FEEDING TOO MUCH ALFALFA
Many feeders make the mistake of feeding too much alfalfa hay to young steers grained heavily on corn. Careful tests seem to prove that cattle on a heavy feed of corn, corn meal, Kafir-corn or Kafir-corn meal gain as much with 15 or 20 pounds of alfalfa hay per day as by having 35 pounds, the very common quantity in feeding. It is also reported by experienced feeders that steers over three years old may be fattened on alfalfa with a moderate feed of corn, while for younger steers the heavy feed should be corn with 15 to 25 pounds of alfalfa hay per day.
A Colorado feeder put a lot of steers nearly four years old on a daily ration of ten pounds of corn chop and fifteen pounds of alfalfa hay for 100 days. The gain was surprising and the steers weighed on the Denver market about 1430 pounds per head.
A feeder in Osborne county, Kansas, reported to the author the following: “Began feeding 22 two-year-old steers on February 3rd, averaging 941 pounds in weight. Gave them no feed but alfalfa hay until March 4th. From March 4th until May 1st fed all the alfalfa they wanted and 243 bushels of corn chop, when they weighed out at an average gain of 259 pounds each in 86 days, or three pounds per day on a feed of 11 bushels of corn chop and plenty of alfalfa hay per steer.”
Western feeders generally claim to be able to put fat cattle on the market from 20 to 30 per cent cheaper with alfalfa as the balance than on corn alone, or with corn and bran or any purchased protein foods. The cheapest beef-making in the West is the raising of calves on alfalfa, and at 20 to 24 months fattening them by a heavy feeding of corn and alfalfa hay for 100 days. Cattle carried to 1000 to 1200 pounds on alfalfa, and then finished by strong feeding on corn with alfalfa hay for fifty to sixty days, make beef of a choice quality at a low cost.