Feeding practices and nutritional status of horses in district Anantnag of Kashmir valley

The study was carried out to evaluate the feeding practices and nutritional status of different classes of equines in district Anantnag of Kashmir. In each six blocks of the district, twenty five equine rearing families were selected randomly to collect information regarding the feeding practices followed for assessing the nutritional status of the horses. The daily dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), digestible energy (DE) and macro minerals (Ca and P) intakes by different classes of horses were calculated from the feed intakes and compared to standard requirements. The results revealed that the common sources of roughages were paddy straw, maize stover, mixed grass hay and oat hay, while common sources of concentrates fed to equines in the district were maize grain, mustard oilcake (MOC), rice bran and wheat bran. Among the roughages the highest DM content was found in paddy straw (88.52%) and among concentrates in rice bran (91.30%). Mixed grass hay had the highest CP (10.39%) among roughages, and MOC (37.54%) among concentrates. Daily DM intake was optimum for adult equines while deficit by 36.64% for foals. Mean daily CP intake in adult equines were higher by 14.62%, while lactating mares and foals were deficient by 0.18% and 28.28%. Ca intake in adult horses and lactating mares was optimum, while it was deficient by 1.93% in foals. Daily P intakes were optimum in all classes of horses. It is concluded that inadequate and imbalanced feeding practices followed leads to poor performance of all classes of horses.