INTRODUCTION 



The steer feeding trial reported in this bulletin was conducted 

 under most extraordinary conditions. A shortage of beef that had 

 been threatening for several years arrived in the winter of 1911-12 

 and the summer of 1912. This forced the price of beef in the sum- 

 mer of 1912 to the highest price for more than forty years. Conse- 

 quently, in spite of high cost of feeding cattle and abnormally high 

 price for feed, cattle marketed in the spring and summer of 1912 

 returned probably as large profits as any product of the feed yards 

 of the corn belt for many years past. 



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The results reported in this trial were secured under conditions 

 such as were found in the average feed lot of the State, and show 

 no more favorable returns than were obtained by a large per cent, 

 of the best cattle feeders of the State. The financial results of these 

 trials, however, must not be considered as typical of the results to 

 be secured from fattening steers, because it is doubtful if cattle 

 feeders will soon be confronted with conditions such as prevailed 

 during the past season. 



In the feeding of cattle, there is more to be considered than the 

 actual cash returns from the feeding operation, in that, roughage is 

 consumed that would otherwise be sold from the farm at prices usu- 

 ally entirely too low for the quantity of plant food removed by such 

 sale. Cattle feeding is now more often considered as an efficient 

 means for the disposition of roughage and conservation of soil fer- 

 tility than as a matter of commercial speculation. In fact, it is a 

 conservative statement to say that under conditions existing on the 

 majority of farms in Indiana, an average of several years' returns 

 will show more profit in the manure produced from cattle feeding 

 than in the direct money made on the cattle. 



OBJECT 



The object of this work was to obtain additional information 

 on the value of corn silage for fattening cattle, the comparative value 

 of clover hay and oat straw when fed in combination with corn sil- 

 age and grain, and the value of corn silage and other roughage with- 

 out grain for the early part of the feeding period. The first and last 

 items are continuations of work previously conducted at this station 

 and reported in Bulletins Nos. 129, 130, 136, and 153. The second 

 part is a comparison made at this station for the first time. 



