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This study is the result of a partnership between IFCE (The horse and horse-riding institute), BREED and GABI. Over a period of 2 years, milk yield was evaluated on 65 mares by manual milking and/or evaluation of weight-suckle-weight (WSW), at 3-30-60-90 and 180 days after foaling. The pertinence of WSW was evaluated by studying the correlation between two methods on 23 individuals. The factors influencing milk yield, through milking data, were studied on 57 individuals. The data were divided into two subsets: an explanatory matrix containing the live weight of the mares 24 hours after parturition, parity, age, lactation year and foal sex and a response matrix  containing data from milking at the five timepoints of lactation. A correlation was found between milking and WSW on day 3, but no correlation was found for the other time points (RV 0.15).The live weight of the mare 24 hours after foaling, age and parity had a significant impact  on milk production (P < 0.05).The older or multiparous mares had a higher milk yield that the younger or primiparous mares. In addition, mares with a higher live weight after foaling produced more milk than those with a lower live weight. The results also indicate that the WSW method performed at five different time points of lactation, but without repeated measurements, is not an efficient way to estimate the milk yield of mares. Since the age and parity of the mares were closely related in the population studied, it was not possible to differentially assess their effects.

Contact :

• Pascale Chavatte-palmer (INRAE)