691 



A study of Table IV shows that the addition of silage once 

 daily to a ration of corn, cottonseed meal and clover hay had very 

 little effect on the rate of gain or on the daily grain eaten per head, 

 the average gain per lamb being 24.7 pounds when no silage was fed 

 and 24.2 pounds when this roughage was fed once daily. The daily 

 grain consumption per head was 1.24 pounds and 1.22 pounds re- 

 spectively. Neither was there any appreciable difference in the 

 amounts of grain required to make a pound of gain, there being a 

 difference of only one pound of grain for every hundred pounds 

 of gain between the two rations. There was little difference in the 

 finishing quality of the rations. In the first trial, 10 cents per cwt. 

 was added to the selling values of the lambs but in the other trial 

 in which values were secured there was a loss of 2^2 cents per cwt. 

 in selling value by the addition of silage to the ration. 



The only really significant feature of this series of trials was 

 the effect on cost of gain of substituting a cheap roughage in the 

 form of corn silage for a higher priced one in the form of clover 

 hay. When considered from the standpoint of economy of feed 

 and of cost of gain the addition of silage was effective. The average 

 of three trials shows that 2.72 pounds of corn silage -replaced 1.45 

 pounds of clover hay in the roughage required to produce a pound 

 of gain. This substitution of a cheap for a costly roughage effected 

 a saving in cost of gain in every trial. This varied from 14 cents 

 in the first trial to $1.18 per cwt. in the last trial, the average saving 

 in cost of gain being 55 cents per hundred pounds. 



PART III 



THE EFFECT OF THE AMOUNT OF SILAGE IN A RATION 

 FOR FATTENING LAMBS 



There have been so many conflicting reports- received from feed- 

 ers concerning the effect of feeding corn silage to lambs that a 

 series of trials was planned to determine whether the quantity of 

 silage in the ration has any relation to the health and vigor of the 

 animal and to determine the relative economy of different quan- 

 tities of silage in the ration for fattening lambs. In this series of 

 trials the grain ration consisted of seven parts of shelled corn to one 

 part of cottonseed meal. In each of the three trials one lot of lambs 

 was fed clover hay in the morning and corn silage in the evening 

 and another lot similar in every particular was fed silage twice 

 daily in addition to clover hay. 



Table V shows the comparative value of the following rations : 



Shelled corn, cottonseed meal, clover hay, and silage (once 

 daily) ; 



Shelled corn, cottonseed meal, clover hay, and silage (twice 

 daily). 



