Nutrient Requirements of Horses

Animal Specification


Mature Weight, kg
Intake Level, % BW

Adult at Maintenance
Stallion
Growing
Pregnant
Lactating
Working/Training

Dietary Supply

Feed Name	Amt	DM	DE	CP	Lys	Ca	P	Na	Cl	K
	kg	%	Mcal/kg	%	%	%	%	%	%	%

Feed Picker

Select Feed Type:

General Program Operation

This program can be downloaded for offline use on the end user's computer simply by saving the file in html format to their local hard drive. This can be accomplished in both Internet Explorer and Firefox by selecting "Save As" from the main browser menu.
JavaScript must be enabled for the program to operate properly.

Program Information

     This program was developed from equations and other data presented in the 6th revised edition of the "Nutrient Requirements of Horses" (NRC, 2007). The program complements the information provided in the "Nutrient Requirements of Horses" by performing some of the procedures needed to calculate requirements. This program is not intended to replace the "Nutrient Requirements of Horses" book, which contains important information about the many factors that can influence the derivation and application of nutrient requirements to various situations. Knowledge of nutrient constraints and limitations of the suggested equations and models is essential for the proper use of this program in determining the nutrient requirements of specific horses. Because of the many variables involved and judgments that must be made in choosing inputs and interpreting outputs, the NRC makes no claim for the accuracy of this software in predicting the requirements for individual horses in specific situations. The user is solely responsible for the risk of use. Careful review of the information presented in the "Nutrient Requirements of Horses" will assist users in making appropriate judgments in the use of this program.

     This program requires users to enter specific information such as current body weight, expected mature body weight, month of gestation (for pregnant mares), months of age (growing horses) and months of lactation (lactating mares). For horses at maintenance, the user must choose from the low, average or high categories. Similarly, for exercising horses, the user must choose from four levels of work load. Explanations of these categories of maintenance and work can be found in the "Nutrient Requirements of Horses".

     This program calculates nutrient requirements in amounts per day. However, the program allows the user to calculate nutrient concentrations/densities based on a specific level of intake that is chosen by the user. The program will also calculate the dietary supply of several nutrients if the user enters information on the amounts of specific feeds included in the ration. Feed composition data in the feed library of this document were obtained from other publications such as the "Nutrient Requirements of Beef Cattle", "Nutrient Requirements of Swine" and "Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle". Complete composition data for many feeds in the feed library were not available, therefore, the computer program calculates only the amounts of DE, CP, Ca, P, Na, Cl, K and lysine provided by the dietary ingredients. Unfortunately, the feed library does not contain lysine values for many feeds (particularly forages), therefore the estimated amount of lysine in the dietary ingredients may be underestimated by the "dietary supply" component of the program.

Daily Requirements for Other Nutrients

Magnesium (Mg)	g
Sulfur (S)	g
Cobalt (Co)	mg
Copper (Cu)	mg
Iodine (I)	mg
Iron (Fe)	mg
Manganese (Mn)	mg
Zinc (Zn)	mg
Selenium (Se)	mg
Vitamin A	IU
Vitamin D	IU
Vitamin E	IU
Thiamin	mg
Riboflavin	mg

N	NAS
R	NAE
C	IOM

Nutrient Requirements of Horses

Sixth Revised Edition
2007

Available for purchase from the
National Academies Press
(http://www.nap.edu/)

National Research Council
Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources

COMMITTEE ON NUTRIENT REQUIREMENTS OF HORSES

LAURIE M. LAWRENCE
NADIA F. CYMBALUK
DAVID W. FREEMAN
RAYMOND J. GEOR
PATRICIA M. GRAHAM-THIERS
ANNETTE C. LONGLAND
BRIAN D. NIELSEN
PAUL D. SICILIANO
DONALD R. TOPLIFF
EDUARDO V. VALDES
ROBERT J. VAN SAUN

Staff

AUSTIN J. LEWIS, Study Director
JAMIE S. JONKER, Study Director
DONNA LEE JAMEISON, Senior Program Assistant
RUTH S. ARIETI, Project Assistant

External Support

MICHAEL C. BARRY (AgModels, LLC), Computer Programmer
PAULA T. WHITACRE (Full Circle Communications), Editor