TEE BEEF CATTLE INDUSTRY 



the methods of feeding this ' material. 

 Among the feeders who gave a detailed 

 account of the use of corn stalks, 80 

 per cent pastured them off in the fall 

 or cut part of them for shock corn and 

 pastured the remainder. About 12 per 

 cent of the beef raisers plow under all 

 the corn stalks, and some of them burn 

 the stalks. It appears that the com- 

 mon practice in Iowa and Indiana is to 

 pasture off the corn stalks in the field, 

 or plow them under. Considerable nu- 

 triment may be obtained from corn 

 stalks by pasturing, but it is quite in- 

 excusable to plow them under, since 

 numerous careful experiments have 



amount of gain. In Arizona, corn fod- 

 der was found about equal to alfalfa. 



At the Maryland experiment station, 

 corn fodder gave the best results when 

 shredded, moistened and mixed with the 

 grain ration. It was then more digesti- 

 ble, better relished and eaten more com- 

 pletely. In this experiment, corn fodder 

 showed twice the feeding value of cot- 

 tonseed hulls, and corn shives proved 

 superior to shredded corn, fodder corn, 

 stover or timothy hay. 



Mumford found that steers which re- 

 ceived silage appeared to have larger 

 frames and on that account seemed to 

 be more thinly fleshed than the steers 



Fig. 266 PRIME STEERS FROM ILLINOIS EXPERIMENT STATION 



shown that their feeding value is quite 

 sufficient to warrant harvesting and car- 

 ing for them with as much attention as 

 is given to hay. 



In Colorado, one pound of corn fodder 

 proved to be equal to about 2V 2 pounds 

 of corn silage in feeding value. At the 

 Iowa experiment station, corn fodder 

 was found to be superior to timothy hay, 

 corn silage or sorghum silage. 



In experiments at the Illinois station, 

 the digestibility of corn fodder and corn 

 silage in steer rations was found to be 

 practically the same. The fodder gave 

 larger gains in yearling heifers than 

 did silage. Heifers fed silage ate more 

 and required more feed for a given 



which were fed on shock corn. Sum- 

 marizing the results obtained in sum- 

 mer and winter feeding, however, it was 

 found that steers fed on shock corn 

 made better gains than those on silage. 

 In Virginia, Soule carried on a num- 

 ber of feeding experiments w^h silage 

 and corn stover, as a feed for steers. 

 The steers which received silage gained 

 nearly y 2 a pound daily a head more 

 than the other lots of steers and finished 

 in better condition. It appears from this 

 set of experiments that a reasonable 

 amount of succulence in the ration is 

 a good thing. Of the various rations 

 which were tested in these experiments, 

 that containing silage, corn and cob 

 meal and linseed meal gave the greatest 



