608 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



amount of such cheap feed may be increased by seeding rape or clover in 

 the small grain and rape in the corn fields. Shade should always be 

 supplied the herd at pasture. 



The winter feed and care may range from the most intensive system,, 

 where the herd is fed in barn or shed with the freedom of exercise 

 paddocks, to the practice yet followed in some of the grazing districts 

 of the West, where the only feed is that furnished by the winter range 

 on which the grass has been allowed to grow up and mature. However, 

 bitter experience has taught the western stockman that he must provide 

 against winter's rigors by having available a supply of feed to supple- 

 ment the range. 



The ranchman should provide cheap insurance against feed shortage 

 in snow-bound winters and also summers when the range is parched by 

 drought, by growing sorghums, sunflowers, or other suitable silage crops 

 and preserving the forage in pit silos at spots convenient for watering 

 and feeding. By this means feed may be carried over from seasons of 

 good rainfall to times of need. 



In winter the herd may be maintained entirely on roughage when 

 legume hay is available, or on carbonaceous roughages with enough of 

 some such protein-rich concentrate as cottonseed or linseed meal to 

 balance the ration. They should not be allowed to run down in flesh, 

 else they will be unable to produce vigorous calves and nourish them with 

 a good flow of milk. If they go into the winter in poor condition, 

 due to a shortage of feed on pasture, a little grain may be needed to get 

 them into fair condition before calving. Experienced beef producers 

 know that the best calf crop is apt to be secured from cows kept in only 

 fair condition on a properly balanced ration, rather than from cows 

 which are fat. Too liberal feeding of grain is not only extravagant but 

 also is apt to prove actually injurious. (90, 121) 



In feeding beef breeding cows it should always be borne in mind that 

 to secure thrifty, vigorous offspring it is essential that the cows receive 

 enough protein and plenty of mineral matter, especially calcium and 

 phosphorus. A lack of these nutrients, particularly of calcium, may 

 cause weak or even dead offspring, as has been pointed out in earlier 

 chapters. (98) 



If alfalfa, clover, or other legume hay forms a considerable part of 

 the roughage, there will be no shortage of protein, calcium, or phos- 

 phorus. There should also be no lack of calcium if corn forage is used 

 as the main roughage, unless the soil on which it is grown is very low in 

 this element. However, if straw from the cereals is the chief feed, 

 supplemented with a little cottonseed or linseed meal, there is danger of 

 a lack of calcium. To such rations there should be added 2 to 3 ounces 

 per head daily of steamed bone meal, finely ground limestone, ground 

 rock phosphate, or wood ashes. 



Pure water and plenty of salt should of course always be supplied all 

 cattle. If trouble is experienced from goitre or "big-neck" in calves, 



