Alfalfa alone is not a fat-making feed. Animals fed upon it grow in weight, but the weight is principally of bone, blood and muscle. It is without a sufficiency of fat and carbohydrates, and these should be added in such foods as corn, corn meal, Kafir corn, or Kafir corn meal; or to a limited degree even in corn stover, sorghum or millet. When alfalfa is fed alone all the protein cannot be digested, and, therefore, it is always economical to add some carbonaceous foods, if animals are fattening for market. For several years feeders have been deploring the fact that fattening mainly with corn was becoming less and less profitable. When they began to figure the exact cost of each pound of gain on a steer or hog, they saw clearly that corn alone made the pound of gain cost too much; sometimes as much as it was worth in the market, leaving neither profit nor interest on the investment. The problem then became how to produce the pound of meat more economically. Such a condition has prompted the state stations to make tests to determine the feeding value of various articles, and especially the value of alfalfa as a balance to the more carbonaceous foods. The tables here appended are worth studying: FOOD VALUE OF SEVERAL FODDER CROPS (From New York experiment station Bul. No. 118.) ------------------+----------+--------+----------+---------- | | | Total | | Yield per| Dry |digestible| | acre of | matter | matter |Digestible |total crop|per acre| per acre | protein ------------------+----------+--------+----------+---------- | _Pounds_ |_Pounds_| _Pounds_ | _Pounds_ Alfalfa | 34,100 | 8,000 | 5,280 | 875 Corn, entire plant| 28,000 | 5,800 | 3,800 | 300 Red clover | 18,000 | 5,220 | 3,200 | 491 Oats and peas | 13,000 | 3,120 | 2,521 | 350 Timothy | 10,000 | 3,500 | 2,000 | 228 Rutabagas | 31,700 | 3,400 | 3,000 | 279 Mangels | 25,000 | 3,500 | 2,750 | 232 Sugar beets | 17,800 | 2,500 | 1,800 | 213 ------------------+----------+--------+----------+---------- ANALYSES OF FEEDSTUFFS The following table gives the analyses of a number of feedstuffs, showing the percentage of digestible nutrients and fertilizing constituents in each: (From Texas experiment station Bul. No. 66)