AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

It seems that, where an abundance of cheap roughage and good pasture is obtainable, the present custom of buying stocker and feeder cattle in the fall and wintering on cheap maintenance rations, in order to secure maximum results on pasture the following summer, is good practice. But the wide variation in the amounts and kinds of feeds used by different men in wintering similar steers, under almost identical conditions, indicate that there is need for some definite information on the relative efficiency of various rations for wintering steers and the residual effects of these rations on the capacity of the steers to make rapid and economical gains when full fed on grass the following summer. In order to secure some data on this subject the Missouri Experiment Station conducted the feeding trials reported in this thesis.