NINETEENTH ANNUAL ,YEAR BOOK— PART VII 387 



With the advent of silage an entirely new field has been opened up, and 

 an entirely new scheme of feeding in so far as grain allowance is con- 

 cerned, has been found to be more efficient that the old scheme of stuffing 

 grain from start to finish. 



Then, too, with the increase in the number of silos, there has come a 

 decrease in the margins paid for the well-finished cattle as compared to 

 those moderately finished or quite well finished. With the war changing 

 ordinary demands, we have found that the market has not been paying 

 high premiums for especially well-finished cattle, and that the difference 

 existing between prime cattle and choice to prime cattle is smaller now 

 than it was five years ago. 



This all means, therefore, that these changing market valuations, as 

 refiected in the demand, have their effect on the method of feeding, in 

 that one can not afford to fatten to such a high finish as formerly except- 

 ing under certain specific conditions. 



The question of experimental proof needs to be given consideration. 

 We have experiments covering the issues above outlined. The Animal 

 Husbandry Section of the Iowa Experiment Station has been doing work 

 along these lines, and there has appeared a bulletin from Ames, written 

 by W. H. Pew, Russell Dunn and the author, entitled, "Limiting the Grain 

 Ration for Fattening Cattle." Anyone desiring a copy of this may secure 

 the same by dropping a line to Director C. F. Curtiss, at Ames. 



In the year 1915-16 we fed five groups, all of them receiving as much 

 corn silage as they would clean up twice daily; linseed oil meal, two 

 pounds per head daily; alfalfa hay, 1.6 pounds, and salt ad libitum. 



The differences, then, between these various groups were primarily 

 due to the way the shelled corn was fed. Group 1 was self-fed; Group 2, 

 full-fed twice daily by hand; Groups 3, 4 and 5, respectively, 75 per cent, 

 50 per cent and 25 per cent full-fed by hand. In the case of the latter 

 three lots, the amount of corn was regulated by the full-fed group. The 

 results are very, very interesting, indeed, and point out a valuable lesson 

 in the feeding of these two-year-old 1,000-pound steers for 120 days. 



The self-fed cattle as compared to those full-fed made a slightly 

 greater daily gain, or 2.98 pounds as compared to 2.94. They both ate 

 practically the same amount of the different feeds, or in the vicinity of 

 15.5 pounds of shelled corn, 2 pounds of linseed oil meal, 30 pounds of 

 corn silage and 1.6 pounds of hay, together with a little salt, daily. The 

 cost of gain was practically the same. The selling price was 20 cents per 

 cwt. in favor of the hand full-fv;d group, making the profit per steer prac- 

 tically $1.50 more where hand-fed methods were used than where the 

 cattle were self-fed. 



In the second year, where the same comparison was made, the self- 

 fed cattle had some advantage over the hand-fed ones, in that they made 

 .3 of a pound greater average daily gain. They cost per hundred pounds 

 of gain practically 70 cents less, and sold at practically the same per 

 hundred pounds. The profits this year, however, were about $2.50 in favor 

 of the self-fed cattle. In the two years self-feeding seemed to have a 

 little the advantage. 



