73 



More Preparation of Grain Required for Young Cattle Than for 



Aged Animals. 



This is almost self-evident. Three year old steers, for ex- 

 ample, can handle ear corn and coarse roughage far more ad- 

 vantageously than can calves, say, that are just being weaned. 

 It is not at all difficult to make a fair rate of gain on young an- 

 imals, and to accomplish only this result would not require any 

 special preparation of grain. But to make a gain that is suffi- 

 ciently rapid to fatten the animal within reasonable time 

 does require that the grain be offered in an easily assimila- 

 ble form and that the roughage be of a very palatable and nu- 

 tritious character. In other words, as has already been pointed 

 out, the first draft a young animal will make on its food, out- 

 side of maintenance, is for growth, and it is necessary to induce 

 the animal to eat and digest an amount considerably in excess 

 of the requirement for maintenance and for growth in order to 

 make it fat. The aged steer, on the other hand, has little use 

 for food for growth, and puts practically its entire ration, out- 

 side of that required for maintenance, to the uses of fat pro- 

 duction, and it is not, therefore, so vital a matter that the animal 

 gain to the absolute limit of its capacity in order to get fat in 

 a reasonable time or to prove profitable. Thus it comes about 

 in practice that the feeders use ear corn for aged cattle and 

 crushed or ground or soaked or shelled corn for calves and year- 

 lings. 



HOGS UTILIZE THE WASTE. 



It will be noted that all of the discussion of this factor has 

 so far been with relation to the influence of foods prepared in 

 different ways upon the rate of gain of the steer, rather than 

 upon the degree to which it is digested, and utilized. This is so 

 because hogs are invariably used to pick up whatever waste may 

 occur from imperfect preparation of the feed before it is offered 

 to the cattle. As a rule, hogs are worth more per pound live 

 weight than are cattle. It is, therefore, a matter of comparative 

 indifference to the feeder as to just how the uses of the grain are 

 distributed between the steer and the hog. 



The feeder is only interested in the total gain in live weight 

 per unit of grain fed, and cannot, under ordinary farm condi- 



