2 BULLETIN 1431, U. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Most of the grass-fattened cattle which go annually to eastern 
markets are produced in this region. The fact that most of them 
are finished for market on grass alone attests the value of the pas- 
tures, which consist largely of blue grass. The use of grain for finish- 
ing cattle is not general, although there are many sections where the 
practice is followed, particularly in the valleys of some of the larger 
streams. By far the greater num- 
ber of farmers who handle beef 
cattle either grow stockers and 
feeders or finish cattle for market 
from grass alone. Therefore, one 
of the principal beef-production 
problems is to determine the best 
and most economical method of 
wintering the cattle and the one 
that will enable them to make the 
best possible use of the pasture 
the following summer, when the 
cheapest gains are made. A com- 
mon practice in this area has been 
to winter steers on dry feed, such 
as hay, corn stover, and wheat 
straw, and on corn silage to a less 
extent, in such way that they lose 
materially in weight. They are 
then pastured the following sum- 
mer and sold from grass as stock- 
ers, feeders, or finished steers. 
There are some who hold that it is 
profitable to permit this loss of 
weight, which with older steers usually varies from 25 to 100 pounds. 
Others believe that cattle wintered on silage, or on a ration of which 
silage is a part, will not do well on grass the following summer. 
OBJECTS AND PLAN OF THE WORK 
The experiments as a whole had the following general problems in 
view: 
To ascertain the effect of different wintering rations on subsequent pasture 
gains. 
To determine the most satisfactory and economical method of wintering. 
To determine the best method and the cost of raising beef cattle in West 
Virginia. 
The results of previous work with cows, calves, yearlings, and 
2-year-olds are published in United States Department of Agriculture 
Bulletins 870, 1024, 1042, and 1251, respectively. In all the previous 
work the cattle were kept one year only. 
This bulletin is a report of the work with calves kept from weaning 
age until marketed as 3-year-old steers. 
Fig . 1 . — Map showing region to which this work 
applies. The black dot indicates the location 
of the farm on which the experiment was con- 
ducted. The shaded portion represents the 
area to which the results are applicable, and 
the dotted portion shows an additional area to 
which the results apply in part 
I 
