FARM ANIMALS 131 



her first. They can then be fed until the middle of 

 April, making a feeding period of one hundred 

 and fifty days, and during this time, if proper 

 rations are given, they should gain from one and 

 one-half to two pounds per day. The shorter 

 feeding periods will usually not be found prof- 

 itable. 



The number of feeds per day in fattening steers 

 is almost universally two, and there appears to 

 be no reason for changing the common practice 

 of farmers and feeders in this respect. Farmers 

 vary greatly in the amount of feed given steers 

 on full rations. Thus, in Illinois it has been found 

 that twenty-five per cent, of the cattle raisers 

 give yearlings all the grain they will eat while 

 others feed one peck of corn. This ration is 

 usually in addition to bran, oats or some other 

 nitrogenous ration. Yearling steers on grass are 

 seldom fed more than one peck of corn a day. 

 Two-year-olds in winter are fed corn ad libitum, 

 but in a much larger percentage of cases it is 

 measured out in rations of one-half bushel per day 

 together with two to five pounds of bran or linseed 

 meal. Two-year-olds on pasture receive usually 

 a similar quantity of grain, even during the winter. 

 The profitable amounts of different grains to be 

 given fattening steers have already been stated 

 in the discussion of the different feeds. 



Among farmers and feeders the average gain 

 of cattle is about two and seven-tenths pounds 

 per day in summer on pasture with grain, and 

 two and two-tenths pounds per day in winter. 

 The amount of feed required for one hundred 

 pounds of gain varies, according to the experience of 

 different farmers, from four to twenty bushels of 

 grain in winter and from ten to sixteen bushels 



