FINISHING CATTLE IN THE STALL OR SHED I4S 



In growing foods for fattening the aim should be to try 

 to grow such fodders and concentrates as will furnish 

 a balanced food when fed. 



The preparation of the fodder called for, of course, 

 varies. Fodders possessed of high palatability as, for 

 instance, the clovers, alone or mixed with timothy, 

 and also alfalfa, are usually fed without any preparation. 

 Corn and the sorghums are also most commonly fed 

 thus, but where more complete consumption is required 

 they are, in some instances, shredded and in others run 

 through a cutting box and mixed with other fodders. 

 But the cheapest and most effective way of feeding these 

 is to make them into silage. 



When several varieties of roughage are on hand, 

 which vary considerably in palatability, chaffing them 

 and mixing them before feeding will insure a consump- 

 tion of much of the less palatable foods, and if pulped 

 roots are mixed in with the mass, it will all be con- 

 sumed. But the cost of thus preparing fodders may 

 sometimes make such preparation of the food pro- 

 hibitory. AVhere straw of the cereals is used in any 

 considerable quantities, the aim should be to feed it 

 thus. 



Usually there is less change in feeding the rough- 

 age, as the fattening progresses, than in feeding concen- 

 trates. Should different kinds of fodder be on hand, 

 some more and some less palatable, the aim should be 

 to reserve the more palatable fodder to the more ad- 

 vanced periods of the finishing. For instance, should 

 corn fodder and clover hay be available, the fodder 

 should be fed first and the hay later, as the appetite 

 is much prone to wane as the feeding season progresses. 



The amounts of fodder that will be consumed vary 

 with the nature of the feeding. The larger the propor- 

 tion of concentrates fed, the less will be the proportion 

 of the fodder eaten, and the more will the feeding period 

 be shortened. On the other hand, because food elements 



