STEER FEEDING EXPERIMENTS. 63 



FOOD EATEN PER DAY AND FOR ONE POUND OF GAIN. 



Table No. 3 gives the total food eaten by each lot for the 

 various periods, and also the food eaten per day for each pound of 

 gain, and the cost of this feed. Considering the whole time of the 

 test, 101 days, we find that each steer ate on the average 2391 

 pounds of clover and 455^ pounds of grain. During the first per- 

 iod it will be noticed that the steers ate very lightly of both the 

 clover and the grain, eating but 19.6 pounds of clover and about 

 21/2 pounds of grain. 



The second period the steers ate more largely of the clover, 

 increasing the daily ration to -23.4 pounds and the grain to five 

 pounds per day. The third period there was again an increase 

 in hay to 27.1 pounds with the 5 pounds of grain. The fourth 

 period the steers dropped i l /2 pounds per day on the hay eaten. 



Considering next the food eaten for each pound of gain we 

 find that on the average it required 10.97 pounds of hay and 2.09 

 pounds of grain for each pound of increase in live weight. This 

 was the average for the 32 steers. Considered by lots the food for 

 each pound of gain ranged from 10 pounds of hay and 1.83 pounds 

 of grain up to 11^/2 pounds of hay and 2.15 pounds of grain. Con- 

 sidering the whole time of the feeding the steers fed the mixed grain 

 made the most economic gains. The barley comes next, followed 

 by the oat and wheat rations. Considering, however, the test 

 period of 56 days, which is the correct basis of comparison, the oat 

 and wheat rations change places, the oat ration being the most ex- 

 pensive, requiring i2 l / 2 pounds of hay and 2.55 pounds of grain 

 to produce I pound 'of increase in live weight. During the first 

 period when fed upon the light grain ration the steers gave the 

 best average results considering the amount of food eaten. Prob- 

 ably, however, this might have been partly a filling process and 

 will not therefore afford as just a comparison as later feeding. 

 Next to this comes the fourth period when a mixed grain ration was 

 fed. Here we find that the range was from 8.8 pounds of the 

 clover and 1.7 pounds of grain, to 11.9 pounds of clover and 2.33 

 pounds of grain, to produce each pound of increase in live weight. 

 These results are very satisfactory from the standpoint of economic 

 production. 



