FEEDS FOR BEEF CATTLE 501 



roughage may consist of such cheap material as oat straw, prairie hay, 

 or fodder and stover from corn or the sorghums, provided a protein-rich 

 concentrate is fed to balance the ration. 



This is not a matter of concern to the farmer who wisely has his crop 

 rotations planned so that he normally has plenty of legume hay for his 

 stock. He appreciates the fact that for him legume hay is a cheap 

 feed, no matter what its market price may be. Under proper conditions 

 he knows he can secure heavy yields of nutritious hay at low cost. 

 Furthermore, he realizes that the legume crop not only enriches his fields 

 as it grows, but also again adds a rich store of fertility, when the manure 

 resulting from feeding the crop is returned to the soil. 



779. Amount of concentrates to feed with silage. The question as to 

 how much corn or other grain it is most profitable to give steers full 

 fed on silage has been fully discussed in the previous chapter. (715-6) 

 Recent trials have shown clearly that steers will make quite good gains 

 and reach a fair finish when fed only good corn silage, legume hay, and 

 a small allowance of cottonseed meal or linseed meal to balance the 

 ration. When grain is high in price and the market does not pay a 

 considerable premium for well-finished cattle, such a ration will usually 

 make the largest profit. On the other hand, when grain is low in price, 

 it is usually wisest to feed a fairly liberal allowance of it to fattening 

 cattle, even tho they are receiving silage from well-eared corn. 



780. Corn silage vs. shock corn. The superiority of corn silage over 

 shock corn or corn fodder is well shown in a trial by Mumford at the 

 Illinois Station 110 in which growing beef calves were fed either corn 

 silage or shock corn from the same field, with 2 Ibs. of oats and 4.0 to 4.6 

 Ibs. of mixed hay per head daily. The silage-fed calves made slightly 

 larger gains, but the chief advantage lay in the fact that more of the 

 shock corn was wasted and hence the corn from a much larger area 

 was needed to feed the steers getting shock corn than for those fed 

 silage. Taking everything into consideration, the corn silage from 

 an acre was worth 30 per ct. more than the shock corn from the same 

 area. In a trial by Allison at the Missouri Station 111 with fattening 

 steers the difference was still greater, silage being worth over 50 per ct. 

 more than the shock corn from the same area. 



In a trial by Evvard, Culbertson, and colleagues at the Iowa Station 111 * 

 steers fed corn, cottonseed meal, alfalfa hay, and corn silage gained 

 2.66 Ibs. a head daily while others fed corn, cottonseed meal, and corn 

 fodder, without alfalfa hay, gained only 1.97 Ibs. The silage-fed steers 

 returned $10.07 each over the cost of feed while those fed stover failed 

 by $1.41 a head of paying for their feed. 



781. Corn stover silage. It is pointed out in the next chapter that 

 corn stover silage (made from field-cured fodder from which the ears 

 have been removed) is often an economical feed for wintering beef breed- 

 ing cows or stock cattle. Such animals do not require rations very rich 



1M I11. Bui. 73. lu Mo. Bui. 112. "^Information to the authors. 



