730 



only factor affected by the addition of silage was the cost of gains 

 but that alone was enough to make a difference of $7.14 per steer. 



The addition of silage twice daily to a ration of shelled corn, cot- 

 tonseed meal and clover hay made greater reduction in cost of gain 

 than when a limited amount of silage was fed and thereby made a 

 further narrowing of the necessary margin until the cattle receiving 

 all the silage and clover hay they would eat for roughage could have 

 sold for $7.08 per cwt. and made the same financial returns as would 

 those of Lots i and 2 had they sold for $7.47 and $8.00 per cwt. re- 

 spectively. The cattle of Lot 4 lacked 15 cents per cwt. of selling as 

 high as those of Lots I and 2 but in spite of that fact, the saving in 

 cost of gain was sufficient to dause Lot 4 to return a profit of $13.59 

 per steer as compared with $10.51 and $3.37 per head in Lots I and 2 

 respectively. The value of the pork produced raised this profit to 

 $19.43 per steer which was the highest in any of the lots fed both 

 silage and clover hay. The substitution of corn silage for clover hay 

 as roughage had a most remarkable effect in this trial ; the daily gain 

 was increased, the cost of gain was decreased $4.35 per cwt. and the 

 selling value of the cattle was increased 10 cents per cwt. The gain 

 in these factors from the use of silage alone as a substitute for clover 

 hay resulted in $17.59 per steer greater profit than when no silage was 

 fed, $10.45 P er head greater than when half silage and half hay was 

 fed, and $7.37 per head greater than when both silage and hay were 

 fed according to the appetites of the cattle. With the pork produced 

 which brought the profit to $26.21 per head, the profit in this lot was 

 the highest of any lot fed in the trial. It is probable that better re- 

 sults were secured in this trial with silage alone for roughage than 

 can ordinarily be expected when compared with the other rations of 

 this trial because the silage carried an unusually high per cent, of dry 

 matter which is highly desirable in silage for fattening cattle but is 

 also hard to secure on account of the poor keeping quality of silage of 

 unusually low moisture content. 



PART II 



CORN SILAGE AND OAT STRAW VS. CORN SILAGE AND 



CLOVER HAY AS ROUGHAGE FOR FATTENING 



STEERS 



The large production of corn in the State and the high feeding 

 value of this grain leaves little choice for the feeder in selecting a 

 grain for economical beef production. The great variety of roughage 

 produced in the State, however, gives the cattle feeder a wide range 

 of choice between roughages. The low protein content of corn and 

 the proportionally high per cent, of this nutrient found in the 



