1919] ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 369 



heifers than of the others. The only other important item of expense, the 

 summer pasture, was more than covered by credits for manure and pork. 



During the years covered by this report the costs of actually making baby 

 beef out of the home-grown steers and heifers not kept for breeding were 

 rendered abnormal because most of the animals were fitted for the show ring. 

 However, about 200 calves purchased on the open market were also fed each 

 year and some of the details of their management are given. Of those secured 

 in 1913, most were disposed of in June, 1914, after seven months' feeding. 

 About 50 were held over on pasture during the summer and sold in December. 

 It was found that heavy gains during the finishing period did not compensate 

 for the diminished returns on pasture. The calves purchased in 1915 were fed 

 in dry lot exclusively for over a year and topped the Chicago market at $12.50 

 per hundredweight. 



From the available data, and using 1917-18 prices, it is concluded that the 

 cost of raising a calf to weaning would be about $38 and the net cost, including 

 labor and overhead charges of a year's feeding, about $175. The net profit 

 would be somewhat more than $19, but nearly $12 of this is profit in rearing 

 the calf. The profit of the feeding operation would thus be about $7.50 per head. 



Cattle feeding investigations (Kansas Sta. Rpt. 1917, pp. 28, 29, 39, 40). — 

 Eighty-four grade Hereford calves from the Fort Hays substation were divided 

 into six lots and full-fed for the production of yearling beef. Four lots were 

 used to compare good sweet clover hay and green, brown, and black alfalfa hay. 

 The concentrates used were shelled corn and oil meal. The black alfalfa had 

 been stacked immediately after cutting without being cured. It was charged 

 at $5 per ton, whereas the price of the other hays was put at $15. 



The black-alfalfa lot was given almost twice as much bay as the other lots 

 but ate somewhat less grain. The gain averaged lowest and was the most 

 expensive of any lot. The green-alfalfa hay lot made slightly better and more 

 economical gains than the brown-alfalfa lot. The lot fed sweet clover hay 

 made about the same gains as the green-alfalfa hay lot, but these were cheaper. 



The two remaining lots were used to compare ground corn, barley, and linseed 

 meal with shelled corn and linseed meal when the roughage consisted of brown 

 alfalfa and silage in both cases. The corn and barley lot made the fastest gains 

 of any of the six lots, but next to the black-alfalfa lot these were the most ex- 

 pensive. The other lot made rather low but cheap gains. 



Progress is reported on a project at the Fort Hays substation concerning 

 the development of breeding heifers. During the second winter the group of 40 

 grade Herefords bred to calve at 3 years made better gains than the group that 

 calved the succeeding spring as 2-year-olds. In both groups the lots receiving 

 corn and cottonseed cake in addition to roughness averaged somewhat less 

 than twice the gain of lots fed only alfalfa hay silage and wheat straw, but at 

 somewhat more than twice the cost. In the case of 2-year-olds, the grain-fed 

 lot had less trouble in calving. 



Limiting the grain ration for fattening cattle. W. H. Pew, J. M. Evvard, 

 and R. Dunn {Iowa Sta. Bui. 182 (1918), pp. S1S-S44, figs. 11).— This is a re- 

 port of a two-year feeding trial to determine primarily whether the usual 

 corn-grain ration for fattening steers could profitably be reduced and an in- 

 creased amount of corn silage substituted. In 1915-16 five lots of five 2-year- 

 olds, mostly showing Hereford characteristics, were used, and in 1916-17 four 

 lots of eight steers each were included in this phase of the work. Much care 

 was taken to secure uniformity in the lots, not only the weights and general 

 appearance being considered but also certain individual body measurements 

 and the dispositions of the animals. Lot 1 of each year, after getting on full 

 feed, had shelled corn present at all times in a self-feeder. The other lots 



