112 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



experiments may prove them too low. Tin- Michigan Experiment Station proposes to 

 conduct a series of experiments to test the value of beet pulp as a succulent food when 

 combined with dry feeds. Two such experiments with steers were conducted during the 

 winter of 1900-1901 and are reported in this bulletin. 



Practical feeders will understand that the figures given below as to the value of pulp 

 are not to be taken as a safe basis for calculations in their own feeding, but simply 

 as the results from single experiments, which may be modified, corrected, or com 

 pletely upset by future experiments. It is manifestly the duty of the Station to report 

 the progress of its work, and hence this bulletin is issued to place upon record the 

 data thus far obtained, expecting future experiments to eliminate the errors which 

 they are almost certain to contain. 



The first experiment was conducted through the kindness of Hon. A. W. Wright on his 

 "Grafton Farm," near Alma. Mr. Wright was feeding several hundred steers on his 

 farm, using pulp as the basis of the l'ation. Having abundant cheap pasture, he w;is 

 not trying to fatten the steers rapidly during the winter, but to carry them through 

 with as little outlay as possible. He generously donated the use of his barns and fifty 

 steers for the test, furnishing also the feed and a large part of the care, allowing the 

 Station to supervise the feeding and make the necessary weights. Because the steers 

 were thin in flesh, and because neither the hay nor the corn stover was of the very best 

 quality but was such as was at hand, it is possible that the values of the pulp 

 expressed in weights of these particular feeds are too high when considered in reference 

 to hay and corn stover of better quality. 



Hon. A. M. Todd, of Pearl, in Western Michigan, was also feeding a large number of 

 steers, and using beet pulp with part of them. He kindly allowed the Station to send 

 a representative to supervise the feeding, and do the weighing. The steers in this case 

 were fed to fatten as rapidly as possible. 



It is difficult to fix upon a correct measure by which to estimate the real value of a 

 succulent food. A succulent food cannot be compared justly with a dry food upon the 

 basis of a chemical composition alone. The experience of Scotch and English farmers 

 with turnips, and of the American farmers with rape, the former containing as high a 

 per cent of water as the average pulp, and the latter within six per cent as much water 

 as pulp, has shown the practical feeder that the succulence itself of these useful fodders 

 is an element which must be taken into consideration. The addition of such a succulent 

 fodder, even though mostly water, to a ration otherwise made up of dry forage and 

 grain increases the efficiency of the entire ration to an amount by no means indicated 

 by the feeding value of the succulent feed alone, or by the chemical composition of such 

 succulent feed. In the experiments reported in this bulletin the method of studying 

 the relative values of the pulp and the other factors of the ration is as follows: When 

 the experiment was conducted with steers, there was fed to one lot a ration made up of 

 hay, corn stover and grain. To another lot the same dry feeds were given, and beet 

 pulp added. In one case the amounts of the dry feeds given to the two lots were equal, 

 and the pulp was given as an extra. In this case the measure of the value of the 

 pulp is expressed in terms of the greater gains made by the lot to which the pulp was 

 given. In other cases, a less amount of each of the dry feeds was consumed by the lot 

 of steers receiving pulp. In other words, the pulp was substituted for part of the dry 

 feed. To determine the value of the pulp in terms of the other feeds, it was necessary 

 to find how much of the several kinds of feed had to be fed to produce a hundred pounds 

 of gain with each lot. In the experiments reported below it happened that it required 

 less of the dry feeds to make a hundred pounds of gain with the lots receiving pulp. 

 Knowing how much pulp the lot of steers ate per 100 pounds of gain, and how much less 

 of the other feeds they required to produce a hundred pounds of gain, it was assumed 

 that the pulp eaten took the place of the excess of dry feeds eaten by the pen having no 

 pulp, and from these data the value of a ton of pulp was Estimated. 



Where the test was conducted with milch cows a similar plan was adopted. To one lot 

 of cows pulp was piven in addition to a dry ration which was fed alike to both lots. 

 The efficiency of a ration for cows is the amount of milk and butter fat yielded by the 

 cows. In the experiment reported below it is seen that the cows gave as much fat 

 when no pulp Avas fed as when they had pulp, although there was an immaterial 

 increase in the milk flow. The measure of the value of the pulp, had any been shown 

 by the test, would have been derived from a comparison of the amounts of feed required 

 to produce a hundred pounds of butter fat with and without pulp. 



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