FEEDS AND FEEDING 



Trowbridge young steers weighing 573 to 740 Ibs. at the start were fed 

 rations only sufficient to maintain their weight. Due to their pronounced 

 impulse toward growth, they continued to grow in height even tho 

 they did not increase in weight. In this effort the fat stored in the body 

 was withdrawn and used up as body fuel, the animals becoming thin in 

 flesh as the scanty feeding progressed. For 70 to 120 days, depending on 

 how vigorous they were and how much fat they carried, these steers 

 gained as rapidly in height as others on full feed. After this period 

 the increase in height became less rapid, ceasing altogether in from 6 

 months to a year and a half, by which time the animals had become quite 

 thin and had burned up all the fat in their bodies which was not abso- 

 lutely necessary to life. 



The striking changes which are produced in the composition of the 

 fatty tissues, lean flesh, and skeletons of animals fed scanty rations are 

 shown in the following table. This gives the composition of the body 

 tissues of a steer slaughtered at the beginning of the trial as a check 

 animal, of a steer fed for 12 months a ration sufficient only to maintain 

 its weight, of one fed so little feed for 12 months that it lost 0.5 Ib. a day, 

 and of one fed a fairly liberal ration for 5 months : 



Changes in body tissues of steers on scanty and liberal rations 



The table shows that in the case of Steer II, held at constant weight 

 for 12 months, much fat had been withdrawn from the fatty tissue, being 

 largely replaced by water. So far had the withdrawal of fat progressed 

 in the case of Steer III, that the small amount of "fatty tissue" which 

 was secured from the carcass contained 81.2 per ct. water and only 4.6 

 per ct. fat ! With the withdrawal of fat the percentage of protein and 

 ash had increased. The lean flesh suffered much less change than the 

 fatty tissues, even in the case of Steer III, which lost nearly 40 per ct. 

 of the lean meat in his body during the trial. The data show that on 



