The evening herald. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1906-1942, 1921-09-07

,
H. Potter, professor Of animal huB
bnndry. both OF tho Oregon hgri
culture college staff. who urc on q
tour Of eastern Oregon, IN the in
tcroaw Of bottor farming molhodB
spoke 10 farmor1 meetings nt ~
klamath and Morrill, lnmi Saturday
Tho ~, klamath meeting wag In
the forenoon. tho Morrill, meeting
IN the evening,
Following ~ the complete tONt Ol
Professor FottGr'g address on New
or Methods ~ FnttonnE Steers
Al tho eastern Oregon branch cN.
pertinent station, located at Union
In Union county. we have been In
yUgtiRntlng ncwor methods OF fat
toning steers for some oight years
our experiment station nt Union In
In rcal hay ana cattle country
very Dimilar to this, and conse
qucntly we were working under
conditions ~ noarly ns possible like
your own,
At the time this work was first
planned the general practice of fat
tening cattle during tho winter
months throughout tho northwest
wns on hay alone Very few farms
were equipped with scales. aud
hence the breeders had but a yory
hnzy idea OF the gains actually
made or hs 20 the cost OF gains.
our first stop. therefore. was To
determine what could bc done with
hny alone. hH result Of several
years work IN fnttonIng two-ycar-
old steers. we found that the al.
falfa hay alone produced daily
gain OF SIS pounds. These steers
were given all the hay thoy would
eat, Tho average amount offered
was 37,7 pounds pcr day, OF which
amount 80 pounds WAS refused and
had to be cleaned out OF the racks
and fed TO stock cattle. Many
feeders claim 90 obtain n much big
ger rnin than this. but IN most
cases they do not have scales and
consequently cannot be absolutely
sure These gnins are too small.
and n steer can be fed on hay alone
all winter without being 80 very
much fattcr In the spring than ho
wan In the fall, all OF which tcnds
20 make feeding on hay alone large
ly proposition OF simply holding
for higher market. We there.
fore wishcd to find some method
OF fat,snlnG which would give bet
ter gains without adding too much
to the cost. We knew that to feed
n full ration Of grain would be
entirely too expensive for cattle for
our western markets.
Chopped Hay Tried
our next step was TO try chop
ping the hay with a big hay cutter.
We found that chopping the hoy
saved some waste. made the hay
30 further. and produced n little
bigger gain; 30 that on tho whole
when tho hay was fed alone to
steers the chopping In
creased It's value rs per cent. when
fed with grain. however. the i'm
proycment from chopplng was less,
and II increased the value OF the
hay only II per cent; and when
fed with sliage, only seven per cent.
The chopping seemed to be profit
able when the hay was fed alone,
but not enough to pay expenses
when fed with grain and silage. The
gains with the chopped hay were
still too low TO produce the finishr
that We were trying to get,
Our next step was to try a small
ration OF rolled barley added to the
alfalfa. II was fed In two ways. In
one case five pounds per day was
fed throughout tho feeding period.
In the other case It was fed at the
ratio OF ten pounds per day during
only the last half OF the feeding
period. II made but little difference
which way the grain was fed, and
Il was found that one pound or
rolled barley replaced three pounds
,f alfalfa hay. Since the grain is
more than three times as
high priced as the hay, this meth
ID Of feeding did not prove very
although It did produce
! little more finish.
Alfalfa and Silage
We next tried alfalfa hay supple
nented with silage. The first year
We fed the silage we got such good
gains that We could hardly believe
,ur figures. and 80 said nothing
about It until we had worked at II
'or three years, We are still feed
ng the hay and silage and still
getting the same splendid results.
We found that by the use OF good