Counsel in the Feed Lot. 365 



the fibers of the muscles, within the bones, the body cavity, etc. 

 After a few weeks on liberal feed the appetite loses its edge, and the 

 steer shows indifference and a daintiness in taking his food not at 

 first noticed; every pound of increase now means the consumption of 

 more food than formerly. The fattening process may be likened to 

 inflating a collapsed football — the operation, easy and rapid at first, 

 grows more and more difficult until the limit is reached. (510) 



The increase of the growing animal is largely water, with some 

 protein, some fat, and a little mineral matter ; the increase of the fat- 

 tening animal is nearly all fat, with a little water, and a trace of pro- 

 tein and ash. It takes far more food for a given increase with the 

 fattening than with the growing animal. The laying on of fat calls 

 for heavy feeding with rich feed and is always an expensive pro- 

 cess. (23, 98-100) 



572. Getting cattle on feed. — Mumford^ recommends that cattle 

 going on full feed be given all the clover or alfalfa hay they will 

 eat without waste. In addition start with 2 lbs. of corn per steer per 

 day, increasing 1 lb. daily until 10 lbs. is fed. After 3 days increase 

 1 lb. daily until 17 lbs. is fed; 15 days later let this be increased to 

 22 lbs. daily. Cattle getting from 12 to 15 lbs. of corn daily should 

 have about 12 lbs. of clover or alfalfa hay per 1000 lbs. live weight; 

 later only about one- fourth of the ration should be roughage. 



Mumford reports successfully getting cattle to full feed by mixing 

 corn meal and oil meal with chaffed clover hay in the self-feeder, 

 where it was accessible to the cattle at all times. The full grain allow- 

 ance was reached by gradually increasing the proportion of corn meal 

 to roughage. This system saves grain, prevents the animals from 

 gorging themselves, and gets them to full feed a couple of weeks 

 sooner than the ordinary system. Where the feeding period is to 

 cover 6 months, from 30 days to 6 weeks should elapse before the cat- 

 tle are on full feed. In such cases proportionally more good rough- 

 age, such as clover or alfalfa, is fed. While the animals so managed 

 do not make such rapid gains at first, near the close of the feeding 

 period the gains are as large as ever and more economical and satis- 

 factory. 



573. Feeding corn. — Indian corn must continue to be the great 

 fattening food for cattle in America. While we cannot vie with 

 England in the luxuriance of her pastures, the advantages given the 

 American farmer by the corn crop cannot be surpassed and place 

 us in the very forefront in beef production. No other concentrate is 



^ Beef Production. 



