710 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



doggedly along up one row and down the next all day, its drooping 

 head, lagging footsteps and skinny frame make a miniature lifeless plug 

 out of what should be a plump, playful, vigorous foal. Thousands of 

 foals are stunted by insufficient feed; other thousands are stunted by 

 hard work during the first three months of their lives. 



The demand upon the foal's digestive system for nourishment is very 

 great. Draft foals especially must be well fed. During the first twelve 

 months of its life the foal makes about as much growth as it does in 

 the next three years. During the first year the foal makes a pound 

 of growth with less feed than at any subsequent time but it cannot handle 

 nearly so large a bulk of feed in its small body. The folly of withhold- 

 ing grain from the foal either before or after weaning should therefore 

 be apparent. If the aim was to produce a horse that could exist on 

 scanty nourishment and endure hardships on coarse feed, it might be 

 wise to subject the growing colt to the meager supply furnished by with- 

 ered pastures, strawstacks and stalkfields. But horses are used these 

 days not to do battle with the vicissitudes of weather and season, but 

 to turn feed into power. The work horse must live largely on grain and 

 nutritious hay; the colt should become accustomed from the first to digest 

 and assimilate the same sort of feed. Not only that, but he must have 

 such feed if he is to grow. If the foal is forced to eke out a mere 

 existence, its time of greatest possibilities for growth is wasted. The 

 stunted frame of the yearling will never expand properly by any system 

 of later feeding. The way to make big colts is to feed well from the 

 start. 



Draft foals that are doing well gain three to four pounds a day up 

 to weaning time, which is usually at about five months. Last year reports, 

 of weights and gains of foals were sent in by a number of breeders. The 

 foals were mostly sired by ton stallions and from mares weighing about 

 1,700 pounds. At one month old the average weight of the foals was 

 345 pounds. During the second month they gained an average of 4 

 pounds a day; the third and fourth months, 3:5 pounds daily; the fifth 

 month, 2.8 pounds, and the sixth month, the gain was 2.3 pounds. The 

 average weight of the foals at six months was 830 pounds. The lightest 

 weight reported at that age was 726 pounds and the heaviest 940. At 

 12 months old the average weight was 1,170 pounds; at 18 months, 1,445 

 and at 24 months old, 1,590 pounds. As these averages are made from 

 records of 35 colts, they may be accepted as fairly reliable, especially as 

 there was comparatively little variation in the rate of growth of the 

 different colts. 



After a spring foal is well started and has settled down to a steady 

 routine of feeding and growth, the principal obstacle encountered the 

 first season is blood-thirsty flies. Even before harvest-time flies usually 

 get so numerous and persistent in their attacks that the tender-skinned 

 foal suffers greatly. Probably the best protection is a cool, dark stable 

 in which the foal may be comparatively comfortable and safe from attack 



