198 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



stack on the average farm of Nebraska does not usually command 

 a figure greater than that — the net profits per steer would have 

 been the same in both lots. This would have been true also if 

 the corn had cost 50 cents per bushel instead of 35 cents, figuring 

 the alfalfa at $8.00. This experiment emphasizes further the 

 value of alfalfa as a beef producer, and it opens a new and import- 

 ant field for future investigations. The record made by the light 

 fed cattle was no accident, as another lot in a corn fodder experi- 

 ment made very nearly as large gains on the same grain ration. 

 No conclusions, however, are to be drawn until after further tests 

 along this line are made. As a single experiment, it suggests the 

 possibility of producing beef most economically on what approaches 

 a full grain feed when corn is low in price and alfalfa high. When 

 corn is high and alfalfa low, something more like half a full feed 

 of grain would make beef production more profitable, even though 

 more time is required to finish the cattle. Judging from the re- 

 sults of the above experiment, it is probable that the most economi- 

 cal proportion of grain to hay under varying conditions will be 

 found somewhere between a half feed and a full feed of grain, 

 nothing definite being known until after several tests are mad a in 

 which different quantities of grain are fed. 



CONCLUSIONS FROM THESE EXPERIMENTS. 



1. Prairie hay, when fed with corn alone to fattening cattle, 

 gives small and unsatisfactory gains, and very little or no profit. 



2. Alfalfa hay, with corn alone, gives large and profitable 

 gains. 



3. The use of well-cured corn-stover with alfalfa and corn, 

 while it may not produce larger gains, will make the gains less 

 costly, because of its low market value, thereby increasing the 

 profits over com and alfalfa alone. 



4. In feeding only prairie hay, as roughness to fattening 

 cattle, much larger and more profitable gains can be made if lin- 

 seed-meal or possibly some other protein concentrate is fed with 

 corn in small quantity, rather than feed corn alone. 



5. The results of two experiments indicate that linseed-meal 

 is a little more valuable than cottonseed-meal, and much more 

 valuable than wheat bran for supplementing corn when fed with 

 prairie hay or corn-stover. 



6. When alfalfa is made at least half of the roughness with 

 prairie hay or corn-stover good gains may be made, and at less 

 cost than when no alfalfa is fed, the protein being supplied by the 



