COLORADO EXPERIMENT STATION 



The weights and gains made by the two lots, as shown in the 

 table, are very closely alike. The amounts of corn and oil meal fed 

 the two lots were also nearly equal. But the hay eaten by the lot 

 fed whole hay was over double that eaten by the lot fed cut hay. 

 Table II shows how this effects the feed required for 100 pounds 

 of gain and the cost of gain. There was only one pound difference 

 in the average gain per head made by the two lots of lambs in six 

 weeks. 



TABLE II. 

 FEED FOR GAIN AND COST OF GAIN 125 LAMBS IN EACH LOT 



NOTE Corn at 1 cent per lb., Alfalfa Hay at $5.00 per ton, Cut Hay at $6.00 

 per ton, Oil Meal at 2 cents per lb. 



FEED FOR GAIN 



The lot fed whole hay required 47 pounds less corn for ioc 

 pounds gain than the lot fed cut hay, but ate 1511 pounds of hay for 

 every hundred pounds gain, while the cut hay lot ate only 724 pounds 

 of hay for each 100 pounds gain. This is a marked difference. 



COST OF GAIN 



The prices, from which the costs given in the above table were 

 computed, are not the exact prices of the feeding stuffs at the time 

 the experiment was carried on; but they are round numbers, and 

 changing the prices of feed stuffs in this instance could not greatly 

 affect the ratio between the figures for the two lots. This experiment 

 shows a considerable saving by using cut hay, although the cost of 

 feed for 100 pounds of gain in either case is so high as to be almost 

 prohibitive, A partial explanation of this may be found in the fact 

 that the fleeces of the lambs were trimmed preparatory to showing 

 at the Western Stock Show, causing a shrinkage in the weight of 

 the lambs during the fourth week. With Lot B this shrinkage 

 amounted to a loss of 252 pounds for the week, or about 2 pounds 

 per head. The most of this shrinkage was regained the following 

 week, however, as shown by the gain of 529 pounds for that week, or 

 over five pounds per head. So we cannot look for an explanation 

 of the high cost in this shrinkage. But considering the feed given 

 the whole hay lot, we find that they ate on an average 4.7 pounds 

 of hay per head each day, an enormous amount. This would indi- 

 cate very poor hay or an unnecessary waste of good hay, so that in 

 either case, one would not be justified in reaching the conclusion that 

 the economy shown by the table would ordinarily follow the use of 



