<p><strong>Is your horse on pasture?</strong></p>
<p><img src="images-joomla/stories/44-images/44-157 pasture.jpg" alt="44-157 pasture" width="550" height="154" /></p>
<p>PC-Horse allows you to select a grazing mode for your horse. In order to calculate grass intake and formulate a ration, information about the quality and abundance of the grass, and how long the horse is on grass every day must be provided. The program contains three pre-defined qualities of pasture grass. <span class="Fetstilsvart">You must have one (and only one) pasture grass in the horse's feed list </span>in order to activate the pasture function. In addition, you can select any number of other feeds.</p>
<p>Click the <img src="images-joomla/stories/44-images/44-157 button pasture.jpg" alt="44-157 button pasture" width="121" height="24" style="vertical-align: middle;" /></p>
<p><img src="images-joomla/stories/44-images/44-108 pasture area.jpg" alt="44-108 pasture area" width="404" height="86" /></p>
<p><span class="Fetstilsvart">"Plentiful"</span> means that there is a lot of high quality grass in the pasture<span class="Fetstilsvart">.<br />"Average"</span> means that the pasture is partly grazed, or with limited growth due to moderate fertilization, i.e. mountain or natural pasture. <br /><span class="Fetstilsvart">"Little"</span> means that the pasture is heavily grazed, and the grass is short.</p>
<p>Based on your information PC-Horse estimates a daily intake of the pasture grass you have selected.<br />&nbsp;<br />Although possible, you should not change this intake manually, but rather define new pasture grasses of different qualities if relevant. You can also change the hours spent on pasture. The maximum daily intake of pasture grass is set to 3,2 kg dry matter per 100 kg body weight for lactating mares. For all other horses it is set to 2,8 kg dry matter per 100 kg body weight. If the calculated intake of pasture grass is close to the maximum amount and you also&nbsp;include other feeds in the ration, then the calculated amount of pasture grass will be reduced.</p>
<p>Calculation of feed intake on pasture always involves uncertainty. It is therefore strongly recommended that the body condition of grazing horses is watched carefully and that the feeding of concentrates is regulated to avoid the horse becoming too thin or too fat. Please observe that the quality of pastures change through the summer as the horses use them. It is necessary to adjust the selection of pasture grass and the amount of grass in the pasture as the seasons progress.</p>
<p>It is difficult to calculate intakes of vitamin A and vitamin D during the grazing season because of variation in the quality of the pasture grass. Since vitamin D is formed by the direct action of sunlight on the horses skin, vitamin supplies from the feed are probably not critical. When a horse is defined as grazing, PC-Horse will not show red lines for vitamin A or D, even if the calculated intakes fall outside the optimal area.</p>
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