The climate is changin’

With extreme weather events becoming more frequent, we need to be aware of changing equine nutritional requirements and manage accordingly, Chasemore Farm makes full use technology available and Gro-Trac has gone up into the cloud and onto mobiles and ipads

THERE ARE DIFFERING VIEWS on climate change and they veer from a phenomenon that some believe is going to dramatically alter the way we all can live our lives and even where we can live, to deniers who believe that it is all bunkum dreamt up as some form of conspiracy theory.

Wherever your belief lies, there is no denying that the summer of 2022 in Britain was hot and dry – racecourses closed due to the extended dry spell and unsuitable firm ground, hose pipe bans were in place in some regions in the south of England and much of the usual pale British population looked tanned and distinctly post-Brexit European.

The Met Office figures back up the experience – England recorded its driest July since 1935, and in East Anglia, southeast and southern England, it was the driest July on record.

Figures also show that we had the driest eight-month period in England from November 2021 to June 2022 since that well-documented drought of 1976.

It is not the first time in the last five years that we have experienced record-breaking dry weather – June, July and August 2018 were the warmest on record then for the UK, with June the third warmest and July the second as recorded in the official national records dating from 1910.

While many working in the bloodstock industries may welcome the dry summer days through which to work and walk yearlings, there is more to consider than just getting up earlier to do the chores and get the miles in before the day gets too hot.

For those breeding racehorses, developing yearling sale prospects through the peak summer months or those who wish to ensure that their young foals continue with a good level of constant development, breeders really need to ensure they respond to these influences, whether this is a one-off scenario, or as a longer term repeated measure as part of dealing with global climate change.

Grass growth, the fuel that breeders and producers use as their gold, is the most obviously affected resource and a graph of current and historical grass growth rates (left) tells its own story.

Polly Bonnor of Saracen Horse Feeds urges breeders and bloodstock people to be proactive as regards their equine management through extreme events.

“If the extreme climatic changes we have seen in Europe over the last season and in 2018 are to become regular events, attention needs to be given to the requirements of horses in a more extreme climate with less reliance on reliable supplies of fresh summer forage,” she states. “It is time to consider different ways and the best approach to feeding horses out in paddocks during prolonged dry spells.

“There are measures we can take to help the horses, particularly the mares and foals, both before and after weaning, as well as any retained yearlings or NH stores who aren’t being prepared for sales.

“Grazing is usually the most natural way for horses to get nourishment, and most regions found in the summer that the lack of rainfall significantly impacted plant growth with paddocks bare, burnt off and dusty.”

In a paper produced by Peter Huntingdon of Kentucky Equine Research advising on feeding through drought in Australia, he wrote that horses need a minimum of one per cent of dry matter of their body weight as forage each day (i.e. 5kg for a 500kg horse) to keep digestive function normal.

Falling below this amount has dangers Saracen in the form of hindgut disturbances, colic, diarrhoea, gastric ulcers, and loss of Population Average condition. During a drought, he explained, the nutritive value of forage is often less important than the physical bulk, as low quality and energy roughage can be supplemented with concentrate feed to fill the gaps.

Grass in the summer months is never as nutritionally strong as in the spring and the autumn, but with the effect of the extreme dry weather it can get into an even poorer state than usual.

Dry summers require extra nutritional aid from breeders. Breeders need to act to support the horses and supplement them with additional fibre sources to maintain their digestive health 1Gro-Trac calculates percentile values based on worldwide reference from Kentucky Research. This provides consistent comparison as growth data research continues. and to ensure appropriate growth rates in foals and weanlings, in particular.

Bonnor also warns: “Horses might even look fine through those periods, but if breeders wait and horses do lose body condition then and after weaning, they risk the additional issue of strong compensatory growth spurts when rain does come and the paddocks start to recover.”

The dry weather can also create a higher risk of colic as a result of eating sand or very dry soil when horses graze very close to the ground, or of impactions due to the high temperatures and possible dehydration.

Breeders can obviously feed hay to supplement the reduced grass availability, as well as different types of alfalfa chaff or beet pulp, but Bonnor also recommends the feeding of a light mash in order to provide additional fermentable fibre sources and to help with fluid intake and hydration.

Feeding a soaked feed to help with hydration can be extremely beneficial as it does assist with their overall water intake.

This autumn the UK has seen strong short spells of rain and still above average temperatures, there has not been a hint of frost in most parts of England or Ireland.

It means that grass growth has been rapid and unusual, much as though it were spring.

Bonnor says: “Grass growth figures did not return to the five-year average rates until September and October.

“This has at least given us a chance to catch up and to extend the grazing season, and, while the weather has stayed so mild, we are now ending the season on a high as grass growth has not stopped.

“Rainfall was recorded at average levels in October across most of the UK, but the first week of November is the wettest on record.

“The grass grown over October and November will mean that there will be good grazing available into the winter and early spring, and for the most part, mares and weanlings seem to be in very good order at this point.”

Your equine growth records up in the cloud

GRO-TRAC, the brainchild of Joe Pagan of Kentucky Equine Research (KER), was developed as a software product that allows breeders, through frequent measurement of their youngstock, to be able to equate where their horses stand as compared to a particular reference population.

The software was initially produced as a windows-based programme, but has now been redeveloped to work in the cloud.

It is a browser and a phone app-based programme that can be opened via google or chrome – the data is synced in the cloud whatever device is used.

The farm’s individual growth data records can be accessed by anyone according to the permission levels they are granted – farm staff, veterinarians, administrators.

“The farm’s and horse data can be viewed in differing ways,” explains Pagan. “For example users can look at the overall growth rate for a foal against the respective reference curve.

Examples of growth charts taken from the Gro Trac app

“It also gives the percentile data, as well the average daily gain of the foal relative to that reference curve so you can see on a daily basis how that foal is growing relative to the population.

“If you have the mares’ weight then you can also look at a graph of the two, which is also interesting and informative.”

Pagan continues: “Data is entered by horse on a bespoke screen that will show previous measurements. Immediately as you enter the current weight the app will calculate the daily gain and will flag red if the youngster is outside of a certain range – it means you get this info while you have the foal right in front of you, which is so useful.”

He adds: “A really cool feature is the ability to take a photo within the app and it is tagged to that weight entry – it could be a conformation photo or a photo of a joint.”

All the information is stored in a library, which is set up in a very similar way to equineline, and when accessing the reports users can download an overall summary for that horse showing data and reference graphs (see opposite) as well a photo library.

Pagan’s plans are not finished and there is a next round of development already in mind: “The Phase 2 will let users build individual reference population for farms, as well as produce graphs for multiple foals so they can easily be compared.

“This can be filtered however desired, for instance, for siblings out of the same mare or for foals by the same stallion.”

And, as we started this round of information some two issues ago, it all revolves around the use of and the concept of big data, which technology now permits. As users data is input directly into the cloud-based central database held under secure protocols, information can also be accessed from Pagan’s office without the need for lengthy and bulky downloads or transfer.

Pagan outlines: “Most useful now is that this is information is in one gigantic database.

“At KER we can now go in and do a monthly analysis – users will receive a monthly report that shows data from the region in which you are based.

“This can be historical and current data so that users can compare the two and how the year’s foals are growing compared to previously or as compared to wider regions and locations.”

With KER easily and now pro-actively involved, it means updates and notifications could come through direct from the KER office to farm level.

While these are the very latest digital developments in the provision of nutritional information, the technology is steeped in the efforts made by Kentucky-based horsemen and women, and we will find out more of this in the next month’s issue.

Chasemore Farm: using data on the farm and at the sales

AS WE DISCUSSED IN THE LAST TWO ISSUES a steady growth pattern is the most suitable way for a foal and yearling to develop rather than in bumps and humps; growth blips can lead to unwanted development problems.

Andrew and Jane Black’s Chasemore Farm has been using Kentucky Equine Research’s (KER) Gro-Trac software since 2018 and the farm finds it an invaluable tool for monitoring the growth and development of its youngstock, as well as for monitoring the condition of its mares.

The farm weighs at birth and then every Tuesday until weaning, then every two weeks and then once a month. It also takes a visual stand-up photo and records height once a month.

“When you look back at weight and height recordings taken from foaling until they leave us, alongside the photos, it is really interesting and useful,” said Jack Conroy, farm manager at Chasemore.

“It takes some organisation, but if you have a system in place it works in fine. The foals get used to it quite quickly and it helps them for the rest of their life really; they are well handled, which is good for them.”

He adds: “We weigh the mares, too, just to make sure they are all tickety-boo, although their weights can obviously fluctuate.

“It is also invaluable to weigh after weaning and to get ready for that cold spell, although this year we’ve got spring grass coming through!”

He adds: “It does mean we can be ahead of the game if something is developing or if we know the mare is not a great provider. I write notes so it is really helpful to look back at each year – for example, you can see trends with a mare and again you know where you are with her.”

Accessing Gro-Trac reports in the Chasemore Farm office

The farm has started using the newly developed Gro-Trac app (see over) and Conway appreciates the user-friendly nature of the app that is available on a mobile.

Something that should be as simple as adding photos to the record used to be a bit of a task, now it is a one-button solution.

“Taking the photos used to involve sending the photos via email and What’s App, now the guys do them on their phones through the app, and send them straight to the cloud, it is so much more efficient,” he says.

At this year’s October Yearling Sale, Chasemore enjoyed its best-ever set of sale returns, and upped its data game.

The farm produced a QL code on door cards for possible purchasers, the link taking users to individual web hubs for each horse that provided such information as the Gro-Trac charts showing the growth patterns of that individual, as well as lunging videos and further pedigree and bloodstock information.

The idea was to give buyers greater background knowledge of the yearling, and so confidence in the horse they might be considering.

Conroy explains how the idea came about.

“We had talking about trying to produce a 360-degree visual of the yearlings, but it involved 28 cameras and was just too expensive and we did not know how the yearlings would take it.

“Whilst we were discussing that we started considering providing more data and information. We started talking about publishing birth weights and some of the growth data, and then the idea just grew and developed through to the QL codes.

“I think a lot of the younger generation appreciated the information and the lunging videos went down well – although you can watch them walk on the sale ground, you are getting a different type of movement in the ring.”

Positively, he adds: “Some did say that it encouraged them to buy a horse they might not have done otherwise!”

With a such a set of great results for the farm at the sales, with a best-ever price of 750,000gns given for its Kingman colt out of Wall Of Sound, as well as three stakes horses in 2022 from its a foal crop of around 25, including the Group 1-winning two-yearold Lezoo, the farm is definitely doing a whole lot right and its harnessing of data is certainly its way forward.