UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 954 
Contribution from the Bureau of Animal Industry 
JOHN R. MOHLER, Chief 
Washington, D. C. 
June 30, 1921 
WINTERING AND SUMMER FATTENING OF STEERS 
IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
By F. W. Farley 1 and F. T. Peden, Animal Husbandry Division, Bureau of Animal 
Industry, and R. S. Curtis, North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Outline of the experimental work 1 
The region and its problems 2 
Objects and plan of the work 3 
Kind of steers used 4 
Feeds used 4 
Winter pastures and their establishment. ' 5 
Method of feeding and handling the steers. G 
I. Winter rations and their influence on pas- 
ture gains of 2-year old steers 7 
Quantity of feed consumed 7 
Losses during winter 9 
Gains during summer 9 
Losses and gains, winter and summer 10 
I. Winter rations and their influence on pas- 
ture gains of 2-year old steers — Con 
Graphic presentation of losses and gains. . 11 
Conclusions 13 
II. Cost of wintering and fattening steers on 
grass the following summer 13 
Prices of feeds 14 
Average cost of wintering 15 
Cost per pound of gain 1G 
Profit per steer 17 
Summary of gains and costs 18 
Conclusions 18 
OUTLINE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 
During the fall of 1913, the Bureau of Animal Industry, United 
States Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the North 
Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, began a series of beef -cat tie 
experiments on the grazing farm of T. L. Gwyn, near Springdale, 
Haywood County, N. C. This is in the western part of the State 
where most of the cattle produced are for beef purposes. 
This work has been in progress six years. The first three years 7 
w T ork, reported in United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin 
No. 628 and in North Carolina Department of Agriculture Bulletin 
No. 240, comprised the following: (a) Wintering steers both in barns 
and on pastures; (b) summer fattening of steers on pasture with and 
without cottonseed cake; and (c) winter fattening of beef cattle. 
During the second three years the winter fattening and the supple- 
menting of grass with cottonseed cake for summer fattening were 
discontinued, because these practices were found not generally prof- 
itable under western North Carolina conditions. However, the use 
Mr. Farley, the senior author of this bulletin, resigned from the department in June, 1919. 
39957°— 21 Bull. 954 1 
