FEEDING AND CARE OF BEEF CATTLE 301 



The herd may be wintered on legume roughage alone, or on car- 

 bonaceous roughages with some such nitrogenous concentrate as cot- 

 tonseed or linseed meal to balance the ration. They should be kept 

 in good flesh else they will not produce vigorous calves and nourish 

 them with a good flow of milk. 



At the Illinois Station, 10 an average ration of 16.7 lbs. corn silage, 

 3.5 lbs. clover hay, and 9.6 lbs. oat straw proved excellent for winter- 

 ing 860-lb. beef cows, while one of 8.7 lbs. shock corn, 3.5 lbs. clover 

 hay, and 10.8 lbs. oat straw was satisfactory, but not as good as the 

 first ration. At the Pennsylvania Station, 11 1,160-lb. beef cows, sev- 

 eral of which were suckling calves, were wintered satisfactorily on 58 

 lbs. of corn silage and 1 lb. of cottonseed meal per head daily. Dur- 

 ing the remainder of the year the cows, with the calves at foot, grazed 

 a pasture too rough for tilled crops. 



At the Hays, Kansas, Sub-station, 12 900-lb. beef cows were wintered 

 on 20 to 35 lbs. of kafir silage or 26 to 27 lbs. of kafir fodder or stover 

 per head daily, with 1 lb. of cottonseed meal and what wheat straw 

 they would eat, amounting to 10 to 17 lbs. daily for each animal. 

 The feed cost for 100 days ranged from $4.44 per head with kafir 

 silage to $9.91 with kafir fodder. These trials show the possibilities 

 of maintaining beef breeding cows chiefly on cheap roughages. 



The beef bull. — On the range the bulls run with the cows, but 

 under farm conditions it is best to confine the bull during the sum- 

 mer, preferably in a well-fenced pasture lot. It will then be possible 

 to keep a record of the date when the cows are due to calve, and the 

 bull so handled can serve a larger number of cows a year. The same 

 general principles apply to the feed and care of the beef bull as 

 with the dairy bull. (See Chapter XXII.) 



The beef calf. — Under the simplest method of beef production, as 

 on the range, the calves are dropped in the spring and run with their 

 dams during the summer. Under farm conditions some prefer to 

 allow the calves to suck only at stated intervals, 3 times a day at 

 first, and later twice. Where the calf remains with the dam her 

 udder should, for a time, be stripped night and morning lest neglect 

 bring garget and destroy her usefulness. The greatest danger under 

 this system comes at weaning time, when, if the calf has not been 

 taught to eat solid food, it pines and loses weight. To avoid this, 

 before weaning it should be taught to eat shelled corn, whole oats, 

 wheat bran, linseed meal, hay, etc. The first departure from this 



loMumford, 111. Bui. 111. 



n Cotfhel, Tomhave, and Severaon, Penn. Bui. 118, and information to the 

 authors. 



i2Cochel, Kan. Bui. 198. 



