FATTENING STEERS ON PASTURE IN THE SOUTH. 23 
CONCLUSIONS. 
The methods of handling and feeding cattle are greatly affected by 
the constant variations in the prices of different feeds, by seasonal 
conditions, and by the changes in the live-stock markets. The fol- 
lowing conclusions may be drawn from the experimental work re- 
ported in this bulletin : 
1. Feeding cottonseed cake to steers as a supplement to summer 
pasture in the South increases materially the rate of gains made by 
steers, causes them to finish more quickly, and to take on a higher 
degree of finish. 
2. Because of their better finished condition cake-fed steers bring 
higher prices on the markets than grass cattle. The margin or 
" spread " between buying and selling prices of steers fattened on 
pasture is nearly always increased by supplementing the pasture 
with cottonseed cake, or cake and corn. 
3. Steers of inferior quality may return more profit by grazing 
alone than by grazing with the addition of supplementary feeds, 
especially when they are on good pastures that are cheap. 
4. The cost of gains of steers on pasture is greatly increased by 
feeding cottonseed cake, but the better market price received for 
cake-fed cattle usually pays for the added cost of feeding the cake 
and returns a greater average profit than is realized on grass-fed 
cattle. 
5. The substitution of corn chop for one-half the quantity of cot- 
tonseed cake for steers on pasture produces gains and finish com- 
parable to those made by cake alone, but unless corn is available at 
a lower cost than the cake its use for this purpose is not recom- 
mended. 
6. A half-and-half mixture of cottonseed cake and corn-and-cob 
meal for steers on grass is less efficient for producing gains than 
cottonseed cake alone or corn and cake. When corn is cheap its use 
shelled or as corn chop with cottonseed cake is preferable to corn- 
and-cob meal. 
7. Pasture lands grazed by steers that are fed cottonseed meal or 
cake receive the benefit of large quantities of fertilizing elements 
through the manure of j the cattle. The landowner should consider 
this feature when fattening cattle on pasture. 
8. One of the distinct advantages in supplementing pastures with 
concentrates is the fact that steers so handled are finished more 
quickly and can be marketed earlier than steers getting grass alone. 
Thus the cattle can be sold before the rush of grass-fed cattle gluts 
the market and depresses prices. Moreover, when cattle are mar- 
keted early the pastures have time to recuperate and furnish good 
grazing for other stock during the fall. 
