Alimentation de la jument lourde allaitante : évolution du poids vif des juments et croissance des poulains

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Abstract
Variation in the live weight of well fed heavy brood mare (tables 1 and 2) during pregnancy and lactation cycle, and growth of the suckled foal have been studied in 35 couples. During the last three months of pregnancy the live weight of mares increased by 8 p. 100 (fig. 2 and 3). This weight gain corresponded to the conceptus development, mainly the fetus, and represented 73 p. 100 of the foal live weight at birth. One month after foaling live weight of the suckling mare increased by 6 to 7 p. 100 (fig. 2 and 3). Variation in the digestive content might partly account for the weight loss observed two weeks before foaling and for the weight increase in early lactation. We did not notice any significant difference according as to whether foaling occurred before turning out to pasture or after. The foal live weight at birth represented 10 p. 100 of that of the mare at foaling and was closely related with its own age. Average daily gain of the foal from birth to weaning was 1300 g: it was very high during the first month at the end of which the foal live weight was twice higher than that at birth, for it was closely related with the mare milk yield (fig. 4). There was no significant difference between sex or date of birth relative to turning out to pasture (fig. 5 and table 3). The mare live weight was a useful criterium but not accurate enough to study the effect of feeding during pregnancy and lactation. On the other hand the foal growth was a good criterium for estimating the mare milk yield and its variation with the level of feeding during the first month of lactation.