234 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



resulted in a reduced consumption of ensilage, and the cattle made a 

 gain of 75 pounds per head during the second month. 



During December and January the cattle were fed in the same way 

 except that they were put up in dry lots, and we added some clover hay. 

 The cattle ate of the hay about ten pounds per day per head. 



We commenced selling the cattle about the ist of February. They 

 were sold at three different times. 



The result during the whole feeding period, ranging from 120 to 

 150 days, was that the cattle made an average gain of 2^4 pounds per 

 day, and consumed, estimating the ensilage to contain 10 per cent, of its 

 weight in ear corn, less than one-half the amount of corn which we have 

 always heretofore been compelled to feed like cattle in order to make 

 that much gain. 



I am greatly pleased with ensilage as a feed for fattening steers. 

 In my judgment it doubles the net profit of the com crop. 



The cost of putting the corn in the silos was, with us, no more than 

 the cost of putting it in shock, and one man could feed four times as 

 many cattle from the silos as he could were he to haul the corn from the 

 shock in the field in the ordinary way. 



A part of this ensilage was a mixture of corn and soy beans, and 

 from this we got better results than from the all-corn ensilage. We also 

 carried through the winter about 300 head of 900-pound steers on the 

 ensilage alone and they made very satisfactory gains and kept in much 

 better condition than we had ever secured with stock cattle, wintered in 

 the ordinary w^ay with hay and fodder. 



The best results in feeding of ensilage will be obtained by using it 

 in connection with clover hay, soy beans, cow peas or some other food, 

 rich in protein. 



In my judgment an ideal food for fattening 1,000-pound steers would 

 be all the clover hay and corn ensilage which they will eat, and about 15 

 pounds of corn per day or something less than one-half the grain they 

 would eat if given nothing else, with a little oil meal added to the grain 

 during the last month of the feeding. 



With stock steers, yearlings and two's, an excellent feed is the 

 corn ensilage and hay without any grain at all, and they will keep in fine 

 condition and make satisfactory gains, and can be wintered much cheaper 

 and better than under the old method of carr>nng stock cattle through 

 the winter. 



We are so well pleased with our experience in feeding ensilage to 

 fattening cattle last winter that we are now finishing the construction of 

 another silo, which will hold about 1,100 ton?. This will give us a total 



