329 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 12, 
THE FEEDING OF THE FARM TEAM 
Every farmer who really loves the 
farm and the work connected with it, is 
very much interested in his work horses. 
They are his constant companions, and 
upon their earning capacity, especially 
during the busy season, depends in not 
a small measure his success. We, who 
love the horse, often judge a farmer quite 
accurately by the kind of a team he 
drives, how he cares for and uses them. 
There is probably a wider difference in 
appearance noticeable among the farm 
teams of a community than when we 
compare any of the other stock. The 
successful feeding of the farm work 
team is surely a skilled art. In judging 
from the limited variety of foodstuffs 
usually fed, we might wrongly judge 
that their proper feeding was a simple 
matter. We note two neighbors who 
have the same numbers of acres to tend, 
who have the same feeds to draw from, 
who council as to how much each one 
feeds, etc., yet each morning the teams 
emerge from their respective stables in- 
radically different condition one team 
having that action, style and bloom 
which tells you at once they are well 
cared for and in the pink of condition, 
while the other team goes to the field 
with lagging step, rough coats and dull 
eyes, which tell you better than words 
can tell that no judgment has been used 
in their feeding and management, though 
nearly the same kind and amount of 
feed has been given to both, quite pos¬ 
sibly the latter team eating the larger 
amount. 
With the beef animal we may calculate 
that a pound of grain will make approxi¬ 
mately a certain amount of gain. Not 
so with the horse, for he is on a higher 
plane. It is not weight alone we are 
seeking for in our farm teams, but nerve, 
muscle, and endurance, which count for 
more in their place than mere added 
pounds. The farm work horse usually 
has plenty of hard work, hence develops 
a hearty appetite and robust digestion, 
and if his wants are studied and judici¬ 
ously supplied, the lot of the work horse 
will not be altogether an unhappy one; 
and many years of usefulness may be de¬ 
prived from them. We should not sup¬ 
pose because we usually find a very nar¬ 
row range of feeds in the average ration 
that it is because the range is limited, 
for it is not, and probably taken the 
world around, the horses' ration is more 
varied than of any other of our larger 
domestic animals, yet in each country, 
though feeding a very different product, 
we find the same claim for the necessity 
and superiority of feeding that special 
feed. In our own country we may have 
noticed until recent years, oats and Tim¬ 
othy hay to be the general ration in the 
Northeast, crushed barley with barley 
and wild oat hay for roughage on the 
Pacific coast, while in the South Indian 
corn with corn fodder as roughage 
seemed to meet the need of their horse 
and mule population. But with the ad¬ 
vent of higher-priced feeds and higher 
education along feeding and general 
agricultural lines, we are learning to 
lengthen our list of available feed-stuff’s. 
While we might maintain our work 
horses here in the East on oats and hay, 
yet the higher price compared with other 
feeding stuffs at once prohibits their* 
entire use, if for no other reason. Ex¬ 
periments with other animals show us 
very plainly that a judicious combination 
of feeding stuffs has many advantages 
over a single one, and we notice with the 
work horse the same thing is true, our 
being able to cheapen the ration and bet¬ 
ter nourish the bones, nerves and tissues 
of our hard-working friends. 
In our locality we have oats, corn, 
barley, rye, wheat and peas, with the by¬ 
products of bran, oil meal, hominy, etc., as 
concentrates, and among the coarse fod¬ 
ders we may name clover, Alsike, Tim¬ 
othy, Alfalfa and mixed hay, silage corn, 
clover, sorghum and the various straws, 
not the least among them by any means 
being buckwheat. Many of these feed- 
stuffs are available to the eastern care¬ 
taker and can be compounded into many 
well-balanced rations to fit his needs, the 
price and feeds at hand to govern him in 
their selection. Ground barley, corn, or 
corn-and-cob meal may constitute one- 
third the grain ration, Bran is a much 
used horse feed, and a few roots or a 
little sweet silage is always in order, 
especially in Winter. Our best authori¬ 
ties on horse feeding tell us that experi¬ 
ence must decide how wide a ration we 
may profitably feed, but that about 1:7 
is the correct nutritive ratio for the 
- work horse. However, I believe that a 
farmer who has an abundance of home¬ 
grown feeds should have more liberty in 
the selection of a balanced ration than 
one who must purchase all feed, always 
bearing in mind that if narrowed or 
widened excessively from our feeding 
standards, usually we do it at a loss, and 
we must guard our operations with care¬ 
ful watchfulness. We may safely calcu¬ 
late that for each 100 pounds of weight 
we should feed at least two pounds of 
provender daily, of this, from 10 to 16 
pounds should be grain in some form, 
the amount of grain given to be gov¬ 
erned by the severity of the labor re¬ 
quired. The heaviest feeding especially 
of roughage should be at night. The 
best way to feed grain to hardworked 
horses is ground and with a small 
amount of cut hay or straw. All grain 
should be ground except possibly oats, 
and occasionally a little ear corn when 
horses are not laboring hard, but as a 
rule for heavy work the horse does bet¬ 
ter, masticates and digests its food 
more economically, and with less energy 
to have all grains crushed or ground, but 
not too finely. We may nearly always 
feed straw and fodder to some extent, 
preferably in Winter when so hard labor 
is not required, always keeping in mind 
if we feed more straw or stover which 
has a wide nutritive ratio, we must 
balance it with a concentrate having a 
narrower ratio than the standard. Farm¬ 
ers in general feed entirely too much 
roughage. Where only from 10 to 15 
pounds of roughage is required for the 
average work horse, many feed all they 
can possibly induce the animal to eat. 
Their digestion becomes weakened, their 
intestines clogged, and their general ap¬ 
pearance sluggish. I know many farm¬ 
ers who fill their horses’ mangers when¬ 
ever they see they are at all lowered, 
even if they happen in the stable three or 
four times a day between feeding hours. 
Many sick and out-of-condition horses 
are cured by merely withholding one-half 
or two-thirds of their accustomed rough- 
age. Probably among farm work horses 
more ill's arise from overfeeding of 
roughage and lack of exercise during bad 
weather than from all other causes com¬ 
bined. 
In regard to time and manner of feed¬ 
ing, though we read of many cases where 
horses are worked hard on but two meals 
a day, we as farmers require three each 
day, and why not feed our horses like¬ 
wise? We always make it a rule to feed 
our animals before we feed ourselves; 
then they are not likely to wholly miss 
a feed at least. As before stated, the 
largest amount of roughage should be 
fed at night, when they have ample time 
to masticate and assimilate it thoroughly. 
We all know when we enter the stable 
at feeding time, if we only give the 
roughage, or give it first, the horses 
do not seem satisfied, and are more or 
less uneasy until we give them their 
grain. We learn from investigations 
made by Colin and others that the 
stomach of the horse is small, and that it 
must fill and empty itself several times, 
two or three at least, for each feed given, 
and that the emptying of the stomach, 
or the passing of the food into the in¬ 
testines, is not so rapid toward the close 
of the repast; that is, that there appear 
to be two periods in the digestion of 
provender; in the first the food is pushed 
on into the intestines almost as soon as 
it enters the stomach, while later in the 
meal the movement is slower and diges¬ 
tion in the stomach is much more per¬ 
fect, hence in practice we should not 
feed all our grain before feeding any 
roughage if we would get the most nour¬ 
ishment and consequently most energy 
from this highly nutritious part of our 
ration. We might let them eat a limited 
amount of roughage first, or better still, 
mix our grain ration with a portion of 
chopped hay or straw, giving more bulk 
and making the mastication slower. As 
to watering the work horses, they should 
not be allowed to drink a very large 
quantity at any one time, but a little 
water often, never allowing them unne¬ 
cessarily to become extremely thirsty, 
and a little water at any time when they 
want will benefit them. In general prac¬ 
tice always water before feeding, and in 
warm weather the}' will often drink after 
feeding as well. The right feeding of a 
balanced ration to our farm teams will 
go at least half way toward making our 
farm horses the pride of our place, and if 
we are careful enough to study the feed¬ 
ing problem, the proverbial “bad breath” 
that is said to go with a bad feeder will 
become fragrant, and the necessary care 
and grooming will naturally come to be 
close second to the feeding problem. 
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