Show big team outfit cuts power cost expenses reduced by using less grain more pasture and roughage by B H T ROB BINS live stock specialist university ot of illinois service by combining from five fire to twelve horses under the management of one driver farmers operating big team outfits obtain low cost power ranging from 04 64 cents to cents for bac each h work horse hour on ordinary horse farms a work horse hour cost 18 per cent more and on tractor farms 23 per cent more than on big team farms based on a survey of horse farms and tractor farms in the corn belt the alg it te team operators worked the largest horses and mules and averaged the greatest number of days of work a head in a year yet they cheapened their horse cost by using less grain and more pasture legume hay bay straw and cornstalks corn stalks they turned their work stock out on pasture at night and on idle lays days in summer and in winter used legume hay to balance stalk fields and straw stacks to make satisfactory maintenance for horses in farms studied in the survey average amounts fed to a work horse a year were about pounds of grain mostly corn and oats and pounds of dry roughage including considerable straw and corn stover in addition the horses grazed about six months on grass and stalk fields |