[Grain ration consists of oats and corn in all cases; roughage varies.]
| Roughage fed. | Number of lambs. | Duration of test. | Average weight. | Required for 1 pound of gain. | Average daily gain per head. | ||
| At begin- ning. | At end. | Grain. | Hay. | ||||
| Days. | Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | ||
| Prairie hay | 16 | 67 | 83.6 | 107.9 | 5.09 | 2.35 | 0.36 |
| Pea-vine hay | 10 | 67 | 83.6 | 107.3 | 5.40 | 3.15 | .35 |
| Alfalfa hay | 5 | 67 | 81.4 | 119.4 | 3.36 | 3.02 | .56 |
| Sweet-clover hay | 10 | 67 | 84.7 | 113.6 | 4.42 | 3.19 | .43 |
The Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station also performed an, interesting experiment with lambs. A number of pens of 10 to 40 lambs each were fed different mixtures of feeds for 14 weeks. Those receiving sweet-clover hay, corn, and a small amount of oil meal made an average gain of 30.7 pounds per head, as compared with 20.3 pounds for those receiving native-grass hay, oats, and oil meal. Those receiving alfalfa hay and corn made a gain of more than 34 pounds per head. The results obtained with four pens of lambs in this experiment are given in [Table VI].
Table VI.—Results of feeding tests of lambs in Wyoming covering 14 weeks.
| Ration. | Number of lambs. | Average gain per head. | Required for 100 pounds of gain. | |||||
| Sweet-clover hay. | Native hay. | Alfalfa hay. | Corn. | Oats. | Oil meal. | |||
| Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | ||
| Sweet-clover hay, corn, and oil meal (old process) | 10 | 30.7 | 637.5 | ..... | ..... | 293.2 | ..... | 20.5 |
| Native-grass hay, oats, and oil meal (old process) | 40 | 20.3 | ..... | 606.7 | ..... | ..... | 460.5 | 25.0 |
| Alfalfa hay and corn | 10 | 34.4 | ..... | ..... | 557.5 | 261.6 | ..... | ..... |
| Do | 40 | 34.3 | ..... | ..... | 557.3 | 286.5 | ..... | ..... |
The sweet-clover hay used in this experiment was described as stemmy and more than a year old; yet it was eaten up clean by the lambs.
The South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station conducted an experiment in which steers were fed corn silage and various kinds of hay, including sweet clover. The steers which were fed corn silage and sweet-clover hay made an average daily gain of 2.45 pounds, at a cost of $4.34 per hundred pounds of gain, whereas the steers which were fed corn silage and red-clover hay made an average daily gain of 2.29 pounds, at a cost of $4.55 per hundred. The steers that were fed corn silage and alfalfa hay made an average daily gain of 2.49 pounds, at a cost of $4.30 per hundred. In computing the cost of the gains, corn silage was valued at $3 per ton, alfalfa, red-clover, and sweet-clover hay at $10 per ton, and prairie hay at $6 per ton. The results of this experiment, as given in [Table VII], show that sweet-clover hay is practically equal to red-clover and alfalfa and greatly superior to prairie hay for roughage for steers.
Table VII.—Feeding experiments with steers in South Dakota, showing the value of sweet-clover hay as compared with some other kinds of hay.
[Corn silage fed in all cases; kind of hay varies.]
| Roughage. | Number of steers. | Duration of test. | Average weight. | Average daily gain. | Feed per pound of gain. | Cost per 100 pounds of gain. | ||
| At begin- ning. | At end. | Silage. | Hay. | |||||
| Days. | Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | Pounds. | |||
| Red-clover hay | 4 | 91 | 775 | 983 | 2.29 | 25 | 1.5 | $4.55 |
| Sweet-clover hay | 4 | 91 | 774 | 997 | 2.45 | 23 | 1.5 | 4.34 |
| Alfalfa | 4 | 91 | 775 | 1,005 | 2.49 | 23 | 1.6 | 4.30 |
| Prairie hay | 4 | 91 | 769 | 951 | 2.01 | 29 | 1.5 | 4.79 |