PROCEEDINGS CORN BELT MEAT PRODUCERS' ASSN. 513 



for pound as cheaply as you do corn. This year when your com is cheap, 

 you cannot afford to pay as much for molasses as you could two years 

 ago, or even a year ago. 



This year, Professor Evvard went to Kansas City about the middle of 

 October and bought 68 Shorthorn steers that cost $5.25 in Kansas City. 

 We ran these steers on pasture until last Saturday, when we divided them 

 and started them on test After meeting with the directors of your asso- 

 ciation, we decided to run a test this year on roughages for fattening two- 

 year-old steers. Our check lot receives the standard corn-belt ration, 

 namely, shelled corn (hand full-fed), three pounds of cottonseed meal per 

 steer per day, corn silage (hand full-fed), and alfalfa and clover hay, self- 

 fed. The second lot gets corn (full-fed), two pounds of cottonseed meal 

 per steer per day, and alfalfa hay, self-fed; the third lot gets the same as 

 the second, except that clover hay is substituted for alfalfa, and the fourth 

 lot gets the same as the second except that mixed hay (half timothy and 

 half clover) is substituted for alfalfa. Another lot gets the same ration, 

 except that timothy hay is substituted for the alfalfa. This lot also gets 

 oat straw, self-fed. We are putting in another lot that gets all of the 

 silage they will eat and three pounds of cottonseed meal and alfalfa hay, 

 self-fed. Still another lot receives shelled corn (hand full-fed) and corn 

 fodder (self-fed) and three pounds of cottonseed meal. 



We expect to have a Cattle Feeders' Day at Ames some time in April 

 and will hope to see you all there. In fact, we will expect to see you all 

 there at that time. 



We are asked a good many times, What is silage worth as a roughage 

 for cattle? From the work done at the Iowa station in the past, it is 

 estimated to be worth about two-fifths as much as clover hay. For feed- 

 ing lambs, silage is worth a little more. Purdue has found, I believe, that 

 it is worth around one-half as much as hay for fattening lambs. Last year 

 we also did some work with molasses for fattening lambs We bought 

 some 300 fifty-pound lambs in Omaha and started to feed them along in 

 December, and fed them for 85 days. Cane and beet molasses were fed 

 at the rate of one-quarter pound to one-half pound, and full-fed. Where 

 we full-fed molasses, they ate about seven-tenths of a pound. The mo- 

 lasses lot was checked against a ration that we have used with consider- 

 able success for the past seven or eight years, namely, shelled corn (hand 

 full-fed twice daily), corn silage (hand full-fed twice daily), and hay at 

 night. Last year we used clover hay during the first part of the test and 

 had to change to alfalfa the last forty days. For lambs, the molasses did 

 increase the gain. In Lot 1, where no molasses was fed, the average daily 

 gain was .29 of a pound, while tlie best molasses lot was 1.30 pounds. 

 This happened to be in the lot that was fed a half-pound of beet molasses. 

 However, the molasses increased the cost of gain enough so that the 

 check lot made more money per lamb than any of the molasses lots. The 

 check lot made 11 cents per lamb, and the other lots all lost money. The 

 check lot sold higher at Chicago than any of the molasses lots except one. 

 The main reason was not that they were particularly finished better, but 

 that there was so much molasses in the fieeces of the lambs. When based 

 on final selling price, the molasses was worth, to return same margin per 



