Learning how to analyze hay will help you to make informed decisions when buying forage and to build balanced rations based on your horse’s needs. Here’s an overview of how to carry out this essential exercise.

Make observations

1. Observe the colour of the hay

Before you have your hay analyzed, you must first assess it in the simplest way possible—through your senses. Ideally, you should be looking for beautiful greenish forage. Brown hay is often a sign of poor storage or bad weather at harvest.

A horse at maintenance is one that is required to do very little exercise. Whether the horse is enjoying a vacation or recovering from an injury, the following are some basic principles for ensuring that it receives a suitable diet according to its nutritional needs.

At each stage of gestation, a broodmare has specific nutritional requirements. Providing a balanced diet and appropriate management is therefore essential to its well-being and the foal’s health.

The broodmare’s gestation period is 11 months, and the lactation period ranges from 6 months to 1 year, depending on management at the farm.

The nutritional requirements of broodmares can be divided into several distinct steps.

There are many benefits to raising horses outdoors. For instance, it requires less maintenance, better reflects their natural inclinations and leads to better physical and mental health. But you need to know how to adapt your management practices. Here are seven key things you should do when keeping horses outside in winter.

Feeding senior horses presents many challenges. Here are a few tips for improving the nutrition of your older horse.

To thrive and be healthy, layers and replacement pullets must be reared according to best practices for management, temperature, and feeding.

Natur-aile broiler turkey feeds provide all the protein, energy, vitamins, and minerals that turkeys need.

They contain between 18 % and 26 % of protein to meet the requirements of turkeys from day one to slaughter.

The broiler turkey feed program consists of three feeds:

• Natur-aile dindonneau – provide as only feed to turkeys aged one day to six weeks (42 days).

Natur-aile complete feeds provide birds with all the nutrients that they need.

The Natur-aile broiler and roaster feed program consists of two feeds:

• Natur-aile début-croissance unique – granule for birds aged one to 28 days

• Natur-aile croissance-finition unique – granule or texture, for birds aged 29 days to slaughter

According to statistics from the Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec, the fat content of milk decreases every summer. And in recent years, heat stress episodes have increased. Although the extent of this decline varies from herd to herd, there are strategies to minimize the impact of heat on milk production.

1. Good ventilation and fresh water

Proper ventilation, increased in summer, remains a priority to minimize the impact of heat on milk and milk component production, as does access to fresh, high-quality water and comfortable stalls.

The price of feed follows the principle of supply and demand. When there is a shortage of supply, the best way to avoid rising prices is to reduce demand.

Here are some strategies for reducing the cost of hay when demand is too high.

1. Identify cull cows

Separate the cows that calved from those that did not. Leave a bull with the second group of cows for up to 45 days. Then, use pregnancy tests to identify non-pregnant cows and remove them from the herd.