I. A COMPARISON OF COTTONSEED HULLS, CORN SILAGE, 
AND A COMBINATION OF COTTONSEED HULLS AND 
CORN SILAGE FOR FATTENING STEERS DURING A 
SHORT FEEDING PERIOD (ALABAMA EXPERIMENT). 
This is the last of a series of cooperative cattle-feeding experiments 
conducted in western Alabama by the Bureau of Animal Industry 
and the Alabama experiment station for the purpose of testing - 
various concentrates and roughages for fattening steers for the mar- 
ket. The results of the previous work have been reported in Bureau 
of Animal Industry Bulletins 103, 131, and 159, and Department 
Bulletin 110. 
OBJECTS AND PLAN OF THE WORK. 
A comparison was to be made of the value of cottonseed hulls, corn 
silage, and a combination of these two roughages for fattening steers 
economically and substantially. As this test was to compare rough- 
ages, the same amount of cottonseed meal was fed per head to the 
steers of all lots. No other concentrate was used. 
The same general plan was followed as had been used in former 
experiments. The cattle were bought in the fall and put on a pre- 
liminary feed of cottonseed hulls and meal, and some silage, while 
confined on a 15-acre pasture until they became thoroughly accus- 
tomed to the feeds. They were dehorned during this time and on 
November 19, 1913, all were tagged, divided into three lots of the same 
quality and about the same size, weighed individually, and started on 
their regular experimental rations. They were weighed individually 
again on the following day, an average taken of the two weights as 
the initial weight, and the experiment started on the afternoon of 
November 20. 
STEERS USED. 
The steers were mostly half and three-quarter breds of Aberdeen- . 
Angus, Shorthorn, Hereford, and Red Polled breeding. They repre- 
sented one or two crosses of pure-bred beef bulls on the native cows 
of Alabama. Some of them showed a small amount of Jersey blood 
also. They averaged about 3 years of age and were of a fair 
feeder type. They were far superior to the scrub steers of the State, 
but about the same grade as the steers produced in the prairie section 
of Alabama and Mississippi. 
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