COMPARISON OF ROUGHAGES FOR FATTENING STEERS. 35 
smaller and more expensive gains, returned a smaller profit, while 
Lot 4 would have been fed at a loss had it not been for the wide sell- 
ing margin. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
The four years' feeding work with southern steers furnishes data 
from which some valuable conclusions may be drawn. 
1. The outstanding efficiency of corn or sorghum silage in rations 
for fattening steers is distinctly brought out by these feeding tests. 
Good gains are produced economically by the use of cottonseed meal 
and silage, or cottonseed meal and silage supplemented with dry 
roughage, such as cottonseed hulls, corn stover, or oat straw. How- 
ever, satisfactory results in finishing steers for the block can not be 
expected from silage of poor quality. 
2. A ration of cottonseed meal and cottonseed hulls produces less 
rapid and more expensive gains in fattening steers than a ration in 
which good silage forms all or most of the roughage portion of the 
ration. If hulls are available at a reasonable price, they can be used 
economically to supplement a ration composed chiefly of cottonseed 
meal and silage. 
3. Cattle receiving cottonseed meal and a heavy feed of silage eat 
only a small quantity of dry roughage, such as corn stover or straw, 
but the consumption of such roughage reduces the total amount of 
silage consumed. 
4 The use of cheap dry roughage for supplementing a silage 
ration has little effect on the rate or economy of gains. When such 
feeds are available on the farm and are not needed for wintering 
stock or for breeding animals, they should be utilized as supplements 
in the rations of fattening cattle. 
5. Cottonseed meal or cake supplemented with dry roughage, such 
as cowpea hay, straw, and stover, does not produce as rapid or 
economical gains on steers as rations containing a generous quantity 
of corn or sorghum silage. 
6. It is often more profitable to feed heavy rations over a short 
period, as was done in the winter of 1913-14, than to feed lighter 
rations over a longer period. The condition of the steers when feed- 
ing begins and the market price are the chief factors that will deter- 
mine whether the steers are to be fed over a short or a long feeding 
period. 
7. In these experiments feeding pens and lots which were fairly 
dry and furnished dry sleeping quarters were conducive to better 
gains on the steers than those which were muddy. 
8. Steers having the best finish brought the highest prices per 100 
pounds and returned the most profit. This indicates that it is a safe 
policy for the feeder to finish his cattle well. 
