FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT OF BEEF CATTLE. 



Final Feeding Period. 



61 



The final feeding period is the time during which steers should make 

 rapid progress toward fitting for market. When they are first placed 

 on feed it is necessary to proceed slowly until the animals adapt them- 

 selves to the change. During this time the gains will be small as the 

 chief object during the preliminary period should be to regain the shrink- 

 age lost in shipping and to adapt the digestive system to the new feeds. 



FIG. 6. A type of animal too often seen in the feed lots of this State. Cattle of such breeding 

 are too inferior to use high priced cottonseed meal. 



After steers are once placed on a full ration, the fewer the changes in 

 kind of feed, and other of their surroundings, the more satisfactory the 

 results will be, other things being equal. The only change which should 

 be made will be the amount of feed, which should be regulated by the 

 appetite and condition of the animals. Changes should be made very 

 gradually, as there is nothing more fatal in steer feeding than irregular 

 care and management. This is especially true when using a feed like 

 cottonseed meal. A succulent feed like corn silage should be introduced 

 into the ration gradually and eliminated in the same way if for any* 

 reason this becomes necessary. Sudden' changes to and from watery 

 feeds, such as silage, often cause digestive disturbances such as scours, 

 which are very disastrous in the feed lot. It is important to use dry 

 feeds with caution, yet there is not the same danger as with silage, which 

 contains about eighty per cent of water, a factor often responsible for 

 the washy condition in steers fed corn silage alone. When steers are 

 first taken from the pasture it is a good plan to feed a small amount of 

 corn silage with the dry roughage feeds. If this can be done it will 

 help materially in overcoming the effect of sudden changes from pasture 

 to dry feeds, now largely used for fattening steers. 



