Markku Saastamoinen

Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) · Production Systems

The official excretion calculations provide the Finnish national annual amounts of dry matter, organic matter and nutrients excreted by different livestock in faeces and urine. Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) is responsible for the national excretion calculations in Finland, and the results are used e.g. in estimating emissions during ma...

The Finnish Feed Tables and Nutrient Requirements 2024 publication contains the feed values used in Finland, the basis for their calculation and the nutrient requirements of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry and horses. The main objective of the Feed Tables is to present as reliable feed values as possible that describe the relative differences i...

In April 2023, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) initiated a project to identify the current bedding material situation from the perspectives of bedding material users and producers. Any changes expected to take place in the bedding material markets in the near future were also assessed. The key goal of this study was to generate an overv...

Weaning is considered as one of the most stressful events in a domestic foal’s life. Artificial weaning takes place generally several months prior to the “biological” age of weaning when foals are still in close relation with their dams. Particular attention should be paid to the foal’s diet both before and after weaning because weaning is most oft...

The growth and development are influenced by heredity, gender, nutrition, and exercise. The growth rate of a foal is related to age and delays smoothly when the foals become older. Nutrition plays a major role among the environmental factors that influence growth and development. Foals that grow very fast are at increased risk of developmental orth...

The feeding planning and formulation of feed ration of the growing horse during the indoor feeding season is always based on good quality forages. It is important to plan the diet’s forage-to-concentrate ratio, i.e. to optimize the forage intake from the health and welfare perspective of the horse. During summer, whole-day grazing is generally reco...

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The effects of bedding material on air quality are important amongst horses worldwide. Respiratory diseases, especially equine asthma, are highly prevalent with air hygiene playing a major role on the pathophysiology of these diseases. The objective of our study was to investigate the effects of four bedding materials on the respiratory signs, trac...

Six Finnhorse mares were used in a digestibility trial, in which six typical horse diets were compared. The diets were: (A) haylage 100%; (B) hay 100%; (C) hay 70% and oats 30%; (D) hay 70% and soybean meal + oats 30%; (E) hay 70%, rapeseed meal + oats 30% and (F) hay 70 %, linseed meal + oats 30%. The trial was conducted according to an unbalanced...

Everyday objects manufactured from raw materials of animal origin, such as skin, hair and bone, are innumerable in cultural historical museums and private collections. Besides their value as memoirs of past techniques, livelihoods and communities, they are a unique source for studying past animal populations by means of molecular analysis. Here, w...

We give five aspects of using peat in agriculture and horticulture in Finland. Concerning livestock production, we discuss about using peat as bedding material of farm animals, including horses, cattle and poultry.

Bedding materials affect stable air hygiene, and thus the development and exacerbation of equine asthma. There is limited knowledge concerning the effects of different types of bedding material on equine lower airway inflammation. The objective of our study was to investigate the effects of bedding materials on respiratory signs, tracheal mucus sco...

This is a published book including the articles published in the Special Issue Horse Feeding and Management of Animals.

The authors wish to make the following corrections to their paper[...].

Linseed (Linum usitatissimum) and its by-products are common supplements used in equine diets and are claimed to have beneficial health effects. In this study, the effect of linseed groat-based fibrous feed supplements on diet digestibility was studied. Also, possible detrimental health effects due to continuous feeding of supplemental feeds contai...

The main horse phosphorus excretion pathway is through the dung. Phosphorus originating from animal dung and manure has harmful environmental effects on waters. The number of horses has increased in many countries, and several studies have pointed that leaching of P from horse paddocks and pastures are hotspots for high P leaching losses. The hypot...

Garlic (Allium sativum) is claimed to have numerous beneficial properties to the health of humans and animals. It is commonly used for example to treat respiratory diseases and infections in horses’ lungs. However, in addition to its possible positive influences, garlic may also have adverse health effects. The hypotheses of this study were that ga...

In this study, the objective is to find out how the part time and full time equine enterprises could be managed from resource based view. The data used was collected via internet survey on spring 2017 from 432 equine enterprises. The data was analyzed by principal component analysis, cluster analysis and the non-parametric tests. Part and full time...

A feeding trial was conducted to test the effect of onions in horses. Fifteen mares were fed with hay and 0, 300 and 600 g of dried onion flakes mixed with concentrate. A glucose response test was carried out after 24 days feeding period. Hemoglobin values of the horses were decreased linearly with increasing onion level (p=0.08). Also hematocrit a...

The efficiency of digestion could be limited in weanling and yearling horses if lower quality forage-rich rations are applied. In this study diet digestibility was examined in young Finnhorses (5 colts, 5 fillies) after weaning at 7 months of age (215±8.0 days) up to the age of twelve months when a high-forage diet with long-stem medium or lower qu...

Muuttuvan hevosalan yritysten toimintaa ja tulevaisuutta selvitettiin yrityksille suunnatulla ”Hevosyrit-täjyys2017” -kyselyllä Uudistuva hevostalous -hankkeessa. Kaikki hevosyritykset eri puolilla Suomea eivät ole samanlaisia; eroja on toimintamuodossa, kannattavuudessa, investoinneissa ja tulevaisuuden näkymissä. Pohjoisen Suomen yritykset poikke...

Abstract: In several regions in Europe, the horse is becoming a common grazer on semi-natural and cultivated grasslands, though the pasturing benefits for animals and biodiversity alike are not universally appreciated. The composition of ground vegetation on pastures determines the value of both the forage for grazing animals as well as the biodive...

Manure constitutes a nutrient resource that should be efficiently recycled in agriculture. We assessed the nutrient cycling properties of three bedding materials (peat, wood shavings and pelleted straw) in horse manure by comparing their compostability, ability to retain nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) under rainfall and capacity to release N when...

Digestibility of the diet was investigated in 10 weaned foals aged 7-12 moths.The diet consisted of timothy dominated hay, oats and a protein concentrate with a forage-to-concentrate ratio of 70:30. No gradual improvement of digestion could be detected with the increasing age of the foal. The lower digestibilities compared to those reported previou...

Digestibility trial was conducted to study the impact of malted barley to the digestibilty of nutrients and glucose responses. The highest values for total tract digestibility were achieved with diets containing malted barley. The rise of blood glucose levels was faster for horses fed with malted barley.

It can be calculated, based on data from Sweden and Finland that about 5% of hobby and athletic horses die or put down every year mainly due to illness or old age. Consequently, it can be supposed that about 300,000 horses in Europe die yearly, not included those raised for meat production. Only part of those 300,000 former hobby and athletic horse...

Simple A new web tool for equine activities, InnoHorse, was developed to support horse stable managers in business, safety, pasture and manure management. The aim of the safety section of the web tool was to raise awareness of safety issues in daily horse stable activities. This section contains a safety checklist, stable safety map and good pract...

Stable air quality and the choice of bedding material are an important health issue both in horses and people working or visiting horse stables. Risks of impaired respiratory health are those that can especially be avoided by improving air quality in the stable. The choice of bedding material is particularly important in cold climate conditions; wh...

Obesity and insulin resistance have been shown to be risk factors for laminitis in horses. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of changes in body condition during the grazing season on insulin resistance and the expression of genes associated with obesity and insulin resistance in subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT). Sixteen Finnho...

Twenty-two Finnhorse mares were grazed either on cultivated grassland (CG) or semi-natural grassland (NG) for about three months. Eight mares from each group were used for intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) in May and September.There was a lower basal glucose and greater clearance rate in CG than in NG. In September, the CG tended to have h...

Excretion of phosphorus with typical Finnish diets (a. 100 % hay; b. 100 % haylage; c. 80 % hay + 20 % oats; d. 60 % hay + 40 % concentrate) was studied using six Finnhorse mares. The P conentraion of feaces ranged from 5.3. to 7.9. g/ kg DM. The daily total P excretion varied between 19.2. and 23.0 g per horse. This means a yearly 7.6. kg P load t...

In this study, the nutrient cycling properties of three bedding materials (peat, wood shavings, pelleted straw) were compared. The differences in the N and P concentrations between the fresh manures of different beddings were small.The relative proportions of water soluble N and P were rather high, which poses to a risk of nutrient leaching. Peat m...

In this study, the effect of cleaning intensity on the N and P runoff from horse paddocks was investigated in small-scale demonstrations. Amount of N and P in the drainage water increased notably with an increase in the dung load.Both N and P were released from dung at a high rate during rain simulation. Due to the high N and especially P leaching...

An international Interreg Central Baltic programme project led by MTT Agri Food Research Finland designed an innovative web tool for horse stable safety practices and management. The web tool includes a horse stable safety map, stable safety checklists, good practices for e.g. stable safety, horse handling, rescue planning and an information page a...

Hevosen kuivikelannan käsittelymenetelmiä ovat lähinnä erilaiset kompostointiratkaisut. Hevosenlantaa ei Suomessa polteta energiaksi, koska polttamista rajoittavat päästöihin liittyvät määräykset. Energiantuotannossa lannan kuivamädätys on potentiaalinen vaihtoehto, ja sitä tehdäänkin käytännössä jonkin verran Euroopassa. Lannan biokaasuttamisella...

This study was conducted to characterise changes in chemical composition during the grazing season in Finland (14 May to 24 September) of timothy (T; Phleum pratense), meadow fescue (MF; Festuca pratensis L.) and tall fescue (TF; F. arundinacea Schreb.) and T-MF, T-TF and TF -Kentucky bluegrass (KB; Poa pratensis L.) mixtures. Ten Finnhorse mares w...

Forage is the primary feed of the horse; it normally comprises more than 50% of the horse’s diet on DM basis and it may supply 100% of the ration of many horse categories. Grasses are well adapted to frequent defoliation and to the presence of large herbivores, and consequently they cover, globally, large areas of natural and seminatural vegetation...

This study was carried out in the spring 2010 to determine how commonly forage feed analyses are really used and how important the analysis is considered to be by stable owners and forage producers. Two surveys were used, one for stable owners (142 respondents) and the other one for forage producers (21 respondents). According to the responses, one...

Horses are adapted to grass intake and low forage and high cereal intakes are associated with many health problems. Therefore, diets dominated by forage have many advantages but maybe also some limitations. One challenge using forage-dominated diets is the large variation in energy and nutrient content that different harvests and batches may displa...

The data from ten years showed large variation between years and samples in the chemical composition and feed values for both hay and haylage. For example, the average CP varied from 7.2 (sd=2.3) to 8.5% (sd=3.2), and from 8.7 (sd=2.6) to 10.7% (sd=3.6), for hay and haylage samples, respectively. Also the variation between the individual samples wa...

Two groups of Finnhorse mares, 11 horses in each group, were grazed on cultivated pasture (CG) or semi-natural grassland (NG) from the end of May to the beginning of September 2011 and the effect on possible development of obesity was followed. The observations of live weight, body condition score (BCS), cresty neck score (CNS), body measurements a...

Two simultaneous digestibility trials using total faecal collection were conducted to compare the digestibility of six silages by sheep and by horses. Timothy/meadow fescue (Phleum pratense L./Festuca pratensis Huds., TMF) and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb., TF) silages harvested at three different cutting times (19 June, 26 June, and 2 J...

Choices of the bedding material is important especially in the Northern climate conditions conditions, because the horses are kept most part of the day and year indoors during their life. Especially, the effect of the bedding material on the quality of stable air is of great importance. Based on their properties, it seems that peat and straw pellet...

The effect of linseed based feed on the sand removal was monitored radiographically in 16 Finnhorse mares. Linseed based (65%) feed was added to the diet of treatment horses at the level of 1g/kg live weight and sand removal was investigated for 11 weeks. The excretion of sand from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract was very slow. In the final evaluat...

Suitability of timothy (T; Phleum pratense L.), meadow fescue (MF; Festuca pratensis L.) and tall fescue (TF; F. arundinacea Schreb.) and of T-MF, T-TF and TF-Kentucky bluegrass (KB; Poa pratensis L.) mixtures for equine pasture was studied. Total area of 240 m × 240 m was divided into three equal paddocks. Each had the six treatments randomized in...

The effect of linseed based supplemental feeds containing 65-70 % linseed groats on the diet digestibility was studied. The linseed based deeds used in this study improved crude protein and fat digestibilities of hay-oats diets of horses. No adverse effects on the digestibility of any components of the diet or on the health of the horses were obser...

Apperent digestibility of silages made of timothy/meadow fescue and tall fescue grass at three different cutting times determined with total collection with the values obtained using marker methods was compared. The digestibilty of silages in horses was influenced by cutting date, grass species and digestibility determination method. Timothy/meadow...

Tiivistelmä Hevostalous on ainoa kotieläintuotannon ala, joka kasvaa. Kaikissa EU-maissa on nähtävänä samankaltainen hevosalan kehitys, myös niissä, joissa se on jo entuudestaan merkittävää toimintaa. Hevosia on Suomessa noin 75 000, ja määrä lisääntyy vuosittain noin tuhannella. Hevosen voidaan arvioida vaikuttavan lähes 500 000 henkilön elämään e...

Garlic (Allium sativum) is claimed to have many beneficial properties to the health of humans and animals. It is commonly used in horses e.g. to treat respiratory diseases and infections in the horse's lungs. However, in addition to possible positive influences it may have adverse health effects. This study shows that long-term supplementation of d...

Gastric ulceration is a common problem in performance horses. The 16 experimental animals were in training and had gastric ulcers. The basal feed consisted of haylage/hay and concentrate, the forage-to-concentrate ratio being on average 75:25 on a dry matter basis. Linseed-based (65%) feed (1g/kg live weight per day) was given to the treatment grou...

Cereal grains are primary sources of energy of herbivorous animal species, but also carnivorous pet animals are fed with grain based food. Oat is one choice having many advantages in horse and dog compared to the other cereal grains.

This study examined non-genetic effects and genetic parameters of body measures and subjectively scored traits in the Finnhorse trotter population. The data was based on studbook inspections from 1971 to 2004 covering observations on 6381 horses. There were five body measures – height at withers, height at croup, circumference of girth, length of b...

Work or exercise apparently increases the demand for energy more than for protein. The energy content of diets has traditionally been increased by supplementing rations with grain and other starch-rich concentrates. This leads to large intakes of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) predisposing horses to metabolic and digestive problems. High dietar...

Tutkimuksessa käytettiin viikon välein korjattuja säilörehuja, joiden sulavuus määritettiin sonnankokonaiskeruumenetelmällä hevosilla ja pässeillä. Hevosilla sulavuus määritettiin myös merkkiaineilla,joita olivat sulamaton kuitu (iNDF) ja kromioksidi (Cr2O3). Lisäksi rehujen orgaanisen aineen sulavuusmääritettiin in vitro -sellulaasimenetelmällä la...

Laidun on hevosten pääasiallisin rehu kasvukaudella ja usein yksinomainen rehu kivennäisten lisäksi.Laitumen riittävä ja tasainen tuotto laidunkauden eri aikoina helpottaa hevosten ruokintaa. Tuottava laidunon edullista rehua.Laiduntutkimuksen tärkeimpiä selvitettäviä asioita ovat laitumen sadontuotto ja sen muutoksetkasvukauden kuluessa ja laitume...

The experiment was conducted with a 6 x 4 cyclic changeover design. Six adult Alaskan huskies were assigned to diets containing 0%, 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% linseed cake. A linear decrease in the apparent digestibilities of organic matter (OM) (p < 0.020), ether extract (EE) (p < 0.003), neutral detergent fibre (p < 0.015), nitrogen-free extract (NFE) (p...

Diets based on hay and variously processed oats were fed in a digestibility trial. The types of processed oats were as follows: 1) untreated, 2) hulled, 3) autoclave-processed, 4) autoclave-processed hulled, 5) Dantoaster-processed, 6) Dantoaster-processed hulled. The treatments were assigned in a 6×6 balanced Latin square design. A preliminary fee...

This study was undertaken to compare how different conditions of transport, culture and incubation affect the concentrations of total bacteria, clostridia and Clostridium prefrigens in horse faeces. In addition, we assessed the incidence of faecal sulphite reducing clostridia and C. perfringens in healthy horses during in- and outdoor feeding seaso...

Most dry dog foods are based on cereals, but very little published information and few comparative studies are available on the nutritive value of various cereals in dogs. To determine the apparent nutrient digestibilities and feed values of five different autoclave-processed and ground cereals: oat groats, barley, wheat, corn and rice, a digestibi...

Effects of oat hulls on the apparent digestibility of nutrients was studied. Oat feeds were based on hulled oats where four different amounts of oat hull were added: 0 %, 8 %, 16 % 24 % hulls. The last treatment represented the hull content of regular oats. Both hulled oats and oat hulls were first ground separately to a fine meal and the pelleted...

Hulls, which dilute the nutritional quality of oats, are perhaps the most important reason why oats has been replaced by other cereals, like rice, corn, wheat and barley, in the nutrition of dogs. The high crude fibre and cellulose contents of hulls have negative effects on the dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, energy and mineral digestibi...

The digestibility of grass silage (GS) and whole-crop oatsilage (OS) were studied. Chromium mordanted straw was was used as an indirect marker for the estimation of apparent digestibility. The mean DM and OM digestibilities were 52.3 and 54.2 % for GS and 42.6 and 44.1 % for OS. Oatsilage CP and CF were digested more efficiently than those of GS.

In its 18 chapters, this multiauthor book covers all major aspects of the genetics of horses from systematics and phylogeny to molecular genetics, and comprehensively surveys the literature of the past few decades. It is addressed to a wide readership from research workers to those concerned with more practical aspects of the breeding and keeping o...

Diets based on haylage alone or haylage plus 33 % oats, naked oats, barley, wheat or corn on DM basis were compared. Including cereal grains in the diets improved the apparent digestibilities of the diet nutrients , but the effects were different for various grains. Inclusion of naked oats, wheat or corn to the diet had the largest effect on the di...

Low muscle glycogen at the beginning of exercise may adversely affect performance, increase protein degradation and contribute to the onset of fatigue. As horses are sometimes required to compete on consecutive days both in racing and endurance types of competition, optimal muscle glycogen repletion may improve performance on the day following a ra...

One of the objectives of the work was to identify important environmental systematic sources for the variation in racing performance of trotters as well as the magnitude of the variation. Another aim was to estimate the genetic and phenotypic parameters for certain performance traits during early career, and for ages at qualifying and first race. T...

Nine adult riding horses performed on a treadmill a competition exercise test (CET) and 24 h later a standardised exercise test (SET) at mean temperature 28°C and relative humidity 58%. Each horse performed the tests 5 times at 2 week intervals. The horses were given isotonic glucose-electrolyte solution via a nasogastric tube 30 min after the CET,...

Agricultural Research Centre, Equine Research, Ypäjä, Finland Serum urea level of weanling foals increased slightly with age, but the level of serum protein remained rather constant. The increment of serum urea values with age was largest in foals fed the poorest protein quality. Correspondingly, serum protein concentrations were higher in foals fe...

Weanling foals are sensitive to the quality of dietary protein, i.e. amino acid supply. Lysine and threonine have been indicated as the two first-limiting amino acids for growth, but data on other amino acids are inadequate for establishing any accurate recommendations. Dietary protein quality has been reported to influence the amino acid profile o...

Genetic and phenotypic parameters for age at first qualifying start (AFQ), passed qualifying start (APQ), and first race (AFR), and for corresponding time records and best time of early career were estimated for Finnish Standardbred (SBT) and Finnhorse (FHT) trotters using REML with the sire model. The age traits and corresponding time records were...