Feeding Cotton Seed and Cotton Seed Products to 

 Range Steers 



^3' E. B. Stanley 



INTRODUCTION 



The rapid development of the farming industry in Arizona during 

 the past ten years has heen made possible by the outlet afforded for 

 its products through feeding to livestock. A balancetl agricultural 

 policy demands a system of diversified farming in which livestock is 

 an essential factor in maintaining soil fertility and the transformation 

 of home grown feeds into a finished marketable product. 



The advent of the cotton industry into Arizona and the conse- 

 quent widening between the market prices of cotton seed and cotton- 

 seed meal, together with a lack of experimental information regarding 

 the relative feeding values of these two feeds, prompted the Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station to conduct a steer feeding test at the Salt 

 River Valley Experiment Farm during the winter and spring of 1921. 



The purpose of the experiment herein reported was to ascertain 

 the relative values of whole cotton seed and cottonseed meal when 

 fed with a basal ration of alfalfa hay and corn silage for fattening 

 steers. It was further planned to make a comparison of corn silage 

 and cottonseed hulls when fed as the sole roughage supplemented 

 with cottonseed meal in fattening rations and also to test the results 

 of feeding cotton seed in a crushed form. 



METHOD AND PLAN 



The feeds which constituted the basal ration of the dift'erent lots 

 were the two staple crops grown in our farming sections and widely 

 recognized as leading roughage feeds, namely alfalfa hay and silage. 

 Cottonseed meal, whole cotton seed, crushed cotton seed, and cotton- 

 seed hulls were the supplementary feeds used. All the feeds were of 



