Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1903-03-06
STOCK FEEDING TEST.
Experiment Commenced In state Col.
ieae Husbandry Department.

iese Husbandry Department.
Ames, March 1.-THE first expert.
ment in feeding live stock for this
year has been. started by the animal
husbandry department Of the Iowa Ag-
ricultural college, on the Brookmont
farm at Odebolt, under the personal
supervision Of Prof. w. J. Kennedy,
head of the department. who just re-
turned from that place. This expert
ment called the ''the acclimation test, "
is the first Of it's kind undertaken any
where, it's purpose being to determine
whether southern cattle will thrive in
northern climates as well as northern
and western cattle when fed on the
same rations and under similar con.
ditions. The animals, 100 in number,
divided into two lots, fifty head Of
southern and fifty head of western,
were weighed, which will be used as
the starting weight and compared with
similar results obtained every two
weeks during the entire feeding per-
iod. Short bulletins will be issued
from time to time, showing the pro
gress of the test.
The second experiment will com
mence March Is. Over 400 head OF
cattle will be used in this test, the OBJ
ject of which is to secure reliable data
pertaining to the value of the by.pro'
ducts of corn, flaxseed, cottonseed,
glucose, and dried blood, when fed
in conjunction with corn and rough
age. A large amount of meals of flax.
seed, cottonseed, ETC., has been donat.
ed to the station by various large
companies manufacturing the same
throughout the country.
To the great surprise OF the depart.
ment tie stock food companies have
made no donations of their products
to the station this year for expert
mental purposes, and t-us condiment-
al food will not be represented in these
tests. A large number OF requests
from those companies all over the
country were received last year ask.
ing that their particular brand be ad-
mitted in the tests to determine its
relative feeding value with that of
corn. It is surmised that the unfa-
vorable reports in the final results pub.
lished in Bulletin No. &c last summer,
is the cause of their withdrawal this
year, as the official report was that
q ration of any of the various brands
OF stock food fed in conjunction with
corn and roughage returned a net
profit of several dollars less per steer
on the average than ration of corn
and roughege when fed alone; while
fiaxst ID, gluten meals, etc. returned
a larger net prcnL per steer.
I. A departure in tEe experiment from
last year is the division of the cattle
into larger lots, Zach group consisting
of fifty animals, to twenty last year.
The object of luIs increase is to over
come the individual influence of the
animal on me results. ..
A fine new set of yards and sheds
has Just been completed on the Odebolt
station by ii. E. Cook, proprietor of the
Brookmont farms, to accommodate the
500 head of cattle to be used this year,
which is double lie number of last,
and the largest ever used anywhere
in this line of work, and 1t is believed
that better and more accurate results
will be obtained this year though
these Improvements in the buildings
on the farm and methods of conduct
ing the work.