170 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



BETTER PREPARATION REQUIRED IN SUMMER THAN IN WINTER FEED- 

 ING. 



It further appears, from these replies, that the feeder offers 

 his grain in rather better form in summer than in winter. This 

 is primarily due to the fact that grass in summer is more palatable 

 than is the roughage usually offered in winter, namely, hay. In 

 order, therefore, to make sure that the cattle will discriminate 

 against the grass to a sufficient degree, or that they will eat a 

 sufficient quantity of grain to make rapid gains and become fat in 

 a reasonable time, it is necessary to offer them grain in a palatable 

 form. In winter, when the roughage is not particularly palatable, 

 sound corn in practically any form will be preferred to hay, so 

 there is little difficulty in maintaining the proper proportion be- 

 tween the grain and roughage consumed. In other words, the grass 

 in summer is much more likely to interfere with the animal's ap- 

 petite for grain than is the hay in winter. 



It is furthermore true that the grain in summer is dryer and 

 harder, and therefore -more difficult to masticate than in winter. 

 The ears of corn that have been husked and stored in a crib are 

 by midsummer so dry and the cob is so hard that it is practically 

 out of the question for the steer to handle it in this form profitably ; 

 especially is this true if it be one of the improved and high shelling 

 varieties of corn like Reid's Yellow Dent, Learning, Boone County 

 White, etc. Some of the old and unimproved cattle corns have so 

 soft a cob as to not require this treatment even in summer. The 

 yield of such a corn, however, is so low as to more than offset the 

 advantage of the soft cob in cattle feeding. Moreover, the corn 

 by this time is quite likely to have been soiled more or less by mice 

 and rats, unless stored with the husk on. It is a very common and 

 well approved practice to snap the corn and store it with the husk 

 on if it is to be fed to cattle the following summer. It is usually 

 husked just before being offered, comes out fresh, clean, is not 

 unduly dried out, and is exceedingly palatable. 



Another point undoubtedly influencing the practice is that the 

 corn may be soaked in summer much more conveniently than in 

 winter, as all difficulty from freezing is avoided. The only point 

 to be guarded against is souring. If the corn is not soaked more 

 than twelve hours and the box is cleaned out each time, the water 

 changed frequently and the feed troughs are carefully cleaned each 

 day, no difficulty of this nature will be experienced. For details 



