STEER FEEDING EXPERIMENTS 



33 



Table IV. Average Daily Gain per Steer, by Periods. 



From Table IV, it will be noted that satisfactory gains were 

 made by both lots from the beginning of the experiment to the end 

 of the first six weeks, Lot I making an average gain of 2.655 pounds 

 per head daily, while Lot II made a gain of 2.34 pounds per head 

 daily. The cattle in both lots made no gain during the two weeks 

 from December 27 to January 10, but showed a loss of .35 pounds 

 per head daily in Lot I and .37 pounds per head daily in Lot II for 

 that period. Since neither lot made any gains during that time, the 

 cause in each case must be the same. During these two weeks the 

 weather was very warm and much rain fell which may have been 

 the cause of the cattle not doing well. The cattle in both lots 

 seemed to lack appetite. Previous experiments indicate that after 

 roughage alone has been fed for a time, the cattle seem to stop gain- 

 ing satisfactorily unless grain of some kind is added to the ration. 

 It is possible that the length of time that roughage alone could be 

 fed to advantage to these cattle was six weeks instead of eight 

 weeks as planned. As soon as ear corn was added to the ration 

 both lots again made better gains and continued to gain to the end 

 of the feeding period. The gains for the entire feeding period were 

 more uniform in Lot I than in Lot II. The fluctuation of daily 

 gains made was much greater in Lot II than in Lot I. Lot II also 

 showed the greatest variation in the amount of feed consumed. The 

 daily gains made by the cattle in Lot I for both the first and second 

 periods were about the same. Lot II made nearly .5 of a pound 

 greater gains during the second period than during the first period. 



