UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 777 
Contribution from the Bureau of Animal Industry 
JOHN R. MOHLER, Chief 
ssJ^'^ru 
Washington, D. C. 
July 10, 1919 
FATTENING STEERS ON SUMMER PASTURE IN 
THE SOUTH. 
By W. F. Ward, formerly in Animal Husbandry Division, Bureau of Animal In- 
dustry; Dan T. Gray, formerly Professor of Animal Husbandry, Alabama 
Polytechnic Institute; and E. R. Lloyd, Director of Mississippi Experiment 
Station. 1 
THE experiments described in this bulletin required several years 
for completion, but in view of present opportunities for live 
stock in the South and efforts to reduce production costs, the 
results are of unusual current interest. The bulletin treats each ex- 
periment separately as follows : 
Page. 
I. Fattening Steers on Summer Pasture, Alabama, 1912 3 
II. Fattening Steers on Summer Pasture, Alabama, 1913 8 
III. Fattening Steers on Summer Pasture, Mississippi, 1915 12 
IV. Fattening Steers on Summer Pasture, Mississippi, 1916 16 
V. Summary of the Four Years' Summer Fattening Work 21 
PURPOSE OF WORK AND PREVIOUS EXPERIMENTS. 
The producer of beef in the South depends largely on pasture for 
growing and finishing his cattle for market. A great variety of 
valuable pasture plants is found. Some of the plants make rapid 
growth early in the spring; others flourish later in the heat of 
summer ; still others furnish abundant grazing in the fall. Coupled 
with these conditions is the smaller proportion of tillable land in the 
South than is found in the corn-belt States ; that fact makes the area 
left for grazing proportionately more extensive. For these reasons 
sound information on the proper use of southern pasture lands for 
beef production is of more than average importance. 
The first of a series of experiments in fattening steers on grass, con- 
ducted jointly by the Bureau of Animal Industry and the Alabama 
Experiment Station, was begun in 1908 and continued during each 
grazing period until 1913, inclusive. In 1915 similar work was 
commenced in Mississippi cooperatively with the Mississippi Experi- 
ment Station. Eesults of summer feeding to and including 1911, 
1 Acknowledgment is due G. A. Scott and S. W. Greene, of the Animal Husbandry Di- 
vision, United States Department of Agriculture, for assistance in compiling this bulletin. 
102287°— 19— Bull. 777 1 
