312 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



may be fed at certain times to older cattle. Green food 

 may be made to take the place of pasture entirely, when 

 the latter may not be had, but some grazing is to be 

 preferred, because of the gentle and enforced exercise 

 which it produces. 



Grain fed at different ages. — When cattle are grown 

 for breeding, it is absolutely necessary to guard against 

 feeding to the extent of injuring the breeding powers. 

 When grown for exhibition in the fat classes, this cau- 

 tion is not necessary, but the necessity still exists for 

 exercising care, lest the concentrates fed overtax the 

 digestive organs through feeding them over-strong and 

 to excess in quantity. To feed just that amount of "this 

 class of food and of such strength as will produce growth 

 and fatness in the proportions sought without overtax- 

 ing the digestive organs is a problem that calls for the 

 exercise of continued skill and watchfulness on the part 

 of the feeder. 



The standing grain and by-products for such feed- 

 ing are ground oats, wheat bran, ground corn or peas, 

 and oilcake. Peas are considered superior to corn if 

 the choice must be made between these, except when 

 the show season approaches. Corn would then, on the 

 whole, be superior. Barley and rye may be used to a 

 limited extent, but are not considered so suitable as the 

 foods named, nor has cottonseed meal shown adaptation 

 so high as oil meal. 



While in the calf form, the feeding will, in outline, 

 be as follows : Start the calves on a mixture, say, of 

 equal parts, ground oats and bran by measure. This 

 should be made constantly accessible to them until they 

 are, say, three months old. If kept before them much 

 longer than the period named, the appetite will be less 

 keen for other kinds of food, because of the extent to 

 which the meal would be consumed. The importance 

 of so regulating the food that the various kinds will be 

 eaten in due proportion cannot easily be over-estimated. 



