Alfalfa in Kansas. 411 



month to six weeks in the spring they utilize in making up for their lack 

 of progress in winter. Calves handled in this manner usually weigh 

 from 400 to 500 pounds when weaned in the fall of the year; from 450 

 to 500 in the spring; gain 250 pounds their second summer; remain 

 stationary the second winter; make 950 to 1000 pounds the third sum- 

 mer; going through this process, until finally, at the age of four years, 

 they are ready for market at 1200 to 1300 pounds as native grass-fat 

 cattle, or heavy feeders suitable for 60 to 90 days of corn feeding to get 

 them ready for market. 



Increased weights are sometimes secured by the use of heavy-boned, 

 rugged bulls of the ton type; sometimes by the purchase of quantities of 

 high-priced commercial feeds rich in protein, such as linseed meal or 

 cottonseed cake; sometimes by preserving the rougher and coarser ma- 

 terials in succulent form in the silo. But the true stockman not only 

 utilizes these methods, but considers them as secondary in importance to 

 alfalfa, the king of all forage crops, which gives to cattle the size, the 

 capacity, the condition of coat and skin which indicates thrift, bone and 

 maximum growth at the least possible expenditure of cash and of food 

 nutrients in the production of increase in live weight. 



On soils and under climatic conditions where it can be successfully 

 grown, alfalfa produces the greatest yield of protein per acre of any crop 

 which the farmer or the scientist has yet discovered. In dry years it is 

 the last to recognize a deficiency in moisture and the quickest to respond 

 to the combination of rain and sunshine. In wet years it may be de- 

 cidedly damaged in the curing process; yet when winter comes, even the 

 moldy, black and dusty hay yet contains sufficient nourishment and a 

 vestige of palatability which enables a stock cow or a stocker or feeder 

 steer to amply supply all of their needs as measured by digestible nu- 

 trients. During the winter of 1915-'16 thousands of tons of such feeds 

 were utilized by the farmers of the state in wintering beef cattle which 

 would otherwise have had little value except as an addition to the supply 

 of plant food in the form of decayed vegetation or manure. Its cash value 

 would have been much less than the expenses incurred in getting it to 

 market. Yet even at its worst, alfalfa is a desirable addition to the 

 usual supply of roughage on the farm. 



Although alfalfa is a boon to the live-stock farmer under adverse con- 

 ditions, its real or true value is appreciated when the climatic con- 

 ditions are such as to result in a maximum yield of hay of the very best 

 quality. The animal husbandry department at the Agricultural College 

 has found that one ton of good alfalfa will replace 307 pounds of cotton- 

 seed meal and \Vz tons of silage in wintering beef calves, having a com- 

 mercial value at the present time of $10.30, which would be decidedly in- 

 creased when roughage is limited. An ideal method of producing cattle 

 for the feed lot is to use alfalfa and silage, using an abundance of straw 

 for bedding. With these feeds available an acre of alfalfa and an acre 

 of silage will winter four mature breeding cows in excellent condition. 

 The same acreage of crops will winter ten calves in such manner as to 

 enable them to gain 150 pound each, replacing entirely all the purchased 

 feeds from the system of farming. Fed in this manner, calves would 



