Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

1951

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Animal Science

Abstract

SOuth Dakota is one of the most important beef cattle producing states in the nation, ranking fifth on the average between 1943-1947. The number of beef cattle in SOuth Dakota has been increasing during the past several years. Most parts of the state are well adapted to beef production, especially the range area in the western part where extensive grass lands are available. The twenty-two western counties of South Dakota, the portion of the state generally considered as the range area, comprise 37, 130 square miles or forty-eight percent of the total acreage of the state. On January 1, 1947 there were 701, 700 head of cattle, other than milk cows, within this area an increase of 392,800 head of cattle in six years. Anonymous (1940 and 1947). The success of the beef cattle enterprises in western South Dakota depends largely upon the economical use of supplemental feeds for wintering of breeding and stocker cattle, proper stocking of ranges for summer grazing, and the development and maintenance of good quality breeding herds. Many cattle raisers in western South Dakota have varying amounts and types of supplemental feeds available for wintering beef cows. The experiment reported in this thesis was designed to study the effects of various winter rations on cow weights, calf production, and calf weaning weights. Wintering experiments have been conducted at other experiment stations, but until this study was initiated there had not been a study of wintering beef cows under South Dakota climatic conditions using feeds produced in this state. There have been some experiments conducted on wintering steers in South Dakota. This study was made with four kinds of winter rations suitable to western South Dakota to determine their effect on cow weights during thw wintering period, the number and weights of calves produced at birth, and the number and weights of calves at weaning time. The purpose of the experiment was to obtain information for use in planning a ration for wintering beef cows which would result in greater beef production for the ranchers of western South Dakota, as wintering of breeding cows constitutes one of the major problems of beef cattle industry in this area.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Beef cattle -- Feeding and feeds

Description

Includes bibliographical references

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

55

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Rights

No Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Only
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0/

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