386 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



crowded in upon your official force, making it impossible for them to give 

 the personal attention to the building up of the membership that they 

 should have liked to give during the past year, yet I believe the greaier 

 and more lasting results have been accomplished and the real worth of 

 your association as a most potent factor in guarding and protecting t!ie 

 farmers' interests have been so clearly demonstrated and proven that the 

 work of securing members in the future on this account will be great'y 

 facilitated; and if proper solicitors are put in the field during the present 

 year, I believe that you will realize a most satisfactory and unprecedented 

 increase in your membership. 



So with this hope in view, and feeling perfect confidence in the futui'e 

 of your association, I leave the whole matter with you. I have tried in 

 this rambling way to give you a brief summary of what we have tried to 

 do. I hope you will overlook our mistakes and forgive any neglect of 

 duty if such there appears to be, and that we may all unite for a greaier 

 organization during the present year. I thank you. 



PROFITABLY LIMITINJ THE STEER'S GRAIN RATION. 



By John M. Evvard, Iowa Experiment Station. 



(Read by Prof. H. H. Kildee.) 



Shall we feed grain to our steers, particulary good corn grain? If 

 so, shall we self-feed it, or full-feed it by hand; or, maybe better yet, had 

 we better not limit the grain ration to say 75 per cent or 50 per cent or 25 

 per cent of a full grain feed? How about this? 



These are some of the problems that are coming up nowadays in ever- 

 increasing fashion, especially now that corn has gone so relatively high 

 in price. With shelled corn selling at about one-half what we used to 

 pay for sugar, we tend to pay much attention to its conservation. 



Perhaips we can get along without any grain at all excepting the protein 

 supplement and the corn grain which is found in our silage. How about 

 that? If it is possible to fatten two-year-cld steers, for instance, without 

 any extra corn, and fatten them profitably, that will be in the interest of 

 war-time conservation in that the grain will be released for more suitable 

 purposes, such as the making of corn meal and hominy grits, and the 

 feeding of hogs and fattening of lambs. 



It is generally conceded that where one does not have silage and is 

 pushing cattle for the market, ihat a very liberal grain ration is in order. 

 It is possible, in this case, providing one has clover or alfalfa hay, to limit 

 the grain ration to say one-half of a full feed, and yet give good results, 

 but, generally speaking, liberal grain feeding is in order. It must be re- 

 membered, however, in clover or alfalfa hay feeding that the cattle are 

 not getting any grain in their roughage like they do when they receive 

 corn silage, and hence one of the reasons undoubtedly that hay-feed cattle 

 need to be fed grain in large quantities if they are to be fattened econom- 

 ically. Hay in itself, or hay supplemented with linseed or cottonseed meal, 

 is not sufficient to put on a high finish or even a moderate finish unless 

 an extraordinary long time is taken in the feeding. 



