Horse SecretsAlexander, A. S. (Alexander Septimus)
Science
Horse Secrets
Alexander, A. S. (Alexander Septimus)
Horses
Mares and geldings, from one year up, run in a herd together. They are
fed morning and night about 15 pounds per day. During the day, if weather
permits, they are turned out in a pasture and fed hay upon the ground.
Colts, soon after they have learned to eat grain, are fed a little silage
in the box stalls with their mothers. For this purpose small feed boxes
are put in each stall near the mangers, where the mares eat. After being
weaned the colts are fed about 7 pounds of silage a day with the grain.
Alfalfa hay also is put in a rack in the yard, in which the colts are
turned out each day, and they eat as much of this as they care for.
The ration fed is higher than a balanced ration. There has never been
any sickness resulting from the use of silage. The animals always come
through the winter in good breeding condition and in proper shape to be
turned on to pasture in the spring.
Secret of Fattening Drafters.
The business of buying young draft horses and feeding them off for the
market has been profitably followed by many farmers during the past ten
years. The work requires skill and experience and is thus described by
Prof. W. J. Kennedy, of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station: “In
one of the large horse-feeding establishments of the West the following
method is practised: The horses are purchased, their teeth are floated
and they are all put in the barn and their feed increased gradually,
as great care must be taken for a few days to avoid colic. It seems
preferable to feed them grain about five times per day, due to the fact
that as the stomach of the horse is proportionately smaller than the
stomach of a cow, he needs his feed in smaller quantities and more often.
The hay is placed in racks so that access may be had to it at all times.
The horses are given all the water they will drink twice a day. The daily
practise is as follows: Corn is given at 5 o’clock in the morning; water
at 7; the hay racks are filled at 9 o’clock, when the horses are also
given oats and bran, the proportion being two-thirds bran and one-third
oats. At 12 o’clock they are fed corn again; at 3 in the afternoon oats
and bran are given and the hay racks are refilled; at 4 they are given a
second watering, and at 6 the final feed of corn is given. The proportion
for each horse when upon full feed is as follows: Corn from 10 to 14 ears
to each feed; oats and bran, about 3 quarts per feed, making in all from
30 to 40 ears of corn and 6 quarts of oats and bran per horse per day.
The horses are not given any exercise from the time they are put in the
barn until a few days before they are to be shipped. As a substitute for
exercise, and in order to keep the blood in good order, thus preventing
stocked legs, Glauber’s salt is used.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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