Official Document, No. 6. 



REPORTS OF SPECIAL EXAMINATIONS AND 



INVESTIGATIONS. 



METHODS OF STEER-FEEDING. 



CO-OPERATIVE EXPERIMENT BY THE PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT 

 OF AGRICULTURE AND THE PENNSYLVANIA AGRICULTURAL EX- 

 PERIMENT STATION. 



UXDER THE IMMEDIATE SUPERVISIOX OF G. C. WaTSOX AND A. K. KISSER. 



An article published in the Annual Report of 1901, page 495 (Bul- 

 letin No. 67), gives an acount of an experiment which was designed 

 to test various methods of feeding steers. This experiment has been 

 repeated in all essentials and the results described in the following 

 pages. It is recognized that one trial, with a comparatively small 

 number of animals, is not sufficient to determine the many questions 

 involved in such a test. Therefore, the experiment herein described 

 was designed to be largely a repetition of the one made the year 

 previous, in order that the results of the two may be compared and 

 that somewhat more reliable data may be secured for the information 

 of those who are particularly interested in converting the roughage of 

 the farm and commercial stock foods into the more valuable product 

 of prime beef. The narrow margin of profit in feeding steers, which 

 have been reared in other localities, compels the feeders to study 

 closely the strictest economy as to the outlay of labor and money, 

 and to note tendencies even before results are obtained. One ob- 

 ject of the trial was to determine as far as possible the comparative 

 cost as well as the efficiency of various methods of feeding. 



Plan of the Experiment. 



The experiment was devised to test certain practical methods of 

 confining fattening steers as well as to test the usefulness of auto- 

 matic watering devices for fattening animals as steers are usually 

 confined throughout Pennsylvania. The experiment was designed 

 to determine, if possible: 



(1) The effect of different methods of supplying drinking water; 



(2) The effect of different methods of confining fattening animals; 



(221) 



