Determination of Pasture Dry Matter Intake Rates in Different Seasons and Their Application in Grazing Management

Eight mature horses weighing 576 ± 32 kg (mean ± SD) were used to compare differences in pasture dry matter (DM) intake rate in October (period 1), February (period 2), and May (period 3). Horses were randomly assigned to a pair of adjacent 5 m × 5 m grazing cells containing nontoxic, endophyte-infected tall fescue. Horses had access to each cell for 4 hours. Pasture DM intake rate was estimated over the entire 8-hour period by measuring the pre- and postgrazing herbage mass within each cell and was expressed as kg DM/100 kg body weight (BW)/hr. Mean 8-hour DM intake rate in period 1 (0.17 ± 0.01 kg DM/100 kg BW/hr) was greater (P < .001) than for period 2 (0.09 ± 0.01 kg DM/100 kg BW/hr) and period 3 (0.11 ± 0.01 kg DM/100 kg BW/hr), but it was not different (P = .274) between periods 2 and 3. A second experiment using the same eight horses was conducted immediately after the first experiment, within each season, to determine whether the DM intake rates derived from the first experiment could be used along with estimates of maintenance digestible energy (DE) requirements and pasture DE concentrations to predict the amount of grazing time required for a horse to consume only its maintenance DE requirement and maintain zero BW change over a 6-week period. Grazing time necessary to maintain zero BW change was accurately predicted for period 1 only.