512 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 



What is molasses? Is it a supplement or carbohydrate? Some people 

 have the mistaken idea that it is a supplement to take the place of the lin- 

 seed oil meal or cottonseed meal. However, molasses is similar to corn. 

 Molasses runs about 25 per cent moisture, while corn runs around 15 per 

 cent, otherwise there is a great deal of similarity between the two. Both 

 years we have added this molasses to our standard corn belt ration — a 

 very practical ration which has stood at the top or close to the top in our 

 feeding trials. This so-called standard corn-belt ration consists of shelled 

 corn (hand full-fed), three pounds of linseed oil meal per steer per day, 

 corn silage (hand full-fed), and clover or alfalfa hay at night. Both years 

 the addition of molasses had very little effect on the gains^ The steers 

 have gained about equally in all lots. However, both years the molasses 

 increased in the cost of gains from 25 cents per hundred when five pounds 

 of beet molasses were fed, to $1.53 per hundred when five pounds of cane 

 molasses were fed. The second year's work showed the cost of 100 

 pounds gain to be 50 cents more where two pounds of molasses were fed, 

 and $2 more when the molasses was full-fed. There is an old saying that 

 molasses stimulates water drinking and consequently increases the gain — 

 but does it? We kept a water record on these steers both years and found 

 that there was very little difference in the amount of water they con- 

 sumed. For every pound of molasses eaten, the excess consumption of 

 water over and above the check lot was as follows: Where one pound of 

 cane molasses was fed, the water consumption was increased 1.7 pounds 

 per day; where three pounds were fed it increased only one pound per 

 day, and where five pounds were fed, the water consumption was only 

 increased two-tenths of a pound per day. That is for cane molasses. The 

 larger the allowance of molasses the less extra water was drunk. In the 

 case of beet molasses, the opposite condition prevailed — that is, the larger 

 the allowance of molasses the more water they drank — 1.39 pounds where 

 five pounds of beet molasses were fed. 



We noticed, especially last year in the heavy-fed molasses lots, that 

 there was apparently a great deal of fermentation took place. The steers 

 would belch. Whether this has much effect or not, wo do not know, but 

 there probably would be some loss of gases, etc. 



We were very much interested to know what we could afford to pay 

 for both cane and beet molasses when fed in different amounts. We found 

 where five pounds of beet molasses were fed against, you could afford 

 to pay $28.19 per ton for the molasses and still return the same margin 

 per steer as in the standard group. Where we fed one pound, you could 

 afford to pay $105 per ton. So that where you fed large quantities there 

 was a loss, and where you fed very small amounts it paid to feed it. Cane 

 molasses showed relatively the same values. 



Last year, when corn was cheaper and molasses went down only $5 a 

 ton, it was worth $35 as compared with $40 the year before, and you could 

 afford to pay only $4.80 where five pounds were fed, as compared with 

 $36.50 where two pounds were fed. Generally speaking, then, we have 

 found that cane and beet molasses are about equal for producing gains on 

 cattle, but in Iowa under normal conditions it doesn't pay to feed either 

 one, except perhaps in very small amounts, unless you can buy it pound 



