

CALF FEEDIXG IX ALABAMA AXD MISSISSIPPI. 53 



The roughage used during one year "was not the same as that used 

 another year, but each year the roughage was exactly the same for 

 the lots which were being compared. 



In the first two tests, where corn was substituted for cottonseed 

 meal, the substitution was made pound for pound and the results 

 were unsatisfactory, because a pound of corn has a much smaller 

 feeding value than a pound of cottonseed meal : and the corn-fed 

 calves therefore were getting a smaller amount of digestible nutrients 

 and consequently did not do as well as the cottonseed-meal-fed calves. 

 During the later experiments, where corn was substituted for cotton- 

 seed meal, the substitution was made in about the proportion of 2 

 pounds of corn for 1 pound of cottonseed meal. 



The use of corn invariably increased the cost of the gains made, 

 regardless of the kind and amount of roughage used. "Where corn 

 was fed very sparingly as a substitute for cottonseed meal, the 

 amount or size of the daily gains of the calves was not increased : but 

 where corn was fed liberally the calves made larger daily gains than 

 the calves fed on cottonseed meal alone. The increased gains were 

 not great enough, however, to overbalance or offset the increased cost 

 of the gains, so the cottonseed-meal-fed calves were usually a little 

 more profitable. 



Unless the calves that were fed corn were followed by shoats to 

 utilize the waste grain, the feeding of corn was not as profitable as 

 the use of cottonseed meal as the sole concentrate. 



In the South, during the last three years, there has often been a 

 margin of 2 to 3 cents a pound between purchase price of calves at 

 weaning time and selling price in the spring. Under such conditions, 

 with the current prices of feedstuffs. the feeding of calves for the 

 market has been very profitable. 



The work of 1916-17 indicates that calves too young to wean and 

 fatten for market in the fall can be made to pay a nice profit by 

 letting them nurse the cows during the winter, feeding them grain 

 on grass the following summer, and selling them in the fall, or by 

 following the summer feeding with a short feeding in the dry lot and 

 selling about Christmas or soon after. 



