At the Nebraska station Prof. Howard R. Smith (Buls. 85 and 90) fed 50 yearling and 50 two-year-old grade steers in lots of ten for six months, each lot of each fifty having rations different from the others, and the table herewith shows the average cost per pound of gain made by each steer of each lot of yearlings:
| Lot | fed | corn and prairie hay | 8.27 | cents |
| „ | „ | corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and prairie hay | 6.82 | „ |
| „ | „ | corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and corn stover | 6.09 | „ |
| „ | „ | corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and sorghum hay | 7.00 | „ |
| „ | „ | corn and alfalfa hay | 6.04 | „ |
Below is shown the cost under similar conditions with the two-year-olds, (the cost of the corn and oil meal fed them having been slightly greater than that fed the yearlings):
| Lot | fed | corn and prairie hay | 8.23 | cents |
| „ | „ | corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and prairie hay | 8.27 | „ |
| „ | „ | corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and corn stover | 6.49 | „ |
| „ | „ | corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and sorghum hay | 7.87 | „ |
| „ | „ | corn and alfalfa hay | 6.89 | „ |
Among the deductions from these experiments, Professor Smith records the following, bearing upon the use of alfalfa:
“Alfalfa is much superior to prairie hay when the grain consists of corn alone. It also proved to be a cheaper source of protein than oil meal. The returns on the cattle fed alfalfa hay, were the alfalfa figured at $11.14 per ton, would have been as great as the returns on prairie hay at $6 per ton, with corn as the grain ration at 39 cents per bushel. In comparison with prairie hay at $6 when oil meal worth $28 per ton was a part of the grain ration, the alfalfa returned a value of $8.28 per ton. (In these experiments the cost of all alfalfa hay and all prairie hay was figured at the one price of $6 per ton.—Author.)
“Bright, well-cured corn stover fed with an equal weight of alfalfa, the grain consisting of corn alone, gave slightly larger gains than corn and alfalfa, and proved the most economical ration in the experiment. The addition of corn stover may have improved, to some extent, the corn and alfalfa ration by furnishing greater variety, and by its tendency to check scours sometimes caused by alfalfa. The stover fed with alfalfa returned a value of $4.57 per ton in comparison with alfalfa at $6 per ton as the sole roughness.
“By feeding alfalfa hay, which is a protein-rich roughness, extremely palatable and readily masticated, in place of prairie hay with corn alone, 14 per cent less grain was required for each pound of gain on two-year-olds and 27 per cent less on yearlings.
“Alfalfa hay, fed once per day in connection with corn and well-cured cornstalks, furnished sufficient protein for two-year-olds to make the three foods a combination producing heavy and very economical gains—more economical than any other ration in the experiment.
“Alfalfa is pronouncedly superior to prairie hay for beef production, and the more rapid the extension of the area of land devoted to the production of alfalfa, supplanting the less valuable and lower yielding native hay, the more rapid will be the production of wealth from our soil.”