FoalGro

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Foal Nutrition is often neglected due to the belief that the mare will adequately feed her foal, and any supplemental feed needed is available to the foal in the mare’s grain and hay bins. However, the digestive system of the foal is immature at birth and needs proper nutrition combined with time to mature.

Foals do not have a functional hindgut at birth; they are primed with the appropriate digestive enzymes for milk based diets.

Horses are hind-gut fermenters, meaning that they have a larger colon to accommodate the forages in their diet. Where humans are unable to break these feedstuffs down, horses have a population of microbes that live and grow in the hindgut so that they can eat hay and grass. Microbes break forages down into available nutrients. Microbes also produce volatile fatty acids (VFA’s) which are short chain fatty acids. VFA’s are an available source of energy (30-70% of total digestible energy needs) for the horse. This helps explain why the mature horse does not need a lot of fat in the diet.

A foal needs to eat often, and over the course of a day should consume up to 10% of their body weight in milk. This can increase to 20% of body weight as they grow.

Foals do not have a functional hindgut at birth; they are primed with the appropriate digestive enzymes for milk based diets. As they age, it is through the provision of carefully formulated diets that foals will start to gain a healthy population of microbes in their hindgut. It is also critical to ensure that foals are growing at a steady rate. Inconsistent levels of energy encourage growth spurts which can be challenging for bone development. Accelerated rates of growth have been directly associated with developmental orthopaedic diseases.

Grains are used very efficiently in the young foal. It has been recorded that grains in foals is used efficiently; 1kg of grain can equal up to 3kg of gain. It is at this point in the young foal’s life that hay is not a necessary part of their diet though it can be offered. While grain can be easily supplied to a foal it is often taken for granted that the milk portion of the diet, undoubtedly the most important to the neonatal foal, is looked after by the mare. It is critical to assess the mare’s ability to provide adequate milk for a foal. A foal needs to eat often, and over the course of a day should consume up to 10% of their body weight in milk. This can increase to 20% of body weight as they grow. If the mare is an athlete, often their milk volume is reduced to maintain stores needed for racing, jumping etc… If the mare is not well, milk volume will also decrease as their body stores deplete .

4 month trial gathering information on the growth and development of foals fed a milk based pellets as the introductory diet.

Mare’s will produce milk over any other metabolic function and may cause more problems for the mare than the foal. If milk replacer is needed, then the caretaker needs to be available for feedings every couple of hours to ensure small amounts of milk are fed to the foal – this avoids stomach upset. Milk replacer and milk pellets can achieve healthy growth and development in the foal through consistent nutrition.
 

Objective

The objective of this trial was to work with foal handlers to gather further information on the growth and development of foals fed Grober milk based pellets as the introductory diet for the foal.

“A comparative trial looking at foals on mare’s milk either with or without Grober FoalGro milk pellet. “

Experimental Approach

All foals had access to mare’s feed during the trial and foals born later in spring also had access to pasture. Each group consisted of 4 foals weighed at birth and every 3 weeks thereafter. The feeding schedule for FoalGro milk pellets is outlined in Table 1.

Age	Amount of pellet/day
1 week	1/2 cup
2 weeks	1 cup (450g)
1 month	1 cup (450g)
1.5 months	1.5 cups (600g)
2 months	2 cups (900g)
3 months	3 cups (1300g)
4 months	3 cups (1300g) mixed with Foal Ration

Results

Growth of foals was higher in those receiving steady intakes of FoalGro milk pellets supplementing mare’s milk. Even though some foals had access to mare’s dry feed, it can be hypothesized that foal’s mimicked mare behaviour by reaching in their bucket but did not always consume the feed. 

Foals receiving FoalGro milk pellets gained an average of 1.1kg/day and foals receiving only mare’s milk gained an average of 874g/day.

FoalGro Milk Pellet Nutritional Profile

Crude Protein	minimum	20%
Crude Fat	minimum	14%
Calcium	actual	0.95%
Phosphorus	actual	0.70%
Copper	actual	53 ppm
Zinc	actual	118 ppm

Conclusion

Foals receiving milk pellet gained an average of 1.1 kg/day and foals receiving only mare’s milk gained an average of 874 g/day.

Grober FoalGro Milk Pellet helped foals steadily attain greater body weights. The combination of a milk based pellet along with its extruded grain component is an excellent diet to meet the unique nutritional needs of foals.

“Growth of foals was higher in those receiving steady intakes of foal pellets supplementing mare’s milk.”