18 
BULLETIN" 628, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
pounds in the spring, after they have been charged with the pur- 
chase price in the fall plus the cost of pasture to carry them through 
the winter, should be of great interest to farmers and stock raisers. 
This is the deciding factor as to whether it will be cheaper to pur- 
chase cattle in the fall or in the spring for grazing the following 
summer. 
Table 
-Cost of wintering; fall and spring prices. 
Year. 
Number 
of steers. 
Pounds 
gain per 
steer for 
winter. 
Initial 
cost 
per cwt. 
Cost to 
winter 
pasture. 
Cost in 
spring 
per cwt. 
Advance 
in spring 
over initial 
cost per 
cwt. 
1913-14 
17 
26 
16 
17 
17 
26 
$4.50 
6.00 
6.00 
$4.66 
6.29 
5.23 
§5.23 
6.70 
6.60 
1 $0. 73 
1914-15 
1 .70 
1915-16 
1 .60 
i Average, S0.68. 
Table 7 shows that there was no great difference in the cost of win- 
tering these cattle during the three years' work. The cattle used the 
first year were smaller and it did not cost as much per head to winter 
them, yet the advance in cost per 100 pounds in the spring over the 
cost in the fall was more than in the following two years' work. The 
average advance in cost in the spring over that in the fall was 68 
cents per hundred pounds, whereas in all the winter cattle work in 
the barns, as shown in Part I of this bulletin, there was an advance 
in cost of from $1.40 to $1.70, or an average of $1.55 per hundred 
pounds. This shows clearly the economy of providing winter pasture. 
SUMMARY OF THREE YEARS' WINTER PASTURE WORK. 
The steers during the winter of 1913-11 made a total gain of 17 
pounds per head at an average cost of $1.66. The next winter the 
average gain was the same, but the cost per steer was $6.29. During 
1915-16 the steers made the largest gains of any in the three years' 
work, namely. 26 pounds per head, at a cost of $6.60. In this third 
winter the advance in cost per 100 pounds in the spring over the cost 
in the fall was $0.60. The aA^erage for the three years was $0.68. 
CONCLUSIONS FROM WINTER-GRAZING WORK. 
Much of the rough mountainous land in western Xorth Carolina 
should be utilized for winter-grazing purposes. It is practically 
unfit for any other purpose after the merchantable timber is cut.. 
Winter grazing and the use of the silo will enable stockmen of the 
mountains to handle more cattle to better advantages through both 
summer and winter than by the old method of wintering on dry- 
harvested feeds. 
