20 MISC. PUBLICATION 7 02, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



beef that may be produced from rations that contain varying propor- 

 tions of grain and forages, when pasturage is involved, is limited. 

 The problem is complicated by the fact that there are several classes, 

 ages, and grades of feeder cattle, No two groups would give the 

 same results when fed like rations. 



The importance of this problem is well recognized by animal hus- 

 bandrymen and agronomists. Small starts have been made to assem- 

 ble the necessary data. At the Illinois station (19, pp. 19-22) "Good" 

 2-year old steers were grain-fed on blue grass pasture in the spring 

 and summer of 1946. Of the three lots of steers used, one was finished 

 for "Choice" slaughter cattle, one for "Good" and the third "Com- 

 mercial." To finish the steers for Choice slaughter grade required 44 

 bushels of shelled corn for each steer and an average of 183 days 

 feeding. To finish for the grade Good fat cattle, each steer took 20 

 bushels of shelled corn and an average of 93 days of feeding. Finish- 

 ing the steers as Commercial fat cattle took 5 bushels of shelled corn 

 a head and a feeding period that averaged 32 days. The Choice fat 

 cattle dressed out highest with a dressing percentage of 61.6. This 

 compared with 60.5 for the Good and 57.6 for the Commercial grades. 



A continuing experiment at the Page County, Iowa, Experimental 

 Farm (27) is designed to provide some information regarding the 

 problem of using liberal amounts of forage in beef -cattle feeding pro- 

 grams. Beginning in May of 1946, yearling feeder steers of Good to 

 Choice quality were handled in three different ways. One group of 

 feeders was full-fed in dry lot, a second group was self-fed on brome- 

 alfalfa pasture and finished in dry lot. A third bunch of steers was 

 grazed on brome-alfalfa pasture alone and finished in dry lot. All 

 lots of steers were finished to low Choice fat cattle. To achieve this 

 required 159 days of feeding and 43 bushels of ground ear corn a head 

 for the dry-lot animals, 193 days feeding and 39 bushels of corn for 

 the steers self-fed on pasture and finished in dry lot, and 229 days and 

 25 bushels of corn for the animals grazed on pasture alone and then 

 fed in dry lot. 



Brome-alfalfa pasture is used in cattle-feeding operations on some 

 farms in the western Corn Belt, In some instances in which this kind 

 of pasture is used, farmers feed 40 to 45 bushels of corn (excluding any 

 that may be in silage) a head to good-quality yearling steers in finish- 

 ing out fat cattle of 1,050 or 1,100 pounds grading high Good or low 

 Choice. 



SHEEP AND LAMBS 



High-quality native market lambs may be raised in the Northern 

 States on forage alone, The secret of success with a ewe flock and 

 lamb system of market lamb production is the control of internal 

 parasites and provision of an abundance of green succulent feed for 

 the lambs and ewes. Results of one experiment (15) showed that over 

 a 3-year period suckling lambs, when both lambs and ewes were on pas- 

 ture only, gained weight at almost the same daily rate as lambs handled 

 similarly, but given access to shelled corn in creeps. Lambs that got 

 no corn had as good finish at the end of the test as the ones that did. 

 Other comparisons made in the same experiment showed that lambs 

 suckling their dams on pasture gained weight considerably faster than 

 lambs fed in dry lot while their dams grazed. 



