Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1875 — Cut Feed for Teams. [ARTICLE]

Cut Feed for Teams.

A farmer who keeps excellent horses writes as follows: I have tried cutting straw about an inch long. I kept a team on the oat straw which grew on less than three acres of land, from last of August to first of April, without using a pound of hay. It was mixed with about three quarts of cornmeal and bran in equal proportions, by weight, to each horse three times per day, feeding about a bushel of cut feed at night and a little over half a bushel in the morning and noon. I find that 2,500 pounds of corn-meal and bran, mixed in equal quantities by weight, will last a pair of hard-working horses and keep them in first-rate condition for three months. The hay or oats are cut rainy days and stored in a bin, and enough is always thus kept on hand to have an abundant supply. The meal is kept in tight bins and locked, so that each teamster knows that no one but himself is using the feed and a regular entry is made of the amount each teamster uses. lam fully satisfied, from a careful the amount fed teams, that the expense of feeding a team of working ha|pes on cut feed, and corn-meal and bran, mixed as before mentioned, is less than two-thirds of the expense of keeping them on dry hay and whole grain. Cornmeal alone, especially for summer use, is not as good for the health of horses as when mixed with bran, and, better still, with ground oats. Horses subject to the heaves are either much relieved or entirely cured while using the cut feed. The power of digestion seems to be greatly increased by the straw or hay being cut and mixed with meal before feed ing, as every part is then acted upon by the stomach. Not so when thrown into that organ in a concentrated mass, which before being half digested is passed out. No doubt one of the reasons why oats are so valuable as whole grain to feed is that the husk which surrounds the seed itself acts a distender, so to speak, and keeps the particles of meal separated so that they are better acted upon by the gastric juices of the digestive organs. A horse working hard will require about thirteen pounds of meal and bran per day.