Caratteristiche nutritive di un pascolo naturale destinato all'allevamento di cavalli allo stato brado.

In Molise Region are still bred some autochtonous populations and, between them, some wild horses named "Pentro Horses" (Montenero Valcocchiara - Isernia). The breeding area is 2200 hectares extended and includes a broad plane surrounded by wooden hills. This paper shows the results about the nutritional characteristics of this area. The forage samples were collected from 5 experimental areas that represented the prevalent land typology (2 areas for the pasture system and 3 areas for grazing meadow system) according with the Corrall & Fenlon method (1978). On these samples we determined the seasonal production ( may to october) of Dry Matter, Crude protein, Crude fiber, Ash, NDF, ADF, ADL (AOAC, 2000), and energy (Nehring and Haenlein, 1973). These results showed a low production/hectare for all the parameters; nevertheless, the low number of head in relation to the total surface (>5 ha/head) agrees to satisfy the nutrient requirements of the horses and to plan an increase of the total number of head together with a strict monitoring of the environment.