Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1899-04-13
siIage for Horses.


Last fall the Virginia agricultural
experiment station undertook to deter
mine the effect on horses OF ration
containing silage. Eight animals were
chosen-six mules and two horses
Four Of the animals were given hay,
corn and silage. the remainder hay and
corn alone. The experiment lasted
sor" ething over six weeks. In bulle-
tin giving the results Of the test the
following statements are made:
I'm certain portions of the state
where cultivated grasses make but an
indifferent growth, hay substitutes are
eagerly sought, and the system or
pulling fodder from corn is in vogue
This makes a good rough food for
horses, but is too costly to gather ana
the supply is often limited. Various
fodder plants have from time to time
been tried, but not with complete sat
isfaction; cow-peas being difficult to
gather and cure; crimson clover unsafe
as horse food Con account OF the
rough avn or beard on the head, etc.;
and for these reasons corn silage has
nave had many inquiries as to its 1T
ness for such use, all concluding their
questions by stating that they had
used it with bad effect on their AMI
mails. While we could state that silage
Was often used as horse food, ana
while we had used a limited quantity
In that manner, yet, as we wished TO
make accurate statement of facts, we
began feeding eight work animals (six
mules and two horses) with silage, let
ting 1t to a certain extent take the
place of corn. We used a small amount
OF silage for these animals for some
weeks previous to the dates mentioned
in the table, the amount consumed the
first week IL was weighed being more
than 1t might be wise TO start with IL
they were entirely unused to il. BY
this we mean that for some days when
beginning TO feed silage it Is of the
utmost Importance 20 feed very small
amount at first, and increase grad
ually, as the animal appetite and con-
dition of bowels may indicate. We are
inclined to think that the whole trouble
Of the parties making inquiries came
from feeding too freely at first or pos
sibly, too, from not realizing that all
good silage contains a large amount
OF corn; II this is not taken into con-
sideration and large ration of corn
is given beside, it might prove danger
Gus, or at least give serious bowe!
trouble. The animals we fed were in
good health from first to last, were ex-
amined from time to time by a vet
Urinary surgeon and found to be IN
normal condition"
After a preliminary period Of feeding
previous to the beginning of a record
of weights, the animals given silage
were allowed all they would eat, though
this proved to be not as much as is
readily devoured by cattle of the same
weight. This was considered an in
dication that horses would eat CATER
becoming accustomed to IT'D no more
than they could easily assimilate.
The weights at the end of each week
showed that there was no falling off in
flesh; and this though all th5 animals
were constantly at work, except during
stormy weather They all made gains
in weight, but those fed silage corn
and hay, and the others fed corn and
hay alone gained about equally. AS a
whole, it appeared from the results Of
the experiment that silage would make
good roughage for horses when used
in competition with hay or stover and
grain, but that the animal should be-
CffNt, cd he hxr
grees, and that this is as important as
when changing from old to new corn,
or from hay to grass.