Missouri Sheep Breeders' and Feeders' Association. 493 



preparations are both very efficient in that they show a max- 

 imum of profits per lamb. 



III. Shelled corn is more efficient than the ground, in 

 that the gains are produced more cheaply and the profits per 

 lamb are greater. 



IV. Corn and cob meal seems to be very efficient prep- 

 arations when corn is very high in price. If corn is very cheap, 

 however, it is not so efficient. Peculiarly enough in these trials, 

 when considering the feed required to produce an equal quantity 

 of gain, we find that 100 pounds of ground cobs (comparing 

 corn and cob meal to corn meal) saved 46.2 pounds of ground 

 corn, plus 4.2 pounds of oil or cottonseed meal, plus 16.4 pounds 

 of alfalfa hay, plus 20.6 pounds of corn silage. Assuming that 

 the corn grain is worth one cent a pound, the oil meal one and 

 a half cents, the alfalfa hay one-half cent and the corn silage 

 one-sixth cent, we find that the hundred pounds of cob replaced 

 63.1 cents' worth of other feedstuffs. This is figured on the 

 basis of home weights. Evidently there is some nutritive value 

 to the cob, bulky and fibrous though it is. Reference to Table 

 I showing the "Feed for 100 Pounds Gain" gives the figures for 

 the basis of these deductions. Unfortunately, the corn and cob 

 meal lot shrank quite heavily going to market, which tended 

 to reduce the profits per lamb even though the cost of 100 pounds 

 gain was smaller than any of the single preparations. The 

 possible big field of usefulness, however, for corn and cob meal 

 is with the wintering ewe or the stock sheep which have a 

 maximum of need for roughage and with which forced feeding 

 is not the object. In other words, where bulky, fibrous feed is 

 wanted for maintenance purposes the corn and cob meal will 

 come into its own when corn is relatively high in price. 



V. The shrinkage of lambs en route to market is affected 

 by the method of preparation as well as by the roughage fed. 

 We find, as in our steer feeding work, that if silage (or hay) is 

 fed as the lone roughness that the shrinkages are usually heavier 

 than where a combination of silage and hay are used. The 

 shrinkage en route from home feed lots to market is often such 

 as to make the lambs which had the most economical record at 

 home prove to be the least efficient of all. 



VI. Alfalfa is a premier sheep roughage. The addition 

 of silage to alfalfa is the practical thing in the corn belt. Silage 

 should not be fed as a lone roughage for fattening lambs; they 

 should have some leguminous hay along with it. A happy 



