Everything Horses and Livestock® Magazine February 2018 Vol 3 Issue 1

Everything Horses and Livestock Magazine ®

This carbohydrate is only digested in the cecum and colon of the horse and is still the preferred and main source of energy of all equine, bovine

NSC. If released in the small intestine it can be digested and absorbed in the area of the digestive tract. Grass hay contains the lowest percent of the common forages and good quality alfalfa contains the most. However, grass contains very high levels when is first begins growing and before the structural stalks are present. NSC levels are the highest in the seeds of the plant in the form of starch and that is why grain levels in the feeding program is important to know. If NSC does get to the cecum and colon, it is fermented very rapidly by the bacteria and can produce excess gas and acid and cause founder and/or colic. WSC or water-soluble

CARBOHYDRATE CONFUSION There is some confusion

and other like species. This is the part of the diet that we work the hardest on to improve the digestion of it. This is why we formulate to feed the bacteria, which do the heavy work of digesting this fiber and provide energy to the animal. Proper nutrition formulations can improve the growth rate of the bacteria, which accelerates the rate and extent of the fiber and provides more energy to the animal per lb. of fiber consumed NSC or non-structural

among horse owners about the meaning of various terms used for the carbohydrate fraction of horse feed and what levels should be. In this article I am not going to make recommendations on what the levels should be but would like to list what they are so people can ask the right questions. First, carbohydrates make up the majority of all plant material, but is in various chemical forms depending on the plant and stage of growth. The following is a description of the common terms most often referenced. Plants must contain structural carbohydrates, or they would not be able to stand upright. This type of carbohydrate is called fiber and is made of sugar molecules in specific formations the give it the structure. However, carbohydrate of this type is difficult at best and often nearly impossible to digest even by bacteria. The fiber found in plants such as grass and alfalfa as well as some byproducts found in horse feed is digestible to various degrees and is referred to as NDF (neutral detergent fiber).

carbohydrate is that fraction of the carbohydrate fraction of the plant that can be digested by enzymes in the small intestine of the horse and absorbed directly from the small intestine as sugar and is the most commonly referenced fraction when there is concern about metabolic problem horses. This fraction is that carbohydrate that is part of soluble fiber and all plant material contains some

Everything Horses and Livestock® | February 2018 | EHALmagazine.com 6