20 BULLETIN 728, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



This method avoids the necessity of handling and hauling a large 

 part of the feed and makes the work of handling and shredding the 

 remainder easier. It has given satisfactory results. It is probably 

 not altogether wise to burn off the dry leases, as they contain some 

 feed value that should not be wasted, but they make the shredding 

 operation much more difficult, and the feed value in the dry leaves 

 may not be worth the additional labor * necessary to pass them 

 through the machine. 



In most cases additional feed, usually cottonseed cake, was being 

 fed to the animals. This is as it should be, since the shredded feed 

 is nothing but a low grade of roughness comparable to corn stover 

 (ears removed) or range-grass hay. 



STOCK LOSSES FROM USING THIS FEED. 



A particular effort was made to learn whether or not the chopped 

 feed was in any way responsible for losses of any kind among the stock 

 fed. Scouring was reported from a few herds, but it was never of any 

 importance and was overcome by adding dry feed to the ration. In 

 a few cases this result was obtained by grinding up the old dead leaves 

 of the plants with the rest of the feed, instead of burning them off. 



A few cases of bloating were reported when animals had been fed 

 quite heavily with the chopped soap weed. No cases of abortion 

 were found, though all the feeders were asked about it. Some cases 

 of impaction were found and some choking, but in all cases of loss from 

 either of these causes the feed was hand chopped, and the trouble arose 

 from the mechanical condition of the feed rather than from any other 

 cause. One source of loss was the chilling which occurred at night 

 when the temperature fell. Cattle weak and poor from starvation 

 would lie down and get chilled and never get up. With one herd 

 the men stayed with the animals on one cold night and kept them 

 moving about to prevent losses of this kind. Such losses arose from 

 lack of feed instead of the use of this kind. 



The total losses directly attributable to properly shredded soap 

 weed were negligible. 



COST OF FEEDING SOAP WEED. 



In getting together the material for this bulletin the writer inter- 

 viewed many different men who had fed or were feeding sotol, saca- 

 huista, bear-grass, or soap weed. He saw all of the various kinds of 

 machines at work on ranches. He obtained 13 complete reports from 

 men who were chopping soap weed to feed to cattle in Arizona,. New 



1 Some of the men who were chopping the soap weed by hand cut the stalks and piled them before 

 burning off the dead leaves. They found that the heat tended to cook and soften the stems, thereby 

 making the work of chopping easier. 



