Economical Rations in Beef Production. 39 



CONCLUSIONS FROM THESE EXPERIMENTS. 



1. Prairie hay when fed with corn alone to fattening cattle 

 gives small and unsatisfactory gains and very little or no 

 profit. 



2. Alfalfa hay with corn alone gives large and profitable 

 gains. 



3. The use of well-cured corn-stover with alfalfa and corn, 

 while it may not produce larger gains, will make the gains 

 less costly because of its IOAV market value, thereby increas- 

 ing the profits over corn and alfalfa alone. 



4. In feeding only prairie hay as roughness to fattening 

 cattle, much larger and more profitable gains can be made if 

 linseed-meal or possibly some other protein concentrate is fed 

 with corn in small quantity rather than feeding corn alone. 



5. The results of two experiments indicate that linseed- 

 meal is a little more valuable than cottonseed-meal and much 

 more valuable than wheat bran for supplementing corn when 

 fed with prairie hay or corn-stover. 



6. When alfalfa is made at least half of the roughness with 

 prairie hay or corn-stover, good gains may be made and at 

 less cost than when no alfalfa is fed, the protein being sup- 

 plied by the use of linseed-meal. In other words, it is pos- 

 sible to grow protein on the farm at a price much beloAV what 

 it will cost on the market in the form of some commercial 

 protein food. 



7. Corn-stover cut immediately after the ears ripen and 

 cured in shocks possesses a value fully two-thirds as great as 

 prairie hay. The part usually consumed, viz., the leaves and 

 upper portion of stalk, is quite the equal of prairie hay pound 

 for pound. 



8. The results of a single experiment in which but little 

 more than half a full feed of corn was supplied two lots of 

 fattening steers suggest the possibility of making a larger 

 use of hay in finishing cattle for market than is ordinarily 



