The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-09-23
Oat Hay For Horses.

Oat hay makes an excellent feed
for horses, from the pure straw point
of view, with the seed threshed out.
Oats furnish the very best coarse Ger.
cal roughage. Many persons feed
oats in the straw unthreshed. The
horses relish both straw and grain In
this form. In certain sections It Is
quite a common custom to SOW oats
in the spring, and later when the
crop is we'll advanced to cut and cure
as hay, the same as one would handle
timothy or other hay crops. In this
case the crop Is not quite so mature
as 1t would be II treated for thresh-
ing out the grain. If we'll cured this
makes a bright and very palatable
hay.
The experiment stations say oat
hay is ranked as materially better
than timothy, the former containing
4.3 per cent. digestible protein and
asa per cent. carbohydrates, COM
pared with 2.S per cent. digestible
protein and 43.4 per cent. digestible
carbohydrates in timothy. Naturally
the greener the condition of the oats
when cut the poorer will be the crop
in digestible food. When cut for hay
the oats should be mown as in other
grass, and treated in similar man.
ner. Heavy succulent oats may be
cut in the morning after the dew is
off and then kept stirred to let in the
air so as to cure out well. With warm
drying weather 1t may be cooked the
same afternoon, and IL opened up
and exposed the next day to bright,
clear sky, possibly may be hauled in
that afternoon. OF course the es-
sential thing is to get in the crop
free of excess moisture so that 1t will
not mildew in the NOV.
1t will quite likely take three days
to do the entire job. One OF the
commonest faults in feeding horses
is the lack of variety in feed. Con-
sidering the number of different
grains and feed stuffs it does seem
strange that every team owner
should not provide for his animals a
ration that would be perfectly accep-
table to its system at all times. II
Is fact, however, that no more than
twenty per cent. give what may be
| termed a we'll balanced ration. The
other eighty per cent. still cling to
| the old ration of corn and hay, or
oats and hay, which practical experi-
ments have long since proved to be
expensive and wasteful.
II you want the best results feed
| a ration that contains all the ele-
ments of nutrition in properly bal
anced portions. Corn alone is not
a we'll balanced grain for feeding,
neither is oats or barley. OF the three
grains, oats is probably fed more ex-
tensively than either corn or barley
combined. Barley is rapidly gaining
favor as a feed, however, and when
properly combined with the other
grains make an ideal ration. When
you feed ground ration you prepare
it more readily and there is practi-
cally no waste. 1t should be remem-
bered that the horse digests its food
quickly, and whatever ration you
feed should be prepared with a view
to supply the nutrition the horse
needs. Your horses will work bet
ter and keep in better condition on
five or six quarts of ground feed
mixed than they will on eight quarts
of whole grain. Feed a variety OF
grains properly balanced and have II
we'll ground, and you will not only
have better horses, but it will cost
you less money to obtain this much
desired result. P. Fletcher, In
the American Cultivator.