Validation of alkane-pair technique for estimating
The alkane pair technique has been developed to measure grass intake of grazing animals. Its use has been validated in elephants, sheep, cattle, grazing dairy cows, kangaroos and wombats…
Surprising though it may seem, there has been little published information on the amount of grass horses eat, with a mean dry matter intake of 2.5% of BW being assumed. Over 80% of horses in the UK are overweight and within this group a further 10-15% are considered to be clinically obese. This is of welfare concern as many diseases such as laminitis, equine metabolic syndrome and developmental diseases are associated with excessive weight gain.
