Congratulations if you have an in-foal mare! What can be more rewarding than breeding your own youngster?
The growth of the unborn foal is very slow until the last three months of gestation, so your mare will not need additional feeding until this time. In the meantime she will need a good diet with protein and calcium as well as natural vitamins, but not in any greater amounts than she usually needs. A good chop is Build & Shine and a suitable forage balancer, Simple Balance +. If she needs additional feeding due to losing condition, cold weather and so on, Blue Bag Grass Pellets could be a good choice.
Once into the last three months any work should cease and she will need increasing amounts of good quality feed. Nature provides for this with good spring grass but if your mare is due to foal before the grass is delivering its bounty Red Bag Grass Pellets and / or Lucie Nuts will be an excellent substitute. Condition scoring gets challenging when a mare is obviously pregnant, so keep an eye on her neck as this will give a good guide to her overall condition. At this time you will need to switch your forage balancer to Lunar Eclipse.
Her needs can be great as foaling day looms and in the absence of the best grass, you could even find that over half of her daily intake is coming from her feed bowl - and it will be even more once her foal is born! Fortunately, on Simple System forage feeds, there is no limit to the amount you can safely feed. Always have good quality hay or haylage available and make the most of any grazing.
Our experienced Feed Line will be happy to make appropriate feeding suggestions for your broodmare. Speak to us on 01728 604 008 or complete our online form to recieve a detailed Feed Plan.
Did you know? We have team members with a great deal of breeding experience. This includes our Director of Nutrition, Jane van Lennep, who breeds Arabians at her Heronstream Stud. Jane is a published author on the subject and is one of the team available to chat on our Feed Line.