The Parisian. (Paris, Tenn.) 1907-1962, 1915-04-23
|cOTTONSEED MEAL
| FOR BEEF CATTLE

Five times as many farmers as
at present, should be using cot
tonseed meal, according to speci-
alists in the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture. It has a
Slightly greater feeding value
than linseed oil meal and the far
mer is therefore recommended to
secure prices on both and to use
the one which happens to be the
cheaper at the time. During the
past winter cottonseed meal sold
for $24 to $28 a ton while linseed
oil meal cost about $38 a ton.
Under such conditions the feeder
using cottonseed meal had a great
advantage over the farmer using
linseed meal.
Cottonseed meal contains from
Sc to 45 per cent protein and is
therefore one of the most con-
centrated feedstuffs upon the
market. There are in fact very
few vegetable feeds which have
anything like this percentage of
protein. It's value has perhaps
been more appreciated in Europe
than in this country despite the
additional cost of shipping it
abroad. During 1913, for example
about 100000 tons of the meal
were exported to Europe. Mach
of what remained in this country
was used as fertilizer so that it
has been estimated that American
cattle were fed less than one-half
of the total quantity of meal pro-
duced in the country There is,
however, a growing tendency at
the present time to use the meal
as a supplementary feed.
In a new publication of the
United States Department of
Agriculture, Farmers Bulletin
655, "Cottonseed meal for Feed
ing Beef Cattle, | pound of cot
tonseed meal is said to be usually
worth as much as 2 pounds of
corn for feeding cattle. There
is, however, a distinct limit to the
quantity of the meal that animals
can use economically. In the
South it was formerly the custom
to feed steers very heavily on the
by-products of the cottonseed oil
mills, IL to Is pounds of meal a
day being not infrequent ration.
Such heavy feeding frequently
caused blindness and death, while
in other cases thesteers after gain
ing fast in weight for a period of
80 days or more, lost flesh with
equal rapidity and could be with
difficulty got back into good con-
dition. Experiments have shown
however, that when the ration is
kept below 7 pounds a day, steers
can be fed for 100 to 200 days up
on it without showing i'll effects.
If silage is given at the same
time as roughage, the feeding of
cottonseed meal can be prolonged
beyond this time with safety.
Silage is a better roughage to use
with meal than cottonseed hulls,
as experiments in several States
have shown that it gives larger
daily gains and better finish.
For wintering stocker cattle a
ration of corn silage and cotton
seed meal has proven very econ
omical. Two pounds of the meal
combined with as much corn sill
age as the cattle will eat will give
a small gain in weight. Straw
and other roughages which cam
not otherwise be used advanta-
geously may be fed With the sill
age and cottonseed meal. When
the cattle are put on pasture, cot
tonseed cake which is the same
as the meal in substance, can be
used profitably as a supplement
feed. This cake has several ad-
vantAges over the meal for this
purpose. among others the fact
that it is not readily spoiled by
rain.
Cottonseed meal is also recon-
as winter ration for the
breeding herd. About 9 pounds
&c %Lo ,,oool 81 o,,lJ H. --;,,.. -.