VELVET BEANS COMPARED WITH COT- 

 TONSEED MEAL FOR FATTEN- 

 ING STEERS 



By 



Geo. S. Templeton 



AND 



Ernest Gibbens 



Introduction 



A crop of velvet beans grown with a crop of corn in- 

 creases veiy materially the amount of concentrated 

 feeds and roughage for the live stock on the farm. A 

 very satisfactory method of harvesting the two crops 

 is to gather the corn, after a heavy frost has killed the 

 velvet bean vines, and then turn enough cattle and hogs 

 into the field to consume the beans, the leaves and 

 vines, and a large amount of the corn stover. This 

 method of harvesting the two crops is satisfactory on 

 soils of a sandy or light character which will not be 

 injured by tramping of the stock during wet weather. 



A number of farmers who grow velvet beans on a 

 large scale make a practice of gathering the mature 

 beans, after a heavy frost has killed the vines, and then 

 allow the cattle and hogs to gather the immature beans. 

 The mature beans are then used for feed later in the 

 winter, or are sold on the market. The feeding of the 

 velvet beans on the farm is generally preferable to sell- 

 ing them on the market. If the crop is fed to live 

 stock about eighty-five percent of the fertilizer in the 

 crop will be returned to the soil, and the commercial 

 fertilizer bill will be reduced materially. However, 

 this year there is not enough live stock in the section 

 of the state growing velvet Ijeans to consume the crop. 

 The bean crop this year in Alabama is estimated at 

 nearly 2,500,000 acres. As a large amount of the crop 

 must be sold on the market it is very desirable to know 

 how velvet beans as a concentrate compare with some 

 of the common feeds used on the average farm. The 

 experiments reported in this bulletin were planned t« 

 answer such questions. 



Bulletin No. 192 issued by this Station in November, 

 1916, gives a report of a feeding test conducted dur- 

 ing the winter of 1915-16 to compare the feeding value 



