122 SILAGE IN BEEF PBODUCTION. 



cost of producing a pound of gain is lessened. The heaviest daily 

 gains are usually made during the first stage of the feeding period, 

 and silage can then be used to advantage in large quantities with 

 a, small amount of grain, but as the feeding progresses the amount 

 of silage should be lessened and the grain Increased. In some 

 places the price of hay and stover is so high that the greater the 

 proportion of silage used in the ration the more profitable is the 

 feeding. 



"Silage is a. quick flnishing roughage in that it produces large 

 daily gains and produces a glossy coat and a soft, pliable skin. 

 Moreover, it can be used to advantage at times for carrying cattle 

 for a longer time so as to pass over a period of depression in the 

 market, or to carry the cattle along in thrifty condition so they 

 can be finished at a later period." 



When we consider the varied conditions under which the ex- 

 periments of the Agricultural Stations and others have been 

 made, it is surprising to find the results so similar and all pointing 

 to the one conclusion. 



The Nebraska Station finds in Bulletin 132 that corn silage 

 made larger and more profitable gains with steers than did corn 

 stover, used one-third less grain, and produced better finished 

 steers, which were worth more per hundred. . 



A summary of results at the Pennsylvania Station — Bulletin 

 124 — shows that net profits during the 1912-13 cattle feeding tests, 

 not including pork, ranged from $11.22 per head for steers fed 

 silage and hay, to $14.09 per head for steers fed corn silage as a 

 sole roughage. Corn silage at $3.50 a ton proved much cheaper 

 as a sole roughage than when fed with hay valued at $12.00 a ton. 

 This Station realized a value of $6.20 a ton for silage when used 

 for steer feeding. 



The Missouri Station found in a steer feeding experiment, 

 where corn silage was compared with hay that they could make a 

 saving of $1.07 per hundred pounds of beef by using silage. 



Bulletin 169 of the South Carolina Experiment Station gives 

 results that are of much value to cattle feeders, not only In the 

 South, but in practically all parts of the country. In this test com- 

 paring silage, corn stover and cottonseed hulls, the com silage 

 gave by far the best returns, not only in feeding profits, but In 

 the quality of the beef and the shape In which it reached the mar- 

 ket. The silage fed group produced gains even on a. poor market 

 that would warrant an earning on the silage of $6.86 per ton. 



