00 N. C. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Any washy or loose condition should be remedied at once, as a steer 

 affected in this way will not only stop gaining, but actually lose flesh 

 if the trouble continues for any length of time. 



Under the system of feeding followed in this State, scours are more 

 likely to give trouble because of the laxative nature of cottonseed meal. 

 If corn silage is fed either alone or with some dry roughage it may have 

 a tendency to bring about a lax condition, although this is not likely to 

 happen under careful management. One. of the principal precautions 

 to take is to start the steers on a light ration of meal and increase it 

 gradually. If this is done and average judgment is used thereafter in 

 feeding no trouble should occur. 



Thrush or Foul-of-the-Foot 



Thrush or foul of the foot is caused by allowing steers to stand in the 

 sheds or yards in manure which has been accumulating for considerable 

 time. For this reason the manure should not be allowed to remain in 

 the barns and yards for an undue length of time. Plenty of bedding 

 should be provided to overcome this trouble as well as to aid in conserv- 

 ing the manure. There is very little that can be done for fattening steers 

 affected with this trouble except to remove the cause. Care should be 

 taken to provide clean and dry bedding. If the steers are not allowed 

 to wade in filthy lots this trouble is not likely to develop. 



Effects of Overfeeding with Cottonseed Meal. 



It is probably generally known that when cottonseed meal is fed in 

 large quantities, during prolonged periods, it causes either blindness, 

 staggering or possibly death in extreme cases. The writer is not aware 

 of any deaths in this State, although it is stated that a few have oc- 

 curred. As a general thing with beef cattle, the first indication of the 

 trouble is seen in the failure to make uniform gains. This is followed 

 by a dry rough coat of hair, dullness, sleepiness, possibly a staggering 

 gait and loss of appetite in prolonged cases. Because of this troublje 

 arising after feeding cottonseed meal heavily for one hundred to one 

 hundred and twenty days the chances for making prime fat cattle are 

 greatly reduced unless they are finished on some other concentrate. After 

 steers from two to three years old have been fed from 900 to 1,000 

 pounds of cottonseed meal, a keen watch should be kept of their general 

 condition and the progress they are making. When the gains begin to 

 grow small it is a good indication that the cattle have taken as much 

 cottonseed meal as the system will stand. When this condition arises 

 they should be marketed as soon as possible, providing this has not 

 already been done before the effects of the cottonseed meal were noticed. 



