608 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Cft. Doc. 



and tlie other two 9.3 pounds per hundred pounds total feed, they be- 

 ing practically the same. The report says that the gluten ration gave 

 a higher and quicker finish that either of the other two, and even 

 at the higher prices paid, the gluten was a trifle the better invest- 

 ment. The corn, timothy hay and corn-stalks did not contain enough 

 protein, and when this lack was supplied, either by the use of clover 

 hay or of gluten meal strikingly better results were obtained, and 

 the clover hay and gluten meal seemed to be about equally efifl- 

 cient. 



At the Nebraska Experiment Station one lot of two-year-old 

 steers were fed with snapped corn and prairie hay, and gained 1.2 

 pounds per day. Another lot was fed on snapped corn and alfalfa, 

 and gained two pounds per day. The first lot gained 12.7 pounds 

 and the second 21.7 pounds for every hundred pounds of grain con- 

 sumed, or the first lot gained four and one-third pounds for every 

 hundred pounds of total feed they ate, and the second lot 6^ pounds. 



In the same series of experiments, they tried adding nitrogenous 

 concentrates like oil-meal or cottonseed meal, and it was found just 

 as in the Illinois experiments, that there was a marked advantage, 

 although the gains were not quite so cheap as with the alfalfa. 



They tried still another lot, for which I have not the figures here, 

 using one-half alfalfa hay, and one-half corn fodder. They got 

 just as large a gain, and a cheaper gain than with alfalfa alone. 

 The corn fodder was cheaper than alfalfa, and evidently a half 

 ration of alfalfa furnished all the protein that the animals needed. 



I want to call the attention to some results recently published 

 by the Missouri Station in Bulletin No. 76 and I want to recom- 

 mend the study of that bulletin to those of you who are interested 

 in the production of beef. It contains an account of some experi- 

 ments conducted at the Missouri Station. Now, the point I want 

 to call special attention to is one of the results in this matter of 

 using roughage. In the first place, the^'^ point out that by using 

 foods like alfalfa, cow peas, or clover, they can get their animals 

 to use more coarse feed, thereby diminishing the cost of the ration. 

 This larger consumption of coarse feeds, however, does not prevent 

 the steers from consuming a full grain ration. Indeed, rather 

 more grain can be fed with a legume hay, than with timothy or 

 corn stalks. Finally, as regards the cost of production, they esti- 

 mate that one bushel of corn fed with timothy hay will average 

 4.93 pounds of grain — practically 5 pounds — while one bushel of 

 corn fed with clover and cow peas wall produce 6.6 pounds gain, a 

 difference of 1.6 pounds of beef gained for each bushel of corn by 

 using with the nitrogenous forage crops as against timothy. ''Rat- 

 ing this gain at the low price of 5 cents per pound, this means that 

 the feeder is getting 8{ cents per bushel more for his corn by com- 

 bining it with such hay as clover or cow peas than when it is com- 

 bined with good timothy. If one-fifth of all the corn produced in 

 Missouri were fed to cattle, the increased profits from combining 

 it with clover or cow peas as compared with timothy would amount 

 to 12,500,000.00 each year. 



"The profit is not all, however, in the increased gains secured by 

 the use of legume hays like clover and cowpeas, for, in addition to 

 this the steers get fat quicker, fatten more uniformly, and show at 

 the end of the feeding period a higher finish and carry more bloom 



