The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1906-02-12
EXPERIMENT
AT NEBRASKA STATION

Bulletin 90 just issued BY the Me-
braska experiment station gives the de-
tails of a feeding experiment with p
yearsold range steers, the results Of
which show very clearly that the charac-
ter Of roughness supplied iii connection
with corn is "a very important factor in
THE economical production of beef. Six.
lots sof steers with ten in each lot were
fed experimentally for a period of six
|nonths The rations used were very
similar to those fed yearling steers the
winter of 1908 1904 and the results verify.
in every particular the conclusions
drawn from the earlier experiment
Without entering into the details of
the test with 2-year-olds as reported, the
conclusions are tersely stated in the bull
Iletin as follows: .fft1,S III 81
Il Il. When the ration consisted of corn
Isand prairie 2haysthe amount of grain ,re-e
Iquired for each pound of gain was les
ssened per cent by adding oil-meal to
the grain ration.
| The cost of producing a pound of
gain was not lessened by the addition
Eof oil-meal, but better finish was se-
I,cured, which caused the cattle to sell
for us cents more per 100 making a
!proft of $I.oo per head where loss of
I$I.I3 per head resulted from feeding
corn and prairie hay only
The cattle returned value of $35
per ton for the oil-meai fed, with corn
worth 80 cents per bushel.
2. Alfalfa is much superior to prair-
| lie hay when the grain consists of corn
Ialone. 1t also proved to be cheaper
lsource of protein than oil-meal. The
Eretiirns on the cattle fed alfalfa hay,
were the alfalfa figured at. $III4 per
ton, would have been as great as the
returns on prairie hay at So per ton,
with corn as the grain ration at the
iprice named. In comparison with prair-
| lie hay at SO when oil-meal worth $28
| per tDns was a part of the grain ration,
| 1.-The alfalfa returned value Of $828
lper ton. j
| g.. Bright, well-cured corn-stover, fed
with an equal weight Of alfalfa, the,
Igraifl consisting of corn alone. gave
Islightly larger gains than corn and all
falfa, and proved the most economical
ration in the experiment The addition
Iof cerrl- stover may have improved to
some extent the corn and alfalfa ration
lby furnishing. greater variety and BY its
Tendency to check scours sometimes
lcaused by alfalfa The stover, fed with
alfalfa, returned a valae of $45z per
lton in comparison with alfalfa at So per.
lton as the sole roughness.
d. Sorghum hay returned a value of
$4.63 per ton in comparison with prair-
lie hay at So each being fed with corn
loo per cent and oil-meal 10 per cent.
s The ration given, Lot I, corn and
prairie hay, with nutritive ratio Of
lI.Io2 was too low in protein for large
lgains. However. the fact that corn, al
Ifaifa: and stover, with d nistritive ratio
lof 1874, gave a little larger gain for
"a IS additional proof Of the cor
rectness Of the American idea that
1.-THE old and accepted German standards
lscall for more protein than is needed for
ISthe best gains, and that a rlltritive ratio
Iof I:8 may be Just as satisfactory for.
Ifairly mature. cattle as one more mar
Irow. For western conditions il is cer-
ItainIy more profitable.
| 81 The margin between cost and av-
lerage selling price (net1 for all steers
Hin this experiment was a little less than
/ ST Der hundred The profit ON this small
margin was due III part to the liberal
Iuse of roughness, While the profit was
i small, the steers returned good price
| for the rough feeds at the market value
I1ioted, viz, alfalfa hay So per tom
5rairie hay, So sorghum hay, $3.50, and
/ corn7stover, $a so high enough to make
Ithen7 profitable crops I'd grow on the
/ farm Had the feeds been sold, these
Ivaiies for roughagc would not have
Ibesn secured on the average Nebraska
Harm. nor would THE manure have been
Ileft to make the next crop larger. The
Irest,tts furnish strong argument in
/ favor Of judicious feeding
! IA matter Of interest III connection
| with this experiment IS the fact that
1.-THE only lot Of steers IN the experiment
that lost money was the LOT fed corn and
prairie hay. This IS the only ration
/ which would be considered an unbal-
/ at,red ot,e vet II Is ration more COM