266 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 



ration will result in an improvement in the rate of gain and the 

 dressing percentage, will decrease the cost of the gain, and give 

 better finished steers. 



The value of silage for fattening steers has been demonstrated 

 by the results of experiments at a number of our stations. 15 In 

 experiments at the Indiana station four lots of steers were fed for 

 160 days on rations composed of shelled corn, cotton-seed meal, 

 and clover hay, three of the lots receiving corn silage in addition, 

 viz., on the average, 16.0, 27.4, and 24.8 pounds per head daily. 

 The lot receiving shelled corn, cotton-seed meal, and silage yielded 

 an average profit of $20.96 per steer; the two lots receiving shelled 

 corn, cotton-seed meal, clover hay, and silage yielded $10.51 and 

 $13.59, and the fourth lot, receiving shelled corn, cotton-seed meal, 

 and clover hay, yielded a profit of $3.37 per head. 



If the value of the pork produced from the droppings and the 

 extra corn fed the hogs be included, the profit from the three lots 

 fed silage came as follows: $26.21, $17.09. and $19.43 per head, 

 in the order given, and that without silage, $8.24 per head. Trials 

 at other stations have shown that a ration of corn, cotton-seed meal, 

 and corn silage will give equally good results in every respect for 

 fattening steers, as corn, cotton-seed meal, and clover or alfalfa 

 hay. The testimony of experiments with silage vs. roots for fatten- 

 ing steers conducted in Canada 16 and in England 17 is also decidedly 

 in favor of silage. 



" An acre of corn preserved in the silo will, on the average, pro- 

 duce #0-25 per cent more beef or mutton than will the same area of 

 corn preserved in the ordinary way." 17a Silage is especially valu- 

 able on stock farms in times of short pastures. A silo for making 

 summer silage is as good an investment for beef production as it is 

 on dairy farms (p. 97). Another important usage of silage that has 

 developed recently is for wintering beef breeding cows and fattening 

 cattle in general, this being fed as exclusive roughage with a pound 

 or two of cotton-seed meal. Cattle will keep in good thrifty condi- 

 tion and may even make slight gains on 60 pounds of Indian corn 

 silage and 1 pound of cotton-seed meal per head daily. 17b 



Concentrates. The use of concentrates in feeding fattening 



15 Mo. Bui. 112; Miss. Bui. 167; N-eb. Bui. 132, 161, 163; N. C. Bui. 

 222; Penn. Bui. 118; Ind. Bui. 116, 136, 163, 167; Va. Bui. 157, 173; 

 111. Bui. 73; Ohio Bui. 193, 178; la. Cir. 6; S. D. Bui. 137, 160, 182; 

 Texas Bui. 159; Wyo. Bui. 108; Miss. Bui. 182. 



10 Ontario Agricultural College Reports, 1891, 1901, 1902. 



"Summaries of 201 trials quoted by Henry, " Feeds and Feeding," 10th 

 ed., p. 358. 



"aMumford in Proc. Asso. Am. Agr. Colleges, 1914, p. 226; see also 

 Kan. Bui. 198; S. D. Bui. 148. 



. Bui. 133; Br. Gaz. 1917, p. 375. 



