CHAPTER XL 



Alfalfa in Beef-Making 



The cattle feeder is not much given to sentiment and 

 cares less for the beauty of the purple flowers of the al- 

 falfa than he does for the best method of converting 

 those purple flowers and the accompanying foliage into 

 marketable beef. An accepted but unwritten rule of corn- 

 feeding is that looo pounds of grain with ordinary for- 

 age will produce lOO pounds of gain, under normal con- 

 ditions. 



SOME FEEDING TESTS 



The Kansas station in a careful feeding test of 153 

 days produced 100 pounds of gain with 718 pounds of 

 grain by using alfalfa hay for roughness. This test also 

 gave the following table of gain in values, from the use 

 of different feeds in the same given time : 



Corn and alfalfa hay $109.74 



Corn and prairie hay 56.96 



Corn and sorghum hay 27.09 



Corn and oat straw 43-28 



Barley and alfalfa hay 57- 16 



The Utah station after a feeding test published the 

 statement that to produce 705.61 pounds of beef it re- 

 quired : 



Of alfalfa hay 7,182 pounds 



Of timothy hay 9-575 " 



Of red clover hay 1 1,967 " 



Of shredded corn fodder. . 10.08^ " 



