Effect of hay steaming on forage nutritive values and dry matter intake by horses.

Management strategies for horses with respiratory disease include soaking hay before feeding. Hay steaming is an alternative to this practice; however, little is known about its impact on forage nutritive values or intake. The objective was to determine the effect of steaming on forage nutritive value and intake by horses. Two alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)-orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) mixed hays were evaluated: a low moldy (NM) and moderately moldy (MM) hay. Six mature horses were used in a 10 d crossover design. Three horses were assigned to each hay type and treatments were switched on d 6. Each day, one bale of each hay was sampled (pre- and poststeaming) and steamed for 90 min using a commercial hay steamer. Two flakes of steamed or unsteamed NM or MM hay were weighed and offered simultaneously to each horse in individual hay nets. Horses were allowed access to hay for 2 h, orts were collected, and 2 h DMI was calculated. Six additional bales of NM and MM were used to evaluate the effect of steaming on total suspended particulate (TSP). Flakes of unsteamed or steamed hay were agitated in an electric cement mixer, and TSP were recorded every min for 30 min using a tapered element oscillating microbalance sampler. Paired t tests and PROC MIXED of SAS (SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC) were used to compare steamed and unsteamed hay nutritive values, mold concentration, TSP, and 2 h DMI. Steaming increased hay moisture and therefore reduced DM to 77 and 81% for NM and MM, respectively (P < 0.001). In NM and MM hay, steaming reduced P content by 16 and 17%, respectively (P ≤ 0.007). Steaming reduced water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and ethanol-soluble carbohydrates (ESC) by 13% (P = 0.001) and 27% (P = 0.003), respectively, for MM but had no effect on NM (P > 0.05). Steaming reduced mold concentrations in both hays by ≥ 91% (P < 0.001). Total suspended particulate of MM hay was reduced by 55% (P = 0.043), but TSP in NM hay was not affected by steaming (P = 0.445). Dry matter intake of NM was increased by steaming; horses ingested 0.64 kg of unsteamed and 2.02 kg of steamed hay (P < 0.001). Dry matter intake of MM was not affected by steaming (P > 0.05). For NM hay, steaming decreased P and mold concentrations and increased DMI of the hay but had no effect on TSP. In MM hay, steaming reduced P, WSC, ESC, mold concentrations, and TSP but did not affect DMI. Steaming represents a strategy for reducing TSP and mold concentrations and increasing DMI in some hays but can result in leaching of essential nutrients.

Digestive capacity in weanling and mature horses.

The ability of young and mature horses to digest DM, OM, and NDF was compared using 6 weanling colts and 6 mature (13.2 ± 3.0 yr) geldings. Each colt was paired with a gelding, and the pair was adapted to a diet containing 67% alfalfa cubes and 33% concentrate for 21 d. During the adaptation period, horses were accustomed to housing and all handling procedures. The adaptation period was also used to adjust the amount of feed offered to minimize orts and to maintain similar rates of intake within a pair. After the adaptation period, a 5-d fecal collection period using fecal collection harnesses ensued. The average age of the weanling colts at the start of the 5-d collection period was 181.8 ± 2.9 d. On the morning of the first collection day, Co-EDTA (9 mg Co/kg BW(0.75)) and ytterbium-labeled hay fiber (9 mg Yb/kg BW(0.75)) were added to the concentrate portion of the diet, and horses were closely observed for complete consumption of the markers before additional feed was offered. The fecal collection bags were emptied every 1 to 2 h, and each collection was weighed and subsampled for later measurement of Co and Yb concentrations, which were used to determine the mean retention time (MRT) of the fluid and particulate phases of digesta, respectively. The remaining feces for each horse were composited each day and then subsampled for measurement of DM digestibility (DMD), NDF digestibility (NDFD), and OM digestibility (OMD). During the fecal collection period, DMI was similar between colts and geldings (91.4 and 91.2 g/kg BW(0.75), respectively). There were no differences between colts and mature geldings for DMD, OMD, or NDFD. Across both ages, the MRT of the particulate phase was 24.9 h compared with 21.8 h for the fluid phase (P = 0.002). However, MRT for the particulate phase was not different between colts and mature geldings (24.7 and 25.2 h, respectively). There was no difference in the MRT for the fluid phase between colts and mature geldings (21.5 and 22.0 h, respectively). The results indicated that the digestibility of DM, OM, and NDF in a diet consisting of good-quality cubed forage and concentrate is similar for weanling colts and mature geldings.

Comparison of in vitro digestibility estimates using the DaisyII incubator with in vivo digestibility estimates in horses.

The objective of this study was to determine if in vitro methodologies developed for the Ankom Daisy(II) incubator could produce accurate estimates of in vivo equine DM digestibility (DMD) and NDF digestibility (NDFD) when equine feces were used as the inoculum source. Four mature geldings were utilized in a 4 × 4 Latin square design experiment with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of dietary treatments (timothy hay, alfalfa hay, timothy hay plus oats, and alfalfa hay plus oats), in which the geldings were individually housed and fed. During each 5-d total fecal collection period, feces were collected and composited daily and used to calculate in vivo digestibility. Digestion of the 4 treatment diets was evaluated in vitro using the Daisy(II) incubator. Each incubation vessel of the Daisy(II) was assigned to 1 of the horses and contained 18 filter bags (6 containing the assigned treatment hay, 6 containing hay-oat mix, and 6 containing oats). Three incubation periods were evaluated: 30, 48, and 72 h. Although the 30- and 48-h in vitro estimates were consistently less than the in vivo estimates, they ranked diets in the same order as the in vivo method. For the alfalfa oat diet, timothy diet, and the timothy oat diet, the mean 72-h in vitro DMD and in vivo DMD were not different (P = 0.1444). However, for the alfalfa diet, the DMD estimate from 72-h in vitro incubation was less than the in vivo estimate (P < 0.010). For NDFD, the timothy diet was the only diet, in which the mean 72-h in vitro NDFD estimate was not different than the in vivo estimate. However, the in vitro method correctly ranked the alfalfa-based diets as having greater NDFD estimates than the timothy-based diets. Of the 3 incubation periods, the 72-h period provided digestibility estimates most similar to the in vivo data. Using the methodologies described in this research, the Daisy(II) incubator and equine feces can be used to estimate in vivo DMD of horse feeds.