264 



PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 



a highly-concentrated ration, usually shortens the fattening period. 

 Forced feeding on highly concentrated rations required for quick 

 finish is, of course, more hazardous than the longer feeding period 

 with the more bulky ration. A compromise between the two some- 

 what radical methods has been practised with excellent results. 

 This compromise method is as follows: For winter fattening 

 1000-pound feeders in a six months' period, use thirty to sixty days 

 for getting cattle to full grain ration, allowing free access to all 

 the roughage the cattle will take at the beginning, and gradually 

 decreasing the amount of roughage as the grain is increased. With 

 two- and three-year-old cattle that are finished on grass, 120 days 

 of full feeding are usually sufficient to put such cattle in satisfactory 

 marketable condition after they have been carried sixty to ninety 

 days on light grain rations. 



" Grade and Condition of Feeding Cattle Used. — The quality of 

 breeding of the cattle has a direct bearing upon the proper length 



Fia. 61.^The amount of grain required to produce a hundred pounds of gain in 

 fattening steers increases with the range of the feeding period from about_730 pounds to 

 1000 pounds. (Kansas Station.) 



of the fattening period. Common oattle of the lower grades and 

 plainer sorts are not susceptible to the same high finish that can be 

 given well-bred cattle, hence it is useless to feed them for it. Low- 

 grade feeders finish quicker than those of high-grade at the same 

 weights and in the same condition, because they are older (Fig. 61). 

 "Age of Feeding Cattle Used. — In ordinary practice it takes 

 three to four months to finish mature feeders, five to seven months 

 for two-year-olds, eight to ten months for yearlings, and ten to 

 eighteen months for calves." 



