CHAPTER 



COUNSEL IN THE FEED LOT. 



I. Feed and Management of Fattening Cattle. 



580. Indian corn. Indian corn must continue the great grain 

 food for steer fattening in the United States. While we can- 

 not vie with England in luxuriance of pasture, the advantage 

 given our farmers by the corn plant more than offsets this, and 

 places us at the front in beef production. Xo concentrate is so 

 relished by cattle as corn, the kernels of which carry consider- 

 able oil, rendering them toothsome and palatable to a degree not 

 equaled by other grain. Not only does corn carry oil, but it is 

 loaded with starch, likewise a fat-former, thus affording the nu- 

 triment needed for filling the tissues of the steer's body with fat, 

 rendering the muscles tender and juicy. The success of steer 

 feeding in America must depend largely upon the supply of 

 Indian corn available for this purpose. 



581. Beef returns per acre of corn. Stewart 1 reports a trial 

 conducted by himself with ten steers averaging 1,175 pounds, 

 which were fed four measured acres of shock corn estimated to 

 yield 40 bushels of grain per acre. The unhusked shock corn 

 was run through a feed cutter, and 40 pounds of the mixture, 

 with 2 pounds of linseed meal, given daily. The four acres 

 of corn lasted 70 days, each steer gaining 200 pounds on the aver- 

 age in that time. Allowing for the oil meal, the author concludes 

 that this corn crop gave a return of 400 pounds of beef per acre, 

 which, at five cents per pound for the increase, yields $20 for an 

 acre of corn so fed. This is about twice the returns obtained by 

 Morrow from an acre of Illinois pasture grazed by yearling steers. 



582. Plain feeding of corn recommended. The practice, com- 

 mon in the corn belt, of supplying unhusked or unground corn to 

 steers, has developed the feeling among Eastern feeders that the 



1 Feeding Animals, p. 311. 



