STEER FEEDING EXPERIMENTS. 69 



hay and three pounds of grain a day. Lot two was fed on clover 

 hay and five pounds of grain a day. Lot three was fed on clover 

 hay and seven pounds of grain a day. Lot four was fed on clover 

 hay and 10 pounds of grain a day. The hay fed was a mixture of 

 first and second crops clover, and of fairly good quality. The 

 grain ration was made up of a mixture of barley, oats and bran, 

 in the proportion of y 2 barley, *% oa ts and ^ bran by weight. For 

 the first two weeks of the test the cattle received clover hay only. 

 The grain ration was then started by giving six pounds of grain 

 to each lot, or one pound to each steer. This grain ration was in- 

 creased one pound to each lot every second day until a full grain 

 ration was reached. It will be seen from this that lot one, getting 

 three pounds of grain, received its full grain ration a considerable 

 time before the other lots received the full amount of grain specified. 

 This gradual increase in the grain was necessary so that the steers 

 would get used to the heavy grain ration without danger of diges- 

 tion disturbances. The hay was fed to the steers twice a day, 

 morning and evening, they being given what they would eat up 

 reasonably clean in an hour or two. The grain was weighed to 

 the steers at each feed, twice a day. These steers were fed in the 

 same yards as in previous years and it was noted that they made 

 good use of the straw covered shed during the nights, which made 

 for them quite comfortable quarters. 



COST OF THE FEED. 



The cost of the feed is given to afford a comparison with other 

 years and to give a basis for figuring the cost, by those whose 

 prices are similar to ours. The value put upon the feed was as 

 follows: Clever hay, $5.00 per ton; barley, $1.05 per cwt, ; oats 

 $1.00 per cwt.; bran, goc per cwt. 



WEIGHING THE CATTLE. 



To get the correct weights of the cattle they were weighed 

 three times in as many days at the beginning of the test. They 

 were weighed again when on full feed and once each two weeks 

 thereafter until the close of the test. The cattle were weighed right 

 after noon so as to be as near midway between morning and 

 evening feeding as possible. 



