448 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



rich feeds are lower in price than carbonaceous feeds, it may be econom- 

 ical to feed much narrower rations than advised in the feeding standards. 

 For example, good results are often secured when cottonseed meal is fed 

 as the only concentrate, the nutritive ratio then being as narrow as 1 :3.8. 



As is shown later in this chapter, the amount of concentrates to be fed 

 will depend on the rapidity with which it is desired to fatten the cattle, 

 and the degree of finish, or fatness, which the demands of the market 

 make most profitable. 



Where fattening cattle are fed common well-balanced rations including 

 silage or legume hay, there will ordinarily be no lack of mineral matter 

 except of common salt. (98-100) Furthermore, there will be no deficiency 

 of vitamines in such rations. (104) Therefore no particular attention 

 need be paid to these feed constituents for this class of stock. If rough- 

 ages are fed which are low in calcium, this may be furnished cheaply by 

 adding to the ration one ounce or so per head daily of steamed bone meal, 

 ground limestone, wood ashes, or chalk. There is no necessity of pur- 

 chasing any expensive proprietary mineral mixtures or vitamine prepa- 

 rations whatsoever. 



We have seen in previous chapters that in feeding some classes of 

 animals, especially young pigs not on pasture, the character or quality of 

 the proteins supplied by different feeds is of great importance. For 

 example, a ration of only grain and either linseed meal or wheat mid- 

 dlings furnishes protein so poorly balanced that pigs make very poor 

 growth on it. However, cattle are always fed a large amount of roughage. 

 Therefore, just as with pigs on pasture, the character of the protein 

 supplied by different protein-rich supplements is of little importance 

 when roughages of ordinarily good quality, such as silage or legume hay, 

 are fed. For example, linseed meal, cottonseed meal, and gluten feed 

 are all satisfactory supplements to add to rations of corn or other grain, 

 silage and hay or straw. Consequently, in deciding what supplement to 

 use at any given time, the choice should be based chiefly on the cost per 

 pound of digestible crude protein in the different protein-rich feeds 

 available. (191-2) In addition, one should consider the results which 

 have actually been secured with the various supplements in practical 

 feeding trials, as reviewed in the next chapter. 



711. Feed and gains from birth. In his extensive experiments to 

 determine the nutrients required by growing and fattening steers, which 

 were carried on at the Minnesota Station 2 from 1907 to 1916, Haecker 

 recorded all the feed consumed by 5 groups of grade beef -bred steer 

 calves from birth to 2 years of age or over. At first the calves were fed 

 whole milk, but after 2 to 3 weeks they were gradually changed to skim 

 milk. Prairie hay and corn silage were fed as roughages to the steers, 

 with grain, wheat bran, flour middlings, and linseed meal as concentrates. 

 The steers were allowed all the roughage they would consume, but were 



2 Minn. Buls. 155, 193. 



