170 BEEF PRODUCTION 



good, thrifty condition we mean the condition in which. 

 ~"the~animal is fleshy but not fat, about as fleshy as they 

 would be expected to go on grass the following spring. 

 With this condition to start with, the feeder has simply 

 tojnaintain that weight, or better, keep them gaining, 

 slightly, through the season. This gain should always 

 be slightly more than sufficient to account for the growth 

 and weight of the foetus. 



We would brand as gross mismanagement the prac- 

 tice of premitting the cows to run down in noticeably 

 thin flesh, making it necessary to feed lavishly during 

 part of the season to regain flesh lost during a corres- 

 ponding season of neglect. The most satisfactory 

 results in breeding and rearing calves and, we believe, 

 the most economical system of maintenance of such 

 herds, involves the keeping of the cows composing the 

 herd in good, thrifty condition throughout all the year. 



The proper, feeding of such a herd -during .the winter 

 season is frequently looked, upon as expensive. This 

 does not necessarily follow. Such a herd should be 

 -maintained largely upon cheap roughages, some at 

 least of which are unsalable. The roughages will vary 

 in different localities, and the varieties used should be 

 governed very largely by their availability. 



Where corn silage is available, it is undoubtedly one 

 of the very best, feeds to use as the principal part of the 

 _ winter ration of beef breeding cows. It i s ne ither 

 necessary nor advisable to feed to such cows all they will 

 eat, but rather limit the amount to a medium ration of 

 silage and supplement it with clover hay and other 

 roughage such as straw or corn stover. . A ration com- 

 posed of eighteen pounds of silage ancTfour pounds 

 of clover hay per 1000-lb. cow per day, together with 

 all the straw the cows will eat, will not only keep 

 cows from losing in weight during the winter season, 

 but will cause them to gain at the rate of from one to 

 one and a quarter pounds per head per day. If silage is 

 not available, a daily ration of ten pounds of shock corn, 



