FATTENING STEERS ON VELVET BEANS 
23 
This was a duplication of the experiment of 1920, except that sorgo 
silage and no corn silage was fed. 
KIND OF STEERS 
Thirty grade Shorthorn, Hereford, and Angus steers, 3 to 4 years 
old (fig. 8), which had been fed various lengths of time on cotton- 
seed meal and hulls, were shipped from Crystal Springs, Miss., on 
January 20 and arrived at McNeill 33 hours later. They shrank 45 
pounds per steer in transit. Before the initial weights were taken 
they were given 150 pounds of hay and were watered. During the 
remainder of the three days when initial weights were being obtained 
they were fed 20 pounds of silage and 2 pounds of cottonseed meal 
per day. 
Fig. 8.— Grade southern Mississippi steers being fattened on soaked velvet beans, McNeill, April, 
1922 
FEEDS USED 
During the last period it was necessary to use Osceola velvet beans, 
since no more Early Speckled beans could be obtained. (See fig. 3.) 
The Osceolas have much heavier pods and fewer beans in proportion 
to pod. Consequently, they were not so palatable nor so valuable 
for feed. The beans in this experiment were soaked 24 hours before 
feeding. 
OBSERVATIONS DURING EXPERIMENT 
During the first period of 14 days there was practically no fair 
weather. The steers were bedded with pine straw but the lots were 
in bad condition part of the time. The cottonseed-meal lot cleaned 
up their silage very readily, while the velvet-bean lots cleaned up 
slowly. 
During the second period the velvet-bean lots continued to be 
slow in cleaning up their feed. During the third period the cotton- 
seed-meal lot would have eaten considerably more feed, whereas the 
velvet-bean lots were slightly off feed. To correct this situation, 
their feed was reduced on March 10 for two days and then brought 
