1«7 



All the steers in each lot made satisfactory gains, 

 although they were not unusual. The average gains 

 daily, per head, for the 119 days were 1.6 pounds and 

 1.55 pounds in Lot I and Lot II respectively. 



At the close of the test the steers were shipped to 

 the St. Louis market and sold to one of the packing 

 companies. The steers were sold by lots to the buyer 

 for the packing company, the buyer having no know- 

 ledge of how the steers were fed. The authors of this 

 bulletin could not gather the data on the carcasses as 

 the packing houses were closed ^ the public on ac- 

 count of the unusual conditions caused by the war. 

 The packer stated, however, that the carcasses of Lot 

 I (bean fed steers) showed a little better external cov- 

 ering of fat. 



Quantity and Cost of Feed Required to Make One 



Hundred Pounds Gain 



In a feeding operation the real value of a feed, or 

 combinations of feeds, is measured by the number of 

 pounds of feed required to make one hundred pounds 

 of gain in live weight. Table III shows the quantity 

 of feed required to make one hundred pounds of gain 

 and the cost of gains under the conditions of this ex.- 

 periment. 



Table III. — Quantity and Cost of Feed to Make One- 



Handled Poands of Gain, December 21, 1916 



to April 19, 1917, (119 Days). 



When the feeds are valued as previously stated it is 

 seen that velvet bean fed steers made the cheapest 

 gains. Lot I, however, consumed only about two- 

 thirds as much silage as did Lot II. It is evident that 

 the pods tended to reduce the consumption of silage. 

 In this test 2.05 pounds of velvet beans in the pod were 

 equal to 1 pound of high grade cottonseed meal. That 

 is, according to this experiment, a feeder could afford 

 to pay nearly half as much per ton for unhulled and 

 unground velvet beans as for a ton of liigh grade cot- 

 tonseed meal. 



