Feeding Horses on Stud Farms in Australia and New Zealand

Feeding practices on stud farms vary widely throughout Australia. The size of the stud and the number of horses, climate, pasture development, irrigation, breed, location, and commercial status all influence feeding practices. Board rates are higher for mares and young horses on Thoroughbred studs than on Standardbred studs. This means that Standardbred horses are usually fed hay or oats only, apart from unusual circumstances.

Relatively few studs weigh young horses, so assessment of growth rate is subjective. Breeders are now realizing the problems created by pushing large amounts of grain into young horses. However, demands by yearling purchasers for large, fat yearlings at sales force many breeders to overfeed yearlings. Creep feeding is relatively uncommon, but foals usually have the opportunity to eat from the mare’s feed bin. While it is usual to feed supplementary minerals to young horses, many breeders are not aware of how much copper and zinc are needed by young horses for rapid growth and minimal developmental orthopedic diseases.

Laboratory testing of the nutrient content of feeds is rare apart from protein testing of oats and some hay. This is due to a combination of ignorance of the benefits of testing and the high costs involved.

Feeding on studs in New Zealand has changed dramatically over the last several years, mainly through the bad experiences of overfeeding when it was common to sell to the Australian market by the pound. The downturn in returns for the New Zealand yearling led to studs wanting to identify what was needed and what was not required. Pasture analysis on a seasonal basis is now common, and structured feeding programs are justified by nutritional benefits and cost.

Most of the Thoroughbred studs in New Zealand are feeding commercially prepared steam-flaked or extruded textured feeds to their sale yearlings. The convenience and labor savings to the commercial studs together with the definable nutritional contributions are the main reasons for this switch in feeding practices.