445 



is usually an abundance of grass, flies are annoying, the hot weather 

 of the summer months is approaching, and the demands for labor 

 in seeding, cultivating and harvesting crops are urgent. These 

 conditions would seem to make it advisable to turn the half -fat 

 yearlings on grass rather than keep them in the dry lots for fin- 

 ishing, but the work reported in the following pages shows a de- 

 cided advantage in favor of dry-lot feeding. In order to test the 

 advisability of using these methods of finishing yearlings, the Sta- 

 tion has divided the calves used in the winter feeding experiments 

 reported in bulletins No. 129 and No. 136 into two lots at the close 

 of the age experiments, turning one on grass and keeping the other 

 in dry lot, continuing the full feed of grain for three months in 

 each lot. 



METHOD OF EXPERIMENTATION 



The quarters used for dry-lot feeding were the same as used 

 in the experiments reported in previous bulletins. They were not 

 well adapted to summer feeding as the sheds were too low to be 

 kept reasonably cool, too narrow to furnish protection from the 

 sun and could not be darkened so as to keep out flies. The quar- 

 ters used for pasture consisted each year of nine acres of mixed 

 timothy and clover pasture which furnished more grass' than the 

 cattle could consume from the middle of May to the middle of 

 August. There was a double row of catalpa trees running along 

 the west side of the pasture which furnished protection from the 

 sun; otherwise, the cattle on pasture had no shelter. 



CATTLE USED 



During the first and second tests high grade Hereford steers 

 were used which had been given a full feed of shelled corn, cotton- 

 seed meal, clover hay and corn silage during the winter feeding 

 season from November 15 to May 15. In the third test high 

 grade Angus steers which had been given a full feed of shelled 

 corn, cotton-seed meal and clover hay during the winter season, 

 were used. Under this method of treatment the cattle entered the 

 summer feeding experiments in such a condition that they would 

 have sold as half- fat yearlings, being too fleshy to be considered as 

 feeders. They were divided into two lots as nearly equal as pos- 

 sible in age, weight, type, quality and condition with due considera- 

 tion of their rate qf gain during the preceding winter. 



