Value of Various Feeding Stuffs. 



355 



moal is fed, these leguminous roughages should only be fed in limited 

 amount, at most, along with such carbohydrate-rich feeds as corn, 

 sorghum, niilo forage, or cotton-seed hulls. 



558. Grazing cowpeas and corn. — Bennett of the Arkansas Sta- 

 tion^ sowed cowpeas in a five-acre corn field. In October, after gath- 

 ering the corn, steers were turned into a portion of the field to graze 

 on the corn forage and cowpeas, with cotton seed accessible. When 

 one-third of the field was grazed off, another portion was set aside, 

 and so on until it was all grazed over. Six steers averaging 770 lbs. 

 when turned into the field made an average daily gain of 2 lbs. each 

 for 64 days, consuming 250 lbs. of cotton seed in that time, besides 

 corn forage and pea vines with pods. Bennett states that allowing for 

 all expenses the gains made by the steers cost but $1.60 per 100 lbs. 

 Such practice tends to soil improvement as well as cheap meat pro- 

 duction. (261) 



IV. Silage; Eoots. 



559. Corn silage for steer calves. — j\Iumford of the Illinois Sta- 

 tion- divided a bunch of 50 good, thrifty 8-months-old grade Hereford 

 and Short-horn steer calves, weighing about 500 lbs. each, into 2 lots 

 of 25 each. These were fed 88 days in the following manner: Each 

 calf received 4 lbs. of mixed hay and 2 lbs. of oats daily, in addi- 

 tion, Lot I was given corn silage and Lot II unhusked shock corn. 

 The corn forage used was from the same field, part having been 

 placed in the silo and the remainder cured in the shock. The re- 

 sults of the trial are presented in the table. Ten shotes averaging 

 65 lbs. each were placed with each lot of calves. 



Corn silage compared with sJioch corn for grade steer calves. 



The table shows that the silage-fed calves gained 560 lbs. more than 

 those getting shock corn. Lot I consumed 28.8 tons of corn silage, 

 grown on 3.7 acres. In the same time Lot II consumed 14.6 tons of 



Ept. 1S99. 



= Bui. 73. 



