37 



ever advantage they possessed in point of youth was more than 

 offset by the additional length of the feeding period or by the 

 extra amount of fat they were made to carry before the exper- 

 iment closed. If the comparison is unfair at all, the injustice 

 is done rather to the summer than to the winter fed cattle. 



It will be interesting to note that the average daily con- 

 sumption of roughness per head in winter by cattle on full 

 feed was 8.15 pounds. This means that each steer ate per 

 month about 245 pounds of hay. Rating this hay at $5.00 per 

 ton, makes the monthly consumption 61 cents per head. If 

 the hay be worth $6.00 per ton, the monthly charge for rough- 

 ness would be 73 cents ; at $7.oo per ton, the cost would be 88 

 cents per steer; whereas with hay rated at $10.00 per ton, the 

 charge for this portion of the steer's ration would be $1.22 per 

 month. 



The price for pasture of steers on full feed would easily fall 

 somewhere between 61 cents and $1.22 per month. This means 

 that the roughness consumed in winter will practically offset the 

 cost of grass in summer. The problem is, therefore, narrowed 

 down to a direct comparison of the grain required to produce 

 a pound of beef under the two systems and the relative amount 

 of labor and general expenses involved. 



It will be observed that 10 pounds of grain made one pound 

 of beef in winter as an average of all steers, or that a bushel 

 of corn (for the bulk of the grain used was shelled corn in 

 both summer and winter) made 5.6 pounds of beef. 



The average of the summer trials shows that 8.14 pounds 

 of grain produced a pound of gain, or that a bushel of corn 

 represented 6.88 pounds of beef, a difference in favor of sum- 

 mer feeding of 22.7 per cent in the grain requirement per 

 pound of gain. 



It will be noted that the steers gained more rapidly in sum- 

 mer than in winter, the average for winter feeding being 2.13 

 pounds per day, and in summer, 2.37 pounds per day. 



These summaries, therefore, furnish a general answer to 

 the objections raised by numerous writers to the tendency 

 among our feeders toward the discarding of winter feeding 

 and the adopting of summer feeding. 



