209 



Value of pasturage and of grain ration with pasturage 

 FOR young cattle, G. E. Morrow, M. A. (pp. 311)-32o). — The ques- 

 tions proposed were : (1) The value of pasture for young cattle. (2) The 

 value of a graiu ration for youug cattle on pasture. The observations 

 here reported are based on two seasons' experiments, iu 1888 and 1889. 

 The trials were on good, dark-colored prairie soil. The field used was a 

 " blue-grass" pasture, with some white clover, and had been in pasture 

 for ten years. 



Series of 1888. — Eight young steers, varying in age from eight to four- 

 teen months, we.re divided into two lots, as nearlj^ equal in weight as 

 possible. May 14 they were all turned out, lot 1 into a 3-acre pasture, 

 receiving no other feed ; and lot 2 into a 2-acre pasture, receiving, 

 from May 28. in addition to the grass, a grain ration consisting of a 

 mixture of 12 parts of corn, 10 of oats, and 5 of grain, and varying in 

 amount from 3.5 to 8 pounds per animal daily. " It was assumed that 

 the steers receiving a libsral grain ration might safely have the acreage 

 of pasture reduced one third, and the appearance of the two fields in- 

 dicated that this assumption was fairly correct." The steers were all 

 taken from the pasture October 29, and were fed during the winter on 

 grain, hay, and corn silage. A table gives the weights of each lot, 

 taken at intervals of two weeks, and the amounts of grain, hay, and 

 silage fed each lot. The following season, 1889, the eight steers were 

 pastured together iu a 10-acre fi.eld. 



Series of 1889. — Six steers, pure or grade Shorthorn, varying in age 

 from a little less than one year to twenty months, were divided into 

 two lots of three each, and on May 20 placed in the two pastures used 

 in 1888. Lot-3 was in the 3-acre field without grain, and lot 4 in the 

 2 acre field, and, beginning with May 27, received, in addition to the 

 pasture grass, from 5.4 to 10 pounds of shelled corn, or its equivalent of 

 corn on the ear, per head per day. June 10 two Poland-China pigs were 

 turned into the 2 acre field with lot 4 and received no other food than 

 grass and the off'al from the steers. The experiment continued through 

 the season until November 25, though from (Jctober 14 both lots re- 

 ceived corn. The amounts of corn fed to each lot, the weights of each 

 lot at intervals of usually two weeks, and the calculated gains in weight 

 are given in a table. 



Gain from pasture alone. — The periodical gains in live weight of the 

 individual animals varied remarkably, especially in the case of those re- 

 ceiving no grain. Thus, in 1888, lot 1 in the 3-acre pasture gained from 

 May 14 to June 25, 400 pounds; during the next eight weeks only 70 

 pounds; during the next six weeks, 269 pounds; and during the fol- 

 lowing four weeks ending October 29 they lost 145 pounds. In 1889 

 the three steers iu the same pasture (lot 3) gained from August 5 to 

 August 19 (two weeks) 104 pounds, and during the two weeks follow- 

 ing lost 1 pound in weight. The eight two-year-old steers used in the 

 1888-89 experiment gained on the 10 acres of pasture from April 29 to 



