THE FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT OF CATTLE. 



The financial results are presented in the following table: 



TABLE VIII. Shoving financial results. 



461 



At the commencement the steers were valued at 4 cents per pound, 

 live weight, and were worth 5 cents per pound at the close. It will 

 be seen that the heaviest gain per day was made by the steers receiv- 

 ing silage, and further that they returned the best per cent on the 

 investment; the root-fed steers gave the poorest returns of the three 

 groups. 



At this station we have fed silage to steers with most excellent 

 results. In one trial four 2 and 3-year old steers were fed corn silage 

 alone and made a gain of 222 pounds in thirty six days, or 1 pounds 

 per day. It required 3,558 pounds of silage to make 100 pounds of 

 gain. Four steers from the same lot were fed silage with a mixture of 

 coi a and bran, when it was found that 654 pounds of corn silage with 

 394 pounds of corn and 180 of bran produced 100 pounds of gain. Four 

 shotes running with the steers were fed only 02 pounds of corn to make 

 a gain of 100 pounds, showing that they must have received most of 

 their food from the droppings. Let the feeder place any reasonable 

 value he may choose on the silage in these two trials and he will see 

 that we produced 100 pounds of gain at a very small cost. The objec- 

 tion to our experiment is that the steers were only fed silage forty three 

 days, the first week not being counted, but further feeding with a heavy 

 grain ration and hay showed that the gains from the silage were well 

 held \\ln-n the animals were placed on dry feed. 



This brings me to the point I desire to make in favor of silage for 

 steer feeding. AH with roots, silage makes the carcass watery and 

 soft to the touch. Some have considered this a disadvantage, but in it 

 not a desirable condition in the fattening steer! Corn and roughage 

 produce a hard, dry carcass, and corn burns out the digestive track 

 in t lie shortest possible time. With silage and roots digestion certainly 

 inu.Nt be more nearly normal and its profitable action longer continued. 

 The tissues of the body are juicy and the whole system must be in, just 

 that condition which permits rapid fattening. While believing in a 

 large use of silage in the preliminary stages and its continuance during 

 most of the fattening period, I would recommend that gradually more 

 dry food be substituted as the period advances, in order that the flesh 



