EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK- PART III. 115 



steer, a very good type ; he sold for 6I/2 ; when lighter cattle weigh- 

 ing 1300 pounds sold for 1^2 or 8 cents. It was very noticeable in 

 the carcass judging; it wasn't the fat carcasses that were winning 

 the prizes; it was the cattle of medium flesh, rather low in flesh. 

 In a talk with the judge, Mr. Durnough, from Scotland, I found 

 further that the people across the water have changed their ideas 

 about the fat cattle. Where, two years ago they paid the highest 

 prices for the big, heavy cattle, they are now showing their prefer- 

 ence in a ver>^ decided way for the very light cattle. He made the 

 statement very clearly, that they much preferred a carcass weighing 

 600 or 700 ponds, than a heavj^ carcass. This was also shown in 

 the final judgment, when the grand championship prize was given 

 to a calf weighing about 1050. 



I haven 't time to discuss the question of type, I simply throw this 

 out as a little fresh material I gathered. I will now give you some- 

 thing along the line of our results at the Nebraska Experiment 

 Station upon rations. I will say that our conditions are very sim- 

 ilar to yours. I think that whatever I give you here can be applied 

 in this state. When I first came to the state, my experience with 

 cattle feeding had been in another state east of this. While I had 

 fed cattle all my life, I realized in coming to a new state, it was 

 first of all necessary to become familiar with conditions existing 

 in that state. After traveling all over the state. I found this to 

 be true in eastern Nebraska : The majority of the feeders there 

 used corn and prairie hay ; some cane or straw, and a few, clover. 

 Others were making some use of commercial feeds — oil meal and 

 cotton seed meal; but about three-fourths of the feeders of that 

 state were feeding corn and prairie hay. 



After making these observations, I began at once to put on some 

 experiments which would show whether or not they were on the 

 right road; whether or not the feeders of Nebraska should change 

 their methods, because of the changed condition, and I am going 

 to give you some observations we have made at our station along 

 the line of rations for cattle feeding. 



Let me give you some idea how we carried on these tests. We 

 have been carrying on our tests in lots of ten steers each. We 

 selected these cattle from the range, because we wanted them under 

 uniform conditions. We didn't like to pick up feeders here and 

 there; we preferred to take them from the range, where they had 

 all been handled the same way, having had no grain or previous 

 feeding. 



We carried these cattle usually five or six months in length. We 

 weighed them three or four times to begin with in successive days. 



