352 



Feeds and Feeding. 



553. Alfalfa v. various roughages. — At the Nebraska Station^ 

 Snyder divided a bunch of 100 good grade steer calves averaging 

 about 425 lbs. into 5 lots of 20 each. Each calf was fed 2 lbs. daily 

 of concentrates, consisting of 2 parts corn and 1 part oats, together 

 with roughage as shown in the table, the trial lasting 116 days : 



A test of various roughages for steer calves. 



It is shown that the best returns were from alfalfa hay and the 

 poorest from sorghum hay, while a combination of the two proved 

 satisfactory. The gains of the calves on the rations containing alfalfa 

 were excellent, and 100 lbs. of increase was obtained with a surpris- 

 ingly small amount of feed, showing that alfalfa hay is particularly 

 useful with young, growing animals, 



554. A Missouri comparison of roughages. — At the Missouri Sta- 

 tion^ Waters fed 4 lots, each of 4 two-yr.-old steers, the rations 

 shown on the next page for 105 days to compare the value of va- 

 rious roughages for fattening steers. 



It is shown that steers fed timothy hay produced much smaller 

 and less economical gains than those receiving either clover or cow- 

 pea hay, or clover hay with corn stover. The steers fed the legume 

 hays consumed nearly twice as much hay and also more corn than 

 those fed timothy hay, but 22 per ct. of the corn required for 100 lbs. 

 of gain was saved by using a legume hay in place of timothy hay. 

 Waters states that hogs following steers getting legume hay do better 



' Bui. 105. 



Bui. 76. 



