East Oregonian : E.O

HEAVY FEED FOR CATTLE.
Iowa Experiment Station Makes Valuable Experiment.

Heavy feeding is the most profitable method of preparing cattle for market, says the Chicago Livestock World. This is the conclusion at which the Iowa Agricultural college arrived after 189 days' experiment with 150 steers, fed in three lots of 50 each, one with light rations, one with medium, one with heavy rations.
The results were found to indicate that gains on fattening cattle can be made at a smaller cost with light or medium grain rations than with heavy grain rations. In the number of days given it seems to be impossible to finish cattle on light or medium grain rations so as to sell at as high a price as similar cattle fed heavy grain rations.
Though the light fed steers made the most economical gains, they sold for 10 cents less per cwt. than the medium fed, and 30 cents less than the heavy fed. The difference in selling price placed those fed on a heavy grain ration first, those fed on a medium grain ration second, and those fed on a light grain ration third.
There has been some question as to whether cattle brought directly from the Southern ranges by Iowa feeders make as satisfactory gains in feeding as those from the Western and Northern states.
After a long series of experiments the experiment station at Ames has decided that cattle may be taken direct from the Southern ranges to Iowa feed lots and there successfully fed; and that such Southern cattle will make gains in point of economy equal to or greater than Western cattle under Iowa conditions.
It appears, also that Southern range cattle incline to make flesh rapidly and mature early, thus proving them desirable animals to feed whenever light, handyweight finished cattle are in demand.
The cattle on which these experiments were tried were 50 head of Herefords from Oklahoma and Indian territory, and 50 Shorthorn and Hereford cattle from Colorado. The test lasted 223 days.