12 The Bui.letin^. 



This does not afford us a very large variety of feeding-stuffs, and 

 yet it is quite practicable to feed cattle for from four to six months 

 on corn stover, silage, cotton seed and cotton-seed meal with quite 

 satisfactory" results both as regards the daily gains made by the cattle 

 and the financial returns from the operation. 



This question of the proper selection of feeding-stuffs is such an 

 important one, as related to the financial results of feeding operations, 

 that it may be well to consider it more in detail. 



CORN STOVER. 



Thousands of tons of corn stover are wasted every year in this 

 State which might be used profitably in the feeding of beef cattle, not 

 to mention the fact that this wasted com stover would make an excel- 

 lent substitute for the thousands of tons of timothy hay now purchased 

 at from $15 to $20 per ton. 



ISI'early half the feeding value of the corn plant is in the stover — 

 leaves, stalks and shucks — and of that half we save only about 40 

 per cent in the leaves and shucks. If the remaining 60 per cent of 

 the stover, or 30 per cent of the entire plant, represented the total 

 loss caused by the common method of harvesting the corn crop, it 

 would be bad enough to merit attention ; but the custom of "fodder- 

 pulling" decreases the yield of shelled corn enough to nearly equal 

 the value of the fodder obtained. (See October, 1905, Bulletin, 

 N". C. Department of Agriculture). It therefore follows that the 

 usual method of harvesting the corn crop wastes nearly one-half its 

 feeding value and deprives us of an excellent form of rough forage 

 for cattle-feeding. 



An acre of corn, of an average variety, that will yield twenty-five 

 bushels, will produce about a ton of stover. Such an acre of corn -can 

 be harvested — cut, shocked, hauled to the barn and shredded — for a 

 total cost of not to exceed $3.00 per acre, and therefore, since most of 

 the corn raised in the State is now harvested in such a way as to waste 

 this stover, we have no right to count its cost to the farmer who saves 

 it for cattle-feeding at a higher figure than $3.00 per ton. 



At. this price, or even at $5.00 per ton, it is the cheapest dry, rough 

 forage available on most farms. 



During the past winter the Department fed a car-load of steers for 

 140 days that had no other roughage than shredded corn stover. One 

 lot of five steers out of this car-load made an average gain of over two 

 pounds each, per day, for the last three months of the feeding period ; 

 and the whole lot of 27 head made an average daily gain for the entire 

 feeding period of 1.5 pounds. The weights from which these gains 

 are reckoned are the purchasing weight obtained as the cattle were 

 taken right off the grass and the actual selling weight. Had the 

 weight of these cattle on the day they were first put on feed, and 

 after they had been driven a distance of fifty miles, been taken for 

 the initial weight, the daily gain would have appeared much greater. 



