Show maynard urges care in feeding of work horses along with the harve harvesting sUng of the the first cutt ting of alfalfa hay there is a tendency to feed more of this nitrogenous roughage to horses than they need or can use e to the best advantage h says ayi D dean E J maynard of the utah state agricultural college the practice of feeding horses their fill of alfalfa is always wasteful and often harmful tying horses to hay racks filled with alfalfa or even keeping their mangers filled can result in the use of large quantities of alfalfa for which there will he be little return rendered in maintenance or work feeding experiments have indicated that under such conditions horses will eat as much as three per cent more of their own weight in hay daily if the quality of hay is good while one 1400 pound horse is reported to have consumed an average 0 60 pounds of alfalfa per day or 43 per cent of his own weight dean maynard reports on the other hand feeding tests have indicated that horses at work can get along satisfactorily I 1 on as little as eight pounds of hay per head daily provided they receive enough grain in addition to supply the necessary nutrients when the alfalfa hay supply is short and badly needed as a pro feln supplement supple et for other classes of live livestock stock on the farm and when grain Is relatively cheap a general rule for working horses Is to limit their dally daily ration to one pound per hundredweight hundred weight live weight and to raise their dally daily grain allowance to an equal amount in such cases the alfalfa supply may also be supplemented with other roughage containing less protein such as oat hay corn stover or straw during idle days horses working regularly should receive their usual hay allowance hut but only two thirds of a regular grain feed containing one third by weight of wheat bran while horses need grain and good 9 quality hay during their working periods idle horses can be maintained very efficiently through the summer on pasture an and d through the winter on bright well stacked straw and a light ar grain feed the grain feed may be omitted if there is sufficient grain in the straw for maintenance purposes with plenty of time for mastication with undisturbed digestion and with heat the main factor desired through the winter roughage of this sort may be used satisfactorily to reduce costs and release valuable i nitrogenous hay for other purposes dean maynard points out |