12 
THE PERCHERON REVIEW 
HOW TO GROW GOOD 
PERCHERON COLTS 
The majoritv of our Pereheroii breeders need to know more 
about feeding tlieir colts. The number of good vouiig stallions 
that are ruined everj' year tlirough improper feeding is appal- 
ling. As a rule, the fillies do not show the ill effects of wrong 
feeding as much because they are out of doors on pasture more 
than the stallions. 
The three main things which every breeder should know are : 
(1) How to breed a good individual; (2) How to feed it well and 
(3) How to do it at a reasonable expense. 
The Tllinois College of Agriculture has recently closed a series 
of feeding tests where a total of 42 registered Percheron fillies 
were fed from weaning time until they were approximately two 
years of age. Five different ways of feeding were tried out. 
The most suitable ration found was one composed of 75% 
crushed oats and 25% bran, in addition, of course, to good pastures 
and legume roughages with some oat ha.y. The fact was very clear 
by the time the last trial was over that there was such a thing 
as feeding too niucli ;ilt;ilf,-i hay. The best results were obtained 
when at least half of tlu' ruugliage part of tlie ration was com- 
posed of oat hay. Such other carbonaceous roughages as oat 
straw, corn stover (without the ears) or timothy hay are usually 
satisfactory. 
The second best method of feeding was discovered to be a 
ration composed of -40% corn, 40% oats and 20% bran, together 
with alfalfa, oat straw and pasture, proving, of course, that the 
less corn used the better will be the results in the mature animal. 
Corn is too fattening to grow clean, quality limbs on draft horses. 
In the other trials where 50% to 75% of the grain fed was 
corn, the fillies got plenty big enough but the tendency was strong 
toward soft hocks and lack of quality in legs. 
The first ten fillies were fed corn and oats half and half by 
weight, in addition to alfalfa hay, for these are the feeds most 
every Percheron breeder has on his farm, and as a rule they are 
regarded as the cheapest. Furthermore, this is the more common 
way of feeding followed by draft horse men. 
The aim was also to determine if good fillies could be grown 
without the use of mill feeds such as bran. There was no difficulty 
in gi-owing big fillies but there was serious trouble in keeping 
them sound in their hocks which is exactly the experience of most 
Percheron breeders. They blame the animal of its ancestry but 
the real thing at fault is the method of feeding. Then again some 
animals actually inherit a tendency toward weak hocks that will 
not stand heavy feeding. 
With these facts in mind, is it any easier to understand why 
we have so few real outstanding good stallion colts? Most of 
them have to stay in box stalls, with an occasional run in a dry 
lot, from weaning time on. They are lucky to live, let alone grow 
into a desirable draft horse. 
Probably the most successful stallion grower in this country 
follows this practice. He never allows his stallion foals to run 
witli the fillies after they are weaned, but keeps them so isolated 
from all of the other horses that they cannot even smell them over 
the fence. As a result these young stallions can be run together 
until they are two and one-half years old and sometimes longer. 
This man always keeps an odd number of colts together, for it is 
oftentimes a great help to have the third colt break up the play 
when they get to running too hard. He sometimes has as many 
as seven colts in one pasture of about ten acres. It does not re- 
quire an extra strong fence either to hold stallion colts if other 
horses are kept entirely away. 
Stallion colts do a great deal better if they are kept out of 
doors on good blue-grass pasture, except in very severe weather 
in the winter, or through the bad flytime in summer. In the 
latter case, it is always best to shut Iheiii u]i in a darkened stall 
in daytime. The breeder mentioned frefjuently has five to seven 
colts running together, weigliing that many tons at 30 months of 
age. If a breeder cannot provide good grass paddocks for his 
colts, he cannot succeed in growing stallion colts. The reason the 
French breeders have always develope<l so many high class colts 
is because tliey know how to feed and because they grow their 
colts out of doors on good blue grass. 
Few breeders have little idea of the quantity of feed it takes 
to grow a colt from weaning time until he is about two years old. 
Tliis Illinois experiment with the best ration of 7-">'"r crushed oats 
and 25% bran, took 73 bushels of oats, one-lhird ton of bran, one 
and one-half tons of alfalfa hay and one and one-fourth tons of 
oat hay per filly. 
The other test with corn and oats half and half by weight, 
which is the ration most breeders use, took 45 bushels of shelled 
corn, 80 bushels of oats and a little over two and one-half tons of 
hay i)er filly. 
These figures on the amounts of feeds required are particularly 
helpful because they enable breeders to determine very closely what 
it costs to feed their colts. With oats at 35c per bushel, bran at 
$20.00 per ton and alfalfa hay at $16.00 per ton, which are ap- 
in-oxiniately the prevailing prices today, it would not cost more 
than $100.00 to feed a filly or stallion colt from weaning time until 
two vears of age on the best ration of crushed oats and bran. 
When corn sold for $2.00 per bushel, oats -$1.00, and alfalfa hay 
aliout $35.00 per ton, the cost of growing draft colts was nearly 
four times w-hat it is today. The cheapness of feed now makes 
the breeding of good Percherons all the more encouraging. 
We oftentimes see breeders who have undersized colts and 
many of those men are not aware of how large a well-grown Per- 
cheron colt should be. The figures obtained in this experiment on 
the height of these fillies should prove helpful. The first ten 
fillies stood 13 hands 2-3/10 inches high at weaning time and 15 
hands 2-3/10 inches high at the close. The sixteen fillies in the 
second test were exactly one inch taller all of the time. The third 
lot of .sixteen fillies were 14 hands 5/10 inches tall in the beginning 
and practically the same height as the fillies in the previous tests at 
two years of age. In weight the fillies came to an average of 
835 lbs. in the Fall after they were taken off the mares and ap- 
proximately 1500 lbs. in the Spring when they were two-year olds. 
A breeder who has a 1200 lb. two-year old stallion has a colt 
that is not big enough, and the chances are ten to one against 
his ever getting sufficiently large to be rated as a first class colt. 
Undoubtedly the most valuable lesson brought out by this 
series of feeding tests is the extreme importance of breeders hav- 
ing plenty of good pasture in addition to a moderate amount of 
leguminous roughages with some carbonaceous roughage such as 
oat straw or oat hay. Breeders can easily produce colts with 
' ' gummy ' ' hocks by feeding too much alfalfa hay. Corn and 
alfalfa are too fattening and because such feeds are very 
palatable, colts will cat more than they sliould if given a chance. 
Colts coming from The Perclie have tlie advantage of being grown 
on strong limestone soil. In the United States we find that Per- 
cherons grow a much better quality of bone where they feed freely 
on blue-grass pastures properly nourished with limestone. In 
the foothills of the Rocky Mountains remarkably good colts 
are raised because this one essential part of a horse's food is sup- 
plied in the natural way. In the corn belt states where our soil 
lacks in this element, ground limestone should be applied regu- 
larly on the horse pastures. Cow manure is also good. There is 
nothing better than old blue grass as long as it does not become 
infested with parasites, but if they become troublesone the only 
way to kill them off is to plow uj) the land. Of course, rolling 
land must be kept in permanent pasture. Farmers should get 
those pastures w-hich they plow up back to blue grass as quickly 
as possible. Some fresh grass for change is always best if one 
wishes his colts to grow most rapidly. It takes an acre of pasture 
per head for yearling Percherons and more if the grass is not 
abundant. The best kind of jiasture for horses is blue grass with 
some timothy, orchard grass and clover. 
These several tests by the Illinois Experiment Station proved 
conclusively that much better results were obtained when compara- 
tively small amounts of grain were fed during all seasons rather 
than feed it in large quantities at one time and perhaps discon- 
tinue its use at other times. Abundant pastures and legume hays 
reduce the grain requirement but it is not possible to secure the 
most satisfactory and economical growth and development unless 
these are supplemented with grain feeds. 
Breeders will do well to follow the system used in these feed- 
ing tests by allowing all of their colts, stallions and fillies to run 
out of doors as much as possible, but, of course, the stallions can- 
not be run with the fillies. Never confine them in stalls unless in 
real severe weather or in the summer time when flies are very bad. 
They have better appetites and grow faster if they have the free- 
dom of out of doors. Goo(l-si/,(>d lots near the barn are very neces- 
sary where colts can run and exercise when it is too soft to have 
them on the grass. Stallion colts will tram]i on their heels some 
by running together, but the little harm done in this way is of 
small concern because the colts grow so much faster and their 
legs are a lot better than if they were grown in dry stalls and 
turned out in lots b.y themselves. In winter, they should have a 
dry bed so they can lie down as they please and their stall or shed 
should be so arranged as to break the full force of the wind. 
The work of this experiment was carried out under the direc- 
tion of J. L. Edmonds and W. G. Kammlade with W. J. Engle 
and R. N. Engle in charge of the daily feeding and care. Every 
Percheron breeder should have a copy of this valuable booklet on 
feeding draft colts. It can be secured free by writing the Illinois 
Agricultural Experiment Station at Urbana for Bulletin No. 235. 
