290 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



9-10 EDWARD VII., A. 1910 

 EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDING STEERS. 



Reference was made in last year's report to an experiment that was under way 

 in the fattening of cattle outside with little or no shelter as compared with fattening 

 in comfortable stables. The experiment was not at that time sufficiently far advanced 

 to give any definite results. In referring in the 1907 report to the conditions leading 

 up to this experiment, the following paragraphs appear: — 



' For a number of years the cattle-feeding business in Manitoba has been on the 

 wane owing largely to the low prices that have ruled for beef. The squall profits to 

 be realized have been out of proportion to the amount of capital required for buildings 

 and equipment, and the cost of labour. The value of the manure, which is considered 

 by many cattle feeders as equivalent to the cost of labour, is not generally regarded 

 so in Manitoba. The inducement to feed cattle has to be, therefore, that it offers a 

 better market for the coarse grains than to sell them directly off the farm. The 

 tendency to grow more oats and barley is becoming greater every year as their useful- 

 ness as cleaning crops is demonstrated, and, as diversified farming becomes more 

 general, their growth will be stimulated further. 



One of the deterring factors to the more extensive feeding of steers has been 

 the amount of capital required to house them in comfortable quarters. Buildings of 

 any kind are expensive, and those that are strictly essential are generally all that the 

 average farmer cares to build. He is quite reasonably averse to putting money into 

 buildings in which to feed stock wlien the profits from feeding are, at most, meagre. 

 To overcome this serious objection, a system of feeding has been advocated with which 

 the cattle are allowed to run outside without any shelter. The strongest advocates of 

 this system are men who have been practising it successfully for several years. By 

 this method, the stock, steers of about 1,100 to 1,300 pounds, kept in the open 

 throughout the winter, are fed straw and chopped grain and allowed abundance of 

 water. The claim is made that steers handled in this way make good gains economic- 

 ally, do not suffer from the cold, and can be handled with far less care, and with 

 the outlay of much less capital, tha^i when comfortable quarters are provided. 



So important did this question appear that it was considered advisable to initiate 

 some work to test the feasibility of the system, and to compare the average returns 

 with those obtained by feeding in a comfortable stable. Accordingly a carload of 

 three-year old steers were purchased and divided as evenly as possible into two lots, 

 eight head being put outside and eight in the stable. Those outside were given no 

 shelter other than that afforded by poplar and oak scrub and several coulees, no sheds 

 or wind-breaks being provided. The only outlay by way of equipment was the plank 

 required to make a trough in which to feed the grain.' 



The inside lot were started on December 5, on a ration consisting of silage, 25 

 pounds ; straw, 8 pounds ; hay, 4 pounds ; roots, 10 pounds ; grain, 4 pounds. The 

 grain ration was increased from time to time until by the first of April each animal 

 was receiving 10 pounds of grain. 



The outside lot had oat straw before them at all times, and were fed grain in the 

 same proportion as those inside. The steers were all dehorned, and were fed their 

 grain in a trough 16 feet long, 3 feet wide and high enough off the ground to prevent 

 them getting their feet in it. During the last three weeks of the exi)eriment, coarse 

 slough hay was substituted for the straw, the supply of which gave out. The grain 

 was fed twice daily and water was available in a neighbouring coulee. 



Three of the steers that were stabled had to be dropped from the test before it 

 was complete, so that five only are included in the results. Both lots were sold April 

 20, for $4.25 per hundred. In considering the results which follow, it should be borne 

 in mind that the winter of 1907-8 was an unusually mild one, the mean temi)erature 

 of January and February being 10-5 and 9-2, respectively, above the average. The 

 mean temperature for the five months the cattle were on feed were as follows : 

 December, 13-3; January, 7-3; February, 7-4; March, 10-0; April, 39-0. 



