Nutrient value and digestibility of diets with different roughages for jumping horses

ABSTRACT: Two groups of jumping horses in activity were used for the research in order to evaluate the nutritive value and the digestibility of diets. The Group P (4 horses) was fed with a daily ratio containing pellet plus a roughage that changed in 3 subsequent trials: in the first trial traditional hay, in the second haylage and in the third dehydrated alfalfa. For the Group C (4 horses) the roughages were the same but the complete feed was a crushed feed. After an adaptation period (15 days) faeces’ samples, collected individually twice a day for 5 days, were analysed to determine the digestible utilisation coefficient (DUC) with AIA method. The results obtained with supply of three different roughages are similar for digestibility coefficient of crude protein, in particular for dehydrated alfalfa plus pellet or crushed. Both diets, pellet or crushed plus haylage, show a lower coefficient of digestibility for crude protein and ether extract; while the diet crushed plus haylage shows the better digestibility for crude fibre and cell wall fractions (NDF and ADF) determined according to Van Soest. The same result is underlined with pellet and traditional hay. The Energy coefficient of digestibility is higher with pellet plus the three different roughages in comparison with crushed and different roughages, even if the greater amount of feed, increasing the rate of transit, reduces the coefficient of utilisation. These results underline the importance to analyze the quality of diets and to evaluate the treatment and the associative effect of different feeds.