Summary of Advice.

[bellajack]

Quick summary of advice for grazing management, as given by world experts at conference, for horses which are overweight or have a cresty neck or have had laminitis before:

1)If possible only allow to graze for a period between midnight and 11am, especially in next few months - April, May and June.

2)Never allow to graze pasture which has been rested. Graze with underweight horses, cattle or sheep first, or top and remove cuttings.

3)Never allow to graze recently cut hay stubble. Need to be grazing leaf of grass, not stem.

4)If possible avoid allowing to graze frosty grass, particularly when very sunny.

Grass is still the biggest single cause of laminitis in this country.

The more sunny the day is, the more dangerous the grass becomes - up to nearly 50% more dangerous in the afternoon/evening than in the morning.

[harveydales]

Thanks Bellajack - my goodness, you were up late doing this!

I'm worried now because Quest lives out, I bring him in from 8AM and turn out at 11AM! Just what I shouldn't be doing! I've started putting a load of hay out in the mornings, in the hope that he will eat that rather than much grass. So far it seems to be working. My trimmer is coming this morning - I'll see what she has to say.

[bellajack]

Was up late feeding Monty Muntjac. Did this while waiting for milk to warm up!

[harveydales]

Realised that was probably the case once I'd posted! Glad he's still doing well.

[bevbob]

Thanks Bellajack, I just wish I had the options to do the above. Its going to be a worrying few months for me.
Its funny how I seem to have a gut instinct on a lot of things though. At the moment Im feeling ok about Bobs going on the grass but soon I will have to start bringing him in early or muzzling him I think.

[knight]

Thanks so much bellajack, for putting so much time & effort into putting the Laminitis Conference info on here for us and now a grazing summary too. Really appreciate all this information for as I say our laminitis research has a somewhat different focus and not so much emphasis on feeding, grass and management as serious causative factors. Reading the sumary, eeek no wonder poor Topaz has problems as we're always sunny here. We'll have to keep up with topping the grass for her.

[Biggerside Benwell]

I am another one who really appreciates you typing all this up and will be turning Danny out overnight from tomorrow!

[emmadales]

Thanks very much for this summary. I have noticed the grass is starting to come trhough so ill have to keep my eye on em's.

amanda

[The Moo]

I haven't read through all your other notes yet but I appreciate the fact rested grass would be longer, thicker, more abundant etc but at one point weren't they talking about the grass in the traditional starvation paddocks being 'stressed' and having excess fructans in it.

[harveydales]

I take it to mean that a tiny amount of "stressed" grass is better than large quantities of unstressed, longer grass. Certainly that has been the case with my lot. The time Quest got lami he was on longer, rough, old but but plentiful grass and all ancient meadow with no ryegrass to speak of. Now he is on very short, sparse and probably overgrazed paddock and is doing fine.

[The Moo]

It's so tricky isn't it.
I think the thing that is new to most people is that stemmy grass is bad rather than leafy grass.

[bellajack]

The important things to remember here are that rapidly growing grass is lowest in fructan, as it is using fructan, rather than storing it, but fructan is stored in the stem of the grass.

Therefore, although stressed grass will be trying to store fructan, as it won't be growing rapidly, if the grass is very short it will be mostly leaf, not stem, so there won't be much stem for the horse to eat and it won't be consuming much fructan.

Hope that makes sense!!

[harveydales]

Yes, that makes sense and explains why Quest does well on his sparse grazing.

[The Moo]

Now that again is contrary to normal belief, that new shoots are lethal, but I guess if new shoots are shooting they are using their fructans?

Have I got that right.

[bellajack]

Yes, that's right. Rapidly growing grass is using fructan for growth, so early spring is not too bad a time for laminitics, as long as the grass can be kept short.

Now is the worst time, when grass growth is slowing down so that fructan can be stored for filling seeds and plant maturation, especially on long, sunny days when fructan levels climb rapidly.

Then, once the grass seeds have dispersed in late summer fructan levels are low, as a lot has been used up. But, again, the grass needs to be short, as more fructan will accumulate in the stems.

On sunny days, at this time of year, horses at risk from laminitis should not be grazing between mid morning and midnight, regardless of rainfall and temperature.