318 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



INFLUENCE OF SHELTER ON STEERS. 



H. J. Waters, Missouri Experiment Station, in Breeders' Gazette. 

 It has been accepted without argument that animals when exposed to 

 cold require more food per unit of gain, since a larger proportion of the 

 food is used in maintaining the heat of the animal body than would be 

 required if the cattle were comfortably sheltered, and there is necessarily 

 less left for the production of animal tissue. It is a trite saying that boards 

 furnish a cheaper shelter than corn and hay and that coal is cheaper fuel 

 for stock than feed. 



Despite the fact that these propositions have been generally accepted 

 as true and have in the main gone unquestioned the beef feeder of the 

 Middle West has not provided the warm, commodious barns for his steers 

 on full feed that would logically follow if he proposed to carry his opera- 

 tions on with the greatest economy and according to the most approved 

 methods. It is unquestionably true that these feeders are among our most 

 intelligent and progressive farmers and business men and are in most 

 cases possessed of ample means to provide whatever shelter would prom- 

 ise a certain and sufficient return for the money invested. The fact, there- 

 fore, that they were not universally providing barns for their winter feed- 

 ing operations and the further fact that the limited experimental results 

 on record were conflicting and uncertain induced the Missouri station to 

 take this work up some years ago with a view of carrying it far enough lo 

 reach some definite conclusion. A brief summary of the results of sev- 

 eral years' work will perhaps prove of interest. 



In all but one of the experiments three lots of cattle were used, one 

 of which was sheltered in a barn, one had access to an open shed and one 

 was fed in the open lot without shelter of any kind. All were natives that 

 had been handled enough to become gentle and were dehorned. The 

 steers sheltered in the barn were confined in a reasonably tight but well- 

 ventilated frame building with plank floor and were allowed to run loose. 

 They were kept well bedded. During pleasant weather they had the run 

 of a small lot from about 8 o'clock in the morning until 4 in the afternoon 

 and were turned into the lot for water every day, but in stormy weather 

 they were returned to the barn as soon as they had finished drinking in 

 the forenoon and afternoon. 



The open shed used in all these experiments was of the ordinary 

 form, closed on the north, east and west, but open to the south, with a 

 dirt floor, which was kept as dry as possible with bedding. These sheds 

 opened into lots of about the same size and exposure as those into which 

 the cattle sheltered in the barn were allowed to run. They were fed and 

 watered in the shed, but allowed free access to the lots at all times and in 

 all kinds of weather. The open lot had a southern exposure, as did all 

 the other lots, was enclosed by a barbed wire fence, was about the size of 

 the lots adjoining the sheds and barn and contained no grass. Cornstalks 

 were thrown in one corner to give the steers a dry spot on which to lie. 



