0.021), gross energy (P = 0.023), ADF (P = 0.041), NDF (P = 0.006) and cellulose (P = 0.031).