FEEDING AND CARE OF BEEF CATTLE 295 



needed to finish cattle depends on the method of feeding followed 

 and on the age and condition of the cattle when placed on feed. 

 When the steers are fed roughage with only a limited allowance of 

 concentrates, the fattening process will take considerably longer than 

 where they are rapidly brought to full feed and then crowded with 

 all the concentrates they will eat. Obviously, much less time is re- 

 quired to finish steers already in good flesh when started on feed than 

 those in leaner condition. Such fleshy feeders are commonly "short- 

 fed;" i.e., fed for 90 to 100 days or less on a heavy allowance of con- 

 centrates. Thin steers must be "long-fed;" i.e., fed for a consider- 

 ably longer period, during the first part of which often little or no 

 grain is fed other than that in the silage. 



Fig. 83. — Championship 3-Year-Oi d Snrr- w mi International 



Steers of this age are continually becoming more scarce on the market, due 

 to the fact that they produce beef less ecoaomically than younger animals. 



As we have already seen, the younger the steers are, the longer 

 they must be fed to reach a given finish. While it ordinarily re- 

 quires 3 to 4 months to finish mature steers and 4 to 7 months for 2- 

 year-olds, it takes 9 months or longer to fatten calves. 



Limiting the concentrate allowance. — To reduce the amount of 

 grain required, cattle are often fed hay and silage during the first 

 part of the fattening period, with but little or no concentrates, even 

 if they are later finished on all the concentrates they will eat. 

 Whether this .system will be more profitable than bringing the cattle 

 rapidly to a full fe'ed of concentrates, depends on the relative cost 

 of roughages and concentrates. In three trials at the Indiana Sta- 

 tion ^ the steers in one lot were fed only clover hay and corn silage, 



2 Skinner and King, Ind. Buls. 153, 1G3, 167. 



