Bulletin No.

097

Document Type

Bulletin

Department

Department of Animal Husbandry

Description

1. In feeding calves for the production of baby beef the following prices were obtained per bushel for grains used: Corn 47 cents, oats 26 cents, millet 38 cents and speltz 33 cents.
2. They were shipped to Chicago under two years old; averaged 1,250 pounds, and sold on their merits in lots, same as they were fed, at the following prices per hundred pounds: The corn lot, $6.25; the oats lot, $6.00; the millet lot, $5.75; the speltz lot, $5.85.
3. It required .37 of a pound more of ground millet seed than it did ground corn to produce a pound of gain on calves fattened for baby beef.
4. Calves raised and fattened on Black Veronesh millet seed, sown on the 28th day of June on spring breaking of prairie sod, were made to average 1,175 pounds per head at 1 year, 10 months and 23 days of age, and brought $5.75 per hundred pounds on the Chicago market.
5. Fat made by Black Veronesh millet seed was much softer to the touch than that made by either corn, oats or speltz.
6. When fed as a fattening ration, this variety of millet seed seems to be more like oats than corn. This is shown by the fact that the lot fed on oats required practically the same quantity of hay per pound of gain as did the lot fed on millet.
7. Black Veronesh millet seed produced a carcass equal in quality to that of corn, as is shown by the cut on page 74 of this Bulletin.
8. The best gains were made with the ground millet during the fattening period, being 1.76 pounds per head daily, while the lot fed on corn meal produced 2.08 pounds per head daily during' this period.
9. The lot fattened on speltz made an average daily gain of 1.69 pounds, while the lot fattened on corn made an average daily gain of 1.84 pounds.
10. During the grass period the lot fed on speltz gained 112 pounds more than did the lot fed on corn. It required only 5.16 pounds of speltz for a pound of gain, as compared with 7.03 pounds of corn to produce a pound of gain during the grass period.
11. The lot fed on speltz did not consume as much hay per pound of gain as did other lots, indicating that the husk of speltz is a good substitute for hay.
12. Speltz produces a hard fat, about the same as oats; and as good a quality of meat as corn, as may be seen by cut of rib and loin on page 73 of this Bulletin.
13. With the exception of the speltz lot, the spayed heifers brought the same price as the steers. In this case a reduction of 50 cents per hundred was made on account of the spayed heifer being smaller than the steers in the lot which brought $6.00 per hundred.
14. Ground oats proved to be a profitable feed for the production of baby beef. From a careful examination of the lots before shipping these steers were nearly as fat as those fed on corn. The cut of rib and loin from an average carcass of the oat lot on page 74 of this Bulletin shows a high quality of meat.
15. When calves were fed in lots on the same kind of grain from birth to maturity those which received the most highly carbonaceous grain produced the largest per cent of dressed meat.

Keywords

speltz, millet, livestock feed, cattle feed, grains

Pages

16

Publication Date

5-1906

Type

text

Format

application/pdf

Language

en

Publisher

South Dakota Agricultural College Experiment Station

Comments

Department of Animal Husbandry

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