Pasture Intake of Whole-Day Stocked Thoroughbred Foals With Growth

We investigated the changes in the forage and nutrient intake of thoroughbred foals on pastures with whole-day stocking with age. Twelve thoroughbred foals were used and were allowed to graze on a pasture for 21 h/day from June to September. All foals were weaned just before 5 months of age. The pasture intake of the foals was measured using the double-indicator method. During the suckling period, the total voluntary dry matter intake (VDMI) of the pasture for foals was higher at 4 months (2.1 kgDM/day) than at 2 months (1.3 kgDM/day). However, VDMI of pastures per body weight (%BW) for foals was not significantly different (approximately 1%BW). After weaning, the VDMI of the pasture for foals at 5 months (4.8 kgDM/day) increased more than that at 4 months old. Thoroughbred foals under whole-day stocking during the nursing period were dependent on dam's milk for approximately 60% of digestible energy (DE) requirements even at 4 months of age just before weaning. After weaning, crude protein was able to meet the requirement only with grass, whereas DE was able to reach 89% of the DE requirement from pasture and can meet this requirement with approximately 1 kg of the concentrate.