UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



s^i^^^u 



BULLETIN No. 954 



Contribution from the Bureau of Animal Industry 

 JOHN R. MOHLER. Chief 





Washington, D. C. 



June 30, 1921 



WINTERING AND SUMMER FATTENING OF STEERS 

 IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



By F. W. Farley* and F. T. Peden, Animal Ilushandry Division, Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, and R. S. Curtis, North Carolina-Agricultural Experiment Station. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Outline of the experimental work 1 



The region and its problems 2 



Objects and plan of the work ?• 



ICind of steers used 4 



Feeds used 4 



Winter pastures and their estabUshment. 5 



Method of feeding and handUng the steers. 



I. Winter rations and their influence on pas- 

 ture gains of 2-year old steers 7 



Quantity of feed consumed 7 



Losses during winter 9 



Gains during summer 9 



Losses and gains, winter and summer lo 



Page. 

 I . Winter rations and their influence on pas- 

 ture gains of 2- year old steers — Con 



Graphic presentation of losses and gains.. H 



Conclusions 13 



n. Cost of wintering and fattening steers on 



grass the foUo\ving summer 13 



Prices of feeds 14 



Average cost of wintering 15 



Cost i)er pound of gain 10 



Profit per steer 17 



Summary of gains and costs 18 



Conclusions 18 



OUTLINE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 



During the fall of 1913, the Bureau of Animal Industry, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the North 

 Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, began a series of beef-cattle 

 experiments on the grazing farm of T. L. Gwyn, near Springdale, 

 Haywood County, N. C. This is in the western part of the State 

 where most of the cattle produced are for beef purposes. 



This work has been in progress six years. The first three years' 

 work, reported in United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin 

 No. 628 and in North Carolina Department of Agriculture Bulletin 

 No. 240, comprised the following: (a) Wintering steers both in barns 

 and on pastures; (6) summer fattening of steers on pasture with and 

 without cottonseed cake; and (c) winter fattening of beef cattle. 

 During the second three years the winter fattening and the supple- 

 menting of grass with cottonseed cake for summer fattening were 

 discontinued, because these practices were found not generally prof- 

 itable under western North Carolina conditions. However, the use 



I Mr. Farley, the senior author of this bulletin, resigned from the department in June, 1919. 

 39957°— 21— Bull. 954 1 



