Feeding behavior of Mangalarga Marchador foals under food offers and nocturne stabled

Abstract

The objective this study was identifies the feeding behavior of Mangalarga Marchador foals on the stable at night and full time at the limpograss  (Hemarthria altissima cv. Flórida). This experiment took place in Haras Jump ,Curitiba - PR,  from 09/29/07 to 02/28/08. The treatments were diets compound by haygrass (5,0 kg) and commercial concentrate (2,5 kg) offered on the stable during night and at the pasture during daylight (T100C), haygrass (2,5 kg) and commercial concentrate (1,25 kg) offered on the stable during night and at the pasture during daylight (T50C), and only limpograss pasture (TP). The feeding behavior was measured by focal animal sampling, each 10 minutes, on 12/07/2007, 01/30/2008 and 02/19/2008, during 24 hours. The development was control by weight gain and body score. The results were analyzed by Statistica, version 5.5, program. The foals of TP treatments (only limpograss) feeding how long during day that nocturne stabled foals. The stable influenced the foals feeding behavior at the pasture, because the time feeding morning was smaller (p<0.05) than afternoon and TP treatments.The speed of grazing during daylight was higher (p<0.05) than stabled treatments.

The development and body score of the foals were satisfactory since the weight gain of the TP treatments was higher (p<0,05). It suggests that adequate mass forage allow to the foals ingest nutrients necessary to the development.