Six Arabian mares were used to determine milk yield using a weigh-suckle-weigh approach. Milk intake by foals was measured every 60 minutes for a total of seven hours to estimate milk yield on days 10, 20 and 30 of lactation. Behavioral nursing data were obtained on days 9, 19 and 29 of lactation over a 24-hour period. Frequency of nursing bouts (bouts/hour), duration of nursing bouts (minutes/bout), and nursing duration per hour (bouts/hour x minutes/bout) were recorded. Suckling frequency declined(P < 0.05) with day of lactation while duration of a single suckling bout was similar across time of day, day of lactation, and parity of mare. Total suckling duration per hour decreased (linear, P < 0.1 to P < 0.05) with increasing day of lactation during both WSW and Natural Nursing (NN). Suckling duration per hour during NN was higher during daytime (P < 0.0001) and lower during nighttime (P < 0.01) compared to that of WSW, but not different when averaged over the 24-hour period. Hence, WSW performedhourly and extrapolated to 24-hour may provide an estimate of milk yield close to that of NN. On a 24-hour basis, milk yield varied between 12.85 and 14.62 +- 1.43 kg across parities and day of lactation, corresponding to between 3.07 and 3.59 +-0.40% of the mare's body weight.
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