TABLE II. Showing Average Daily Gain per Steer by Months,, 

 (continued) Winter 1910-11 



1 Denotes a loss 



It will be noted that the rate of gain by monthly periods is 

 quite variable. This is due to conditions other than the rations. 

 The small gains made the second month of 1909-10 were due to 

 the extremely cold weather during part of the period when the tem- 

 perature dropped as low as 17 degrees below zero. Water was 

 very cold all the time and the silage often froze before the cattle 

 could eat it, thereby causing scouring. Lot 3, receiving corn silage 

 alone as roughage, suffered most severely and lost six pounds per 

 steer during the 10 day period ending January 6, 1910. The ex- 

 tremely small gains for the first month of 1910-11 were due largely 

 to the condition of the cattle and the change from pasture to dry 

 lot. The steers were heavy, fleshy feeders and the change from 

 green grass which was unusually succulent in the fall of 1910 to 

 dry feed was such a radical change that it required a month for 

 some of the lots to get started. The change from grass to silage 

 was not as radical as from grass to clover and the cattle receiving 

 silage made far more satisfactory gains at first than those receiv- 

 ing clover hay alone as roughage. The superiority of corn silage 

 for the early part of the feeding period when cattle are taken from 

 grass is shown by the first two months' gains of each of the two 

 years' trials reported. 



