112 FARM ANIMALS 



Cotton Seed Meal. This meal is known to be 

 one of the most nitrogenous of all grain foods and, 

 therefore, furnishes a satisfactory means for balan- 

 cing the corn or other carbonaceous grains in 

 rations for steers as well as for other animals. In 

 Illinois it appears that cotton seed meal is fed by 

 about seven per cent, of the beef raisers in rations 

 of from one to nine pounds with an average of 

 four pounds per day. This may be taken as an 

 average use of cotton seed meal for the northern 

 states. In the cotton belt the meal is used much 

 more extensively on account of the effectiveness 

 of cotton seed meal and on account of its great 

 economy, both as a direct beef producer and as a 

 means of balancing the ration. In Iowa it has been 

 found that by means of corn and cotton seed meal 

 in rations of average size steers may be made to 

 gain two and one-third pounds per day. Steers 

 fed on shelled corn, cotton seed meal and sorghum 

 hay in Mississippi dressed fifty-nine per cent, of the 

 live weight and showed a relatively low shrinkage 

 on shipping to market. As a result of quite ex- 

 tensive experiments with cotton seed meal in Okla- 

 homa, it is recommended that not more than eight 

 pounds per day be fed to steers, and as a rule better 

 results are obtained from four to six pounds. 

 Contrary to what might be expected from theoreti- 

 cal considerations it appears that the best results 

 are obtained with cotton seed meal when the coarse 

 forage is highly nitrogenous, for example, alfalfa 

 and cowpea hay. Cotton seed meal mixed with 

 a carbonaceous grain such as Kafir corn, or corn 

 with more nitrogenous grains, such as wheat or 

 barley, adds palatability to these grains and induces 

 the steers to chew them more thoroughly. In one 

 set of experiments good gains were produced from 



