THE FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT OF CATTLE. 465 



The table shows results obtained at the Wisconsin station with skim- 

 milk fed to Jersey and Holstein calves. At the Ontario College calves 

 representing six different breeds were fed on full milk at first, the trial 

 lasting a year. The Michigan experiments are the most complete, and 

 cover three trials with two lots of steers representing six different 

 breeds in the first trial and five in the last. In the Wisconsin experi- 

 ments the grain consisted of oats, bran, and oil-meal. At Michigan it 

 was wheat bran, oats, corn, and some oil meal. At the Ontario College 

 peas, oats, wheat screenings, bran, find oil-cake were fed. 



INCREASED FOOD REQUIRED WITH INCREASED WEIGHT. 



I ask the reader to carefully review the results obtained at the Mich- 

 igan station and note the steady increase in the amount of food required 

 to produce 100 pounds of gain. With so many animals on trial, repre- 

 senting different breeds and long feeding periods, these results can not 

 be accidental, but must represent some rule of nature of great impor- 

 tance to the feeder. As we have learned from the second table in this 

 chapter, an animal requires a very considerable amount of food for mere 

 maintenance of the body, so that, as the body weight increases, more 

 and more feed must be given for its mere maintenance, and only from 

 the excess which the animal may consume comes the increased weight. 

 At first the young animal is able to eat and digest much more than is 

 required for its maintenance, and out of the large excess a rapid 

 increase in weight results. Though the total amount of food consumed 

 increases very considerably with the age of the animal, yet gradually 

 the amount required creeps up until finally all is required for mere main 

 tenance of the body, alid there is no gain in weight for profit to the 

 feeder. 



EARLY MATURITY^ A NECESSITY. 



The facts just noted lead to the last suggestion in regard to steer- 

 feeding. Some of my readers will recall a period when it was not con- 

 sidered well to fatten a steer until he was 5 years old. A much larger 

 number will recall the early exhibits of cattle at the Chicago Fat Stock 

 Show, where prizes were offered for big steers. The long-legged, raw- 

 boned creatures that competed for premiums in those days are now 

 almost a thing of the past, but there is still room for large improve- 

 ment. Marls maturity has worked wonders in pork-making, and is 

 more slowly but surely accomplishing equally striking results with beef 

 cuttle. While in parts of the Old World hogs are not fattened until 

 J or 3 years old, on thousands of American farms in the corn belt April- 

 horn pigs are started for Chicago in November. Prices are now so low 

 for beef that cattle must be quickly turned and every pound of food 

 made to do its utmost. What can be accomplished in the way of early 

 maturity is HluHtrated by results obtained by Mr. W. A. Harris, of 

 Linwood, Kans.. who reports, in the Breeders' Gazette, his experience 

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