Winter feeding of range steers

              iIINTER FEEDIi..Ni OI' RANGE STTERS
NErf I,&ilCO COLLME OF AGBICUTTURE Ai\iD I,iECHANIC .\Nf,S
.AND AGRICULTURAT EXPERIiMNI STATION
Press Bulletin /*01
l{any of the cattlemen this winter vrill have to feed or supplement their grass
with either roughages or cottonseed cake, or, possibly, in a few places in the State,
with cottonseed. Owing to the finaneial stress under which nost cattlernen have been
placed, due to the drop in the prices of cattle and the exorbitant freight rates,
it nay be impossible to do so, and the cattlemen nay have to take thelr loss in
starvation whether they want to or not. However, it may be well to state sorne of
the facts that have been brought to the surface by experiments upon the practicability
of carrying cows through the winter in fairly good shape.
A natured covr rnay be partiall;' slr"tred and becorne thin in flesh, but when nore
abundant feed is obtainable she will again to all a,ppearances be and look just as
good as she was before she passed through the ordeal. One of the greatest drawbacks
to the lack of feed is with the young or growing animal. A cow that is partially
starrred and is carrying a calf can not give as much strength and vitality to her
offspring as one that has been better cared for; consequently, a stunted calf results.
The calves that are born of mothers that are in poor condition are, as a nrle,
nuch lighter in weight and, ln fact, a.t the Tucuracari Station they were found to
be eleven pounds lighter at birth from range covrs unfed during the winter; in
comparison with the calves from coirs thst were fed a small allowance of roughages
during the tirree or four months of the winter sessoni The fed cows also glve much
raore ni-lk, which did not ta:c their vitality, and sterted the cllf to grovring at a
much rnore rapid rate. At the end of the season, vrtrich was consj-dered the last of
December, the fed cowsr ca.lves lreighed fJ pounds more, on the everage, than celves
from the unfed cows. The iifference wes diudnished naterial.ly by the end of the
ne:<t year and although the cllves from the feed lot rrere given roughage four o.nd
e half months, there was still 2l pounds difference to tlie ci'"lf.
Thertl vr&s a material diff erence shovlrt by the corvs in the producing of calves.
Under the samc conditions only 20 percent of the range-kept cows calved in the
spring of 1920, while 100 percent calved of t,he roughage-kept covrs. It should be
borne in mind thart onl;' a few cows were inclrrded in this experiment. These flgures
are soi:rewhat striking and give soine enlightenment on the question of whether it pays
to feed lightly in the winter by concentrates or roughages. Ilany of the range men,
from their observations of feeding and non-feedin,?, especially in vuinter during a
scarcity of feecl, hr,ve colie to the conclusj-on that feeding m-f<es larger col'rs out
of the heifcrs th:rt calve young, they get e higher percentage of ealf crop, and
the calves riurke f aster gains.
October 1, 1921
J. L. L,:ntow
Acting Animi.il Husbandmnn