48 BULLETIN 1271, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Higher labor requirements are found on farm 15, where the horses 
worked the largest number of hours. 
The work horses on farm 4 included four purebred mares from 
which three colts were raised. The extra labor involved in breeding 
the mares, attending them at foaling time, and caring for the colts 
until weaning time is included in the total labor requirement. This 
purebred stock was given much more attention than most grade stock 
receives. The time spent in fitting them and showing them at the 
county fair further increased the labor charged against them. 
SHOEING, VETERINARY AND MEDICINE COSTS 
The miscellaneous cash costs were highest on farm 21, since a team 
was used for daily milk deliveries, and kept shod all year for this 
purpose. All other items over a dollar per horse consist largely of 
shoeing, except on farm 17, where this item covers veterinary service. 
The difference between 1920 and 1921 represents largely a difference 
in price levels. 
STANDARD REQUIREMENTS FOR HORSES 
The following standard requirements are suggested for a 1,500- 
pound horse working 1,000 hours a year. 
Grain pounds__ 4,000 Man labor hours-- 80 
Roughage do 6,000 Cash costs cents__ 60 
Pasture days- _ 45 
DISTRIBUTION OF MAN LABOR ON HORSES 
Figure 14 shows the distribution of man labor expended on horses 
on a farm having an average of 6.6 horses for the year. The labor 
runs fairly uniformly during most of the year. The peak require- 
ments come during the rush of putting in the corn crop and cultivating 
Distribution of Man Labor on Work Horses 
HOURS 
OF 
LABOR 
20 
10 
| CHORE LABOR ^ OTHER LABOR 
-mmi—iM- 
JAN. FEB. MAR. APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT OCT. NOV. DEC. 
Fig. 14.— Work horses get more attention during the rush season than when they are not doing 
much work. The distribution of man labor is shown by weeks 
it. From July to the close of the year the use of pasture cuts down 
the chore hours on horses. In the fall and through the winter the 
horses run in stalk-field pastures. This pasturing of stalk fields is 
common in the area and reduces the chores on horses during the fall 
and winter. 
COLTS 
The unit requirements for colts are presented in Table 37. The 
colt enterprise included yearlings, 2-year-olds, and even 3-year-old 
unbroken torses. On account of this variability in ages and the fact 
that the feed and labor for the different ages could not be separated, 
the requirements have been computed on the animal-unit basis. 10 
footnote 8, page 14, 
