TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 



157 



Q 



Daily feed — | 



Shelled corn, lbs I 18.10 



Cottonseed meal, lbs j 2.74 



Clover hay, lbs | 11.39 



Corn silage, lbs | 



Average daily gain, lbs | 2.36 



Cost per hundredweight gain | $10.35 



Profit per steer, including pork j 9.00 



Additional profit due to silage I 



14.15 

 2.74 



32.92 



2.35 



$8.96 



11.54 



2.54 



In all rations, shelled corn was fed according to the appetites of the 

 cattle. In addition to the corn, cottonseed meal containing forty-one per 

 cent protein was fed in the proportion of two and one-half pounds daily per 

 1,000 pounds live weight of cattle. All lots of cattle were uniform as to 

 size, quality, age, and condition when the experiment began, and were 

 treated exactly the same except that the roughage offered was different. 



The figures in the table are average of two years' work. They are the 

 results secured in the winter of 1909-10', which was a very profitable year, 

 and those secured in the winter of 1910-11, which was a very unsatisfac- 

 tory year to feed cattle. Corn was worth 54 cents in one case and 37.4 

 cents in the other; clover hay was worth $10 per ton, cottonseed meal $28 

 and $30 per ton, and corn silage $3 and $3.50 per ton. 



The first noticeable effect of the silage was on the appetites of the cat- 

 tle. It will be noted that the amounts of both hay and grain were reduced 

 by the addition of silage. The grain in the silage evidently replaced ap- 

 proximately the same quantity of, dry corn in the ration, thereby decreas- 

 ing the quantity of dry grain consumed by cattle on full feed. This fact, 

 when considered with the rate of gain, is sufficient to successfully contra- 

 dict any opinion that the corn put into silage is not as valuable as when 

 gathered. 



The rate of gain was increased by the addition of the silage to the 

 ration and not greatly affected by the substitution of silage for clover. 

 Since silage is a cheap roughage and the grain consumption was less when 

 silage was fed, the cost of gain was greatly reduced by the addition of 

 silage to the ration. When silage was fed once daily in connection with 

 clover hay, there was an average reduction in cost per hundred pounds 

 gain of $1.06; when silage was fed twice daily with clover hay, the re- 

 duction in cost amounted to $1.21 per hundred pounds gain, and when 

 corn silage was the only roughage eaten by the cattle, the cost of gains 

 was reduced $1.39 per hundred pounds. It will be noted that the more 

 nearly the corn silage replaced the clover hay in the ration, the greater 

 was the reduction in the cost of gain, the greatest saving in cost being 

 when no clover hay was fed. 



