410 



Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



CUT IN FULL BLOOM. 



CUT IN SEED. 



ALFALFA AS A FEED FOR BEEF CATTLE. 



By W. A. COCHEL, Animal Husbandman, Kansas State Agricultural College. 



The grain, hay and grass which occupies over 90 per cent of the land 

 in Kansas are crops which are especially adaptable to the production of 

 fat and energy, all of them being decidedly deficient in proteins and the 

 kind of ash which is necessary for normal growth in meat-making an- 



FIG. 352. A rack for feeding alfalfa hay to cattle, in use on the W. J. Tod ranch, 

 Wabaunsee County. 



imals. When animals are produced without legumes or other feeds that 

 are native to or widely cultivated in the state, without the purchase of 

 the by-products of mills and factories, they are slow to mature, under- 

 sized, fine in bone, and deficient in thick, heavy muscles which give ex- 

 treme value to their carcasses. Under such methods of management they 

 usually fail to increase in weight in winter, in many instances actually 

 weigh less in the spring than in the fall. The result is that the first 



